cr7364

Hi,

I have business class tickets with Air China (LHR-MNL), with fare class I. I can't find any information on fare class I, or get a straight answer on whether I will get lounge access (I'm being given conflicting information by different people at Air China and Star Alliance). Does anybody have any experience travelling with this fare class and know what it includes? Does it count as revenue or non-revenue?

Many thanks.

PilgrimsProgress

The star alliance site has detailed info on the specifics but with a business class ticket you will have access to lounges which allow entry with an air China or Star alliance airline business class ticket .

cr7364

Thanks, I've looked on there but it's still not clear. It says that non-revenue tickets don't get access (eg employee tickets). I'm not sure whether Class I is considered revenue or non-revenue for lounge purposes (I won it in a competition, so didn't actually pay for it....)

garykung

That can be tricky...

Nevertheless, just try to use the Business Lounge. If you are not allowed, someone will kick you out eventually.

cr7364

Thanks. The issue is I have a pair of lounge passes which expire in December. This trip is November (my last trip of the year), and if I know I don't get lounge access I'll save them until then for the 4 hour layover in Beijing. However if I do get lounge access I would like to use the passes for an earlier trip. Trying to get a clear answer out of Air China isn't the easiest.......

garykung

Because your case is not a clear cut.

Strictly speaking, based on the *A literature, you WILL NOT be eligible for lounge access with this ticket as *A policy states only revenue pax can access lounges.

However, AFAICT - no airline will deny access if a pax is traveling on award ticket. Also - the *A policy does not apply when you use the lounge operated by the same airline of your flight (as the airline can independently grant you access).

To make things even more complicated, I class is generally the fare class for business award ticket. But is it really your case? No one knows.

Also - even one entitles for lounge access, the lounge can somehow mysteriously deny access without justification.

Nevertheless, *G is the only exception to this rule as *G is allowed access regardless of the fare classes.

cr7364

Many thanks for that explanation. I'll just have to accept that I probably won't know in advance! It might just be down to the individuals in the lounge on the day then. I've realised I'm going through LHR T2 next month so might ask a couple of the lounges then.