EXPflyerRTW

I fly to Sao Paulo frequently. I had seen the TAM First Class lounge before but was told I could not come in until TAM joined oneworld. I was told I would be able to use it after that date.

When I arrived in GRU after TAM joined OW and went to use the First Class lounge I was denied entry. I was told that as of last week the lounge is no longer a first class lounge, but now is a special VIP lounge. I was told Emeralds are not welcome, only TAM's special customers. When I asked what kind of special passengers, I was told First Class and other loyal customers. When pressed, the representative admitted that the problem is the lounge is too small and management doesnt want the First Class Lounge used by oneworld Emeralds who are not traveling on TAM.

TAM OW Emeralds use the American Airlines first class lounges in Chicago, New York and Los Angeles. Yet, AA's elites are not welcome at TAM's, even though TAM is now a full member.

TAM must grant access to OW Emeralds to the First Class lounge. Otherwise, TAM's emerald customers should be denied entry into the First Class Lounges of all OW carriers, including American, BA, Cathay, etc.

If you have been affected by this you should complain.

dtremit

You're welcome to complain, but I doubt you will get very far; that specific lounge is explicitly excluded according to OW rules:

http://www.oneworld.com/ffp/lounge-access

Presumably this was negotiated with OW during their entry.

Shareholder

Try being a STARGold and get into SQ's F lounges...or for that matter, BA's Concorde lounges as a OW Emerald.

Non-NonRev

Wirelessly posted (WP8 (Amber): Mozilla/5.0 (compatible; MSIE 10.0; Windows Phone 8.0; Trident/6.0; IEMobile/10.0; ARM; Touch; NOKIA; Lumia 521))

The difference, in the BA instance, is that BA does provide a dedicated F lounge -Galleries First - in both LHR T5 and LHR T3.

sts603

STAR Gold doesn't advertise F lounge access. And BA at least has designated F lounges besides Concorde Rooms in the two airports where they have Concorde Rooms. At LHR, the F lounge is a very good substitute (both my best friend and my girlfriend prefer it to the Concorde Room in fact). At JFK, not as much but at least its a reprieve from the overcrowded J lounge.

All in all, OW has very few exceptions to OW Emerald F lounge access: GRU TAM F, DOH Premium Terminal, and no guests at the QR lounge in LHR. All in all, thats not bad.

EXPflyerRTW

I think another difference, worthy of pointing out, is that UA 1ks did get access to the F lounge before TAM switched over.

See this thread: https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/unit...ge-access.html

I guess OW emeralds are inferior to star elites.

PainCorp

Or maybe they realized they made a mistake and couldn't renegotiate the contract, but could negotiate when they entered OW.

Blumie

Don't they know who you are?!?!

rob_flies_ua

You might want to re-read the thread you linked to before getting indignant: there were no reports in it of 1Ks getting access to the Primera F lounge because they were 1K, but rather because they were in First on a Star Alliance flight departing GRU.

george 3

It could be that AA pax want an alternative to the woefully undersized and dated AA lounge and services and TAM knows it.

sts603

What is the TAM J lounge like?

flipside

The TAM F lounge is really nice, but it's really, really small. It would be unbearable if emeralds were allowed in.

Remember, Tam's first class cabins only have 4 seats, and you need to be some kind of superhero to get their top level status (black). Tam also has 2 levels of Emerald: the 100k point level (red) and the 150k point level (black)

So as others here have said.. think of it as the concorde room.

When the new terminal 3 opens in Sao Paulo, maybe they will have a bigger operation.

BrianV

hehe!!!

tkelvin69

Add the BA lounge in SEA unless you are flying J/F on BA.

beerup

That one isn't a written exclusion. Have you been on an eligible itinerary and got denied? For the BA lounge in SEA, I have always found that it is the opening hours that makes it restrictive for anything other than BA flights.

You would have to be leaving on an AA flight since for J/F oneworld lounge access you need to be departing on a flight marketed and operated by a oneworld carrier (AA and BA are the only oneworld carrier serving SEA). Since the BA lounge doesn't open until 3 pm, that doesn't leave many options for connecting to an international flight. I guess if you were connecting to an intl flight the next day, it would be possible.