angelats

Having received another unsatisfactory response from BA Customer Service which - yet again - does not answer my question, I was wondering if anyone has experience with a similar scenario.

I fly the MUC-LHR-GLA route several times a year, flying MUC-LHR in Club Europe.

Around 2 years ago (after flying this route many, many times), I was – all of a sudden – denied access to the lounge in Heathrow’s T5, having just arrived from Munich and waiting to connect to Glasgow. After countless e-mails to BA’s customer service, many of which frustratingly restricted themselves to standard “off-the-shelf” replies, I was told that the lounge access on this particular route was as follows:

Munich – London (access to lounge in MUC: Club Europe ticket)
London – Glasgow (no access to lounge in LHR: domestic ticket)
Glasgow – London (access to lounge in GLA: domestic ticket but connecting to Club Europe)
London – Munich (access to lounge in LHR: Club Europe ticket)

Admittedly, I found the restriction on lounge access for passengers connecting to a domestic flight from Club Europe somewhat petty (it seems somewhat odd to have different entitlements on different legs of the journey), but I accepted BA’s response and decided to continue purchasing Club Europe tickets on the Munich – Glasgow route, even though I was now missing out on access to the lounge in Heathrow when travelling to Glasgow – undoubtedly a loss, especially when the Glasgow flight is delayed. At least now – I thought - I would avoid the usual tiresome discussions with the lounge staff (many of whom gave inconsistent answers or admitted to being unsure themselves) and the humiliation of being turned away in front of crowds of people.

Only recently, however, relatives of mine travelled on this very route after visiting me in Munich and – lo and behold – they were granted access to the lounge in Heathrow between their MUC-LHR and LHR-GLA flight without any problems.

When I e-mailed to ask if the rules had changed, I got the following standard response:

"I am sorry to learn that you were not allowed to access the lounge on your recent flight to Glasgow. The explanation from the Executive Club is that a Blue membership in association with a ticket for any domestic route within the UK does not qualify for lounge access. So I'm afraid that our staff acted in the right way."

Obviously, this does not answer my question, especially since - having done some research on here - BA representatives would appear to have confirmed that you should have access to the lounge travelling on a domestic ticket if you are connecting to/from a Club Europe flight.

Has anyone ever received a definitive answer from BA on this one? It's really starting to frustrate me that they can't get their story straight. Surely the question can't be that difficult to answer?!

Specifically, I want to know whether BA's most recent response means:

"A Blue membership in association with a ticket for any domestic route within the UK does not qualify for lounge access, even if the passenger is connecting from (or to) a Club Europe flight"?

pauleeepaul

You should get access to the GC lounge.

EDI_Martin

I recently flew a CE flight EDI to FCO via LHR and had lounge access on my return to LHR from FCO, was initially knocked back and said I had just came from CE and now have a domestic connection, the lounge steward said "so you have, my apologies".

For some reason this appears to be a grey area where it shouldn't be.

angelats

Yes, I have no idea why it is such a grey area. I just object to having to "argue my way in" and look like I'm trying to get something I'm not entitled to.

I'm hoping my endless e-mails to BA will leave me with something specific I can actually print out and present (as sad as that sounds!), but I'm not optimistic.

gw76

Not this again. Why or why has this not been resolved. Ill make a small laminated sheet for each of the Lounge desks with the simple statement
"Club customers connecting to UK domestics have Lounge Access" regardless of ...well, anything as far as I can see.
Seems pretty simple to me

corporate-wage-slave

Welcome to Flyertalk and it is a depressing read since this is an old, old story, which never seems to go away. I'm going to make the assumption that the connection was the same day. What is particularly annoying, no longer surprising is that the Service Centre also advised you incorrectly.

Here is a much longer thread on the issue, there are several others:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/briti...ng-flight.html

But once again, welcome, angelats, to Flyertalk and though this annoying incident brought you here I hope you manage to find this board interesting and that you will continue to participate here.

You could try replying back to the Service Centre - pointing out they simply got their advice wrong and that perhaps a supervisor should have a look at the case? Otherwise I personally think you are due a refund for loss of amenity.

angelats

Thank you to everyone for their replies so far and for the warm welcome.

I've replied to the response from BA and won't let it go. If I get a definitive update, I'll make sure everyone knows.

KARFA

Quick question angelats, is this on a cash ticket or a reward RFS ticket? If a cash ticket then your domestic sectors should book in to J whic is Business UK and get you lounge access before that flight without having to refer to any conencting CE flights.

In terms of some rules you can see in any case which show you can get access when connecting to or from a CE flight here is a scan of the relevant lounge manual page, there may be a revised version since btw but I don't have it.

angelats

I have only experienced the issue when using reward miles for the flight. As you say, cash tickets show BusinessUK, so the problem doesn't arise. Incidentally, I would gladly use more miles to be ticketed BusinessUK on reward flights.

KARFA

I think if you book a CE RFS your domestic legs still book in to X or U or V (sorry I can't quite remember which one) which is not Business UK. I don't think there is any way to book a domestic leg using avios which is a Business UK ticket as that requires revenue classes J or Y.

Calchas

Yes this is a known problem as well. The lounge and telephone agents are still wrong, according to our understanding and the BA Executive Club representative on FlyerTalk. Make sure you have your CE boarding pass with you to show the lounge agents you qualify.

TheFlyingDoctor

Same problem returning from the Jersey do; JER-LGW-EDI all as one redemption with JER-LGW in CE (which I retained the boarding pass for). Manage my booking will imply in such a case that you'll have lounge access, but despite checking a large binder of notes and making a phonecall the lounge staff deemed me ineligible for access. So a 3 hour connection spent in the terminal (well, less the time taken to reclear security as apparently you can't do shorthaul to domestic as a flight connection at LGW). Asked exec club for clarification of the rules (either for me or staff as appropriate!) who pushed it to customer services; as yet no response after two weeks but the above doesn't make me hopeful...

wantogothere

Thanks for posting this question Angelats - I'm looking to book a redemption for MAN-LHR-MUN and was also unsure of what lounge access would be given. My last few flights have been to the US on a 2-4-1 in F and we had lounge access for our domestic connection back up to MAN - surely its the same principle?

corporate-wage-slave

No unfortunately that genuinely is different. Short haul to long haul is covered by oneworld rules, which are crystal clear and well known. It's a BA rule, often forgotten, that allows short haul to short haul lounge access.

KARFA

Do you mean something else rather than MUN? MUN is José Tadeo Monagas International Airport in Venezuala.

In any case, if you do MAN-LHR-XXX with the LHR-XXX flights in F on BA metal and with no stopover in London you will get access to the lounge at MAN, and access to the CCR at LHR, access to whatever the F lounge is at XXX on the way back, and access to the CCR again just before the LHR-MAN flight.

EDIT: I missed the principle point and cws is right on that (of course), l/h<->s/h or dom connections are covered by oneworld rules, whereas the dom-CE is an additional thing BA provides as per the lounge manual extract I posted further up. For a ce-dom connection there is no point refering to the oneworld rules since they don't cover that situation.