TravelingZoomer

For those of you saying there is no pot of gold at the end of the oneworld rainbow, as a flyer who spends half the year in TPE (in non Covid times) visiting HKG, KUL, SIN, and TYO often, I beg to disagree.

safari ari

HND is, arguably, better and has recently been renovated during 2020. Granted JL lounges, pale in comparison to CX across the board, the HND one is the nicest and now flagship of the lot.

safari ari

HND, not to mention the self pour champagne and the shoe shiner in the back, I'd sometimes bring an extra pair of shoes to get touched up on long layovers.

tkelvin69

Are they offering free massage and sushi bar at HND?

Maybe outside of Japan CX has an edge but their lounge at NRT?? CX might be the best in NBO 15 years ago.. 😉

safari ari

Sushi bar was supposed to be implemented as well as a new ramen bar, unfortunately was planning to go right after but 2020 happened. The CX lounge in HND still follows the similar service/style of CX outstations as a whole, also considering the CX lounge in HND is only a true J. CX J > JL J in HND, for me personally. I meant more outside of Japan which is where JL lacks, visit the lounge in SFO and you'll run down the hallway to CX every time.

simonsuo

i thought this is about AS 75ks using their new oneworld emerald benefits to access first class lounges. guess those will go to AS' Membership in the oneworld Alliance - Benefits, Policies and Problems when it opens.
can't wait when I schedule to unlock 75k in the next few months, and check off those lounges in 2022. Most likely the QF at LAX, CX at HKG, JL at HND, QR at DOH, BA at LHR. Lounge visit is my favorite part of travel.

ACBLtd

Alert: some of these lounges are closed and some rules have been covid-modified, but this is what the policies were pre-covid.

I am also a lounge fan. I would rather book a longer layover and hang out in the lounge than book a tight connection and worry about having to be rebooked during IRROPS. That being said, I believe alliance-wide treatment of elites or J/F pax during irrops has been a consistent and valuable benefit to me. Anyone can treat you well when things go as planned; it's how they treat you when things go sideways (not literally I hope) that shows their customer service commitment.

Caveat about QR DOH. There is an exception in the oneworld access rules for special lounges not to be included in the lounge offering. This includes BA Concorde Room, which really was a lounge just for Concorde passengers at one point. Now with no such equipment, the CCR is a BA Flounge just for pax flying BA First, separate from the Galleries First lounge. IMO, Galleries F is awfully nice, although I look forward to visiting the CCR on a trip someday. My last visit there was nearly 20 years ago, and I don't remember much about it.

QR has taken this policy to an extreme. At DOH, they have fancy Business and First lounges for QR business and first class passengers (al-Mourjan and al-Safwa). They also have rather mundane first and business class lounges available for OW pax who are otherwise eligible for lounge access through status. Not only that, I believe that QR is one of the carriers who have gone to "unbundled" business class fares where the cheapest fares no longer include (fancy) lounge access.

I know that QR is not catering to people like me who achieve status on the cheap, but it really feels like complying with the letter of the OW rules rather than the spirit. The only thing I can do is take my business elsewhere in the alliance.