The beginning of the erosion of OneWorld benefits? How can an airline unilaterally say that OneWorld benefits don't apply to them?

Well, I look forward to seeing a sign outside the Wing/Pier saying "BAEC not welcomed here".

sxc, where did you see that?

Shame on BA! They were doing the same thing at the BA Miami Terraces Lounge at Miami; not allowing AA passengers into the lounge.

^@:-):-:

It was on the Marco Polo news section on the website.

Oh... if that's the case, maybe it's not BA who is stopping MPO members from using their lounge. It could well be that every time you or I, as a CX MPO member use other oneworld lounges CX pays a fee to the operator/owner of that lounge. Perhaps it's CX who doesn't want its members to use other airline's lounge. I hope the same doesn't happen to BKK and SIN as the BA/QF lounges there are far far far superior than CX's.

I don't think any of the above reasons apply. I was just in Mumbai and flew out on CX 750 to HKG yesterday the 12th July. The lounge invitation still reads BA Terraces/ Clipper Lounge, but the check-in agent manually crossed out BA Terraces. When I asked, she said it was because BA was renovating. Now I don't exactly know where the BA lounge is, but not far from the gate, there looked to be a lounge area, but it had no sign on it and it looked completely closed. So I doubt it's an erosion of Oneworld benefits or BA being dumb. As for the Terraces lounge in Miami, as per Oneworld agreements, AAdvantage members, even emerald equivalent members, flying solely on North American itineraries, do NOT have access to lounges. That rule does not however apply to members of other oneworld frequent flyer programs. Hope this clears things up.

If that is the case that access is restricted due to renovations, it would be good if CX gave a bit more explanation instead of a rather terse sounding 1 liner.

BA's lounge upstairs is indeed under renovation, but they've got a much larger, nicer one downstairs that they use now. And this one seems to be used only by BA anyway (it has a BA welcome poster, etc).

I've used it while flying BA in the last couple of months, but when I flew Cathay earlier this month, the agent gave me a pass only for the Clipper lounge, which is far inferior and crowded.

The BA lounge downstairs however, was shut at the time, since the BA flight leaves a couple of hours earlier!

It seems strange that Cathay hasn't negotiated to use this one, esp since the BA flight leaves earlier anyway, so no capacity constraint issues either!

Really? I flew out of Mumbai on the 12th and didn't remember seeing another BA lounge downstairs. But then again, I stayed in the area from the escalators downstairs and gate 7. If that is the case, is the downstairs BA lounge past gate 7 (somewhere btw gates 1 and 6?). But even if it does have a BA welcome poster, any OW Sapphire and Emerald member should have access to it as long as they fly on an onward OW flight. So I don't really think they could deny access to anyone unless they really have no space inside.

It's kind of between gates 4 and 5... not too far from the Clipper lounge.

But like I said, it was shut at the time that the Cathay flight left. So I'm guessing it's open only at the times that the BA flights leave (198 and 138). In which case there's no question of them 'denying' entry to Cathay passengers to that lounge at least since it is shut anyway...

I'm not 100% sure if it is BA owned and operated though, but I've definitely used it a couple of times in the past couple of months... only BA passengers were there, and there were British newspapers too, suggesting that it is BA operated...

BA's website claims that the BOM lounge is a BA-operated lounge, but IIRC from my last visit, it seems to be a private (BA-only) version of the Clipper Lounge next door. So operated by BA but not necessarily kitted out in LHR Terraces format...not sure how much you miss from using the Clipper instead of the BA-only one (capacity constraints aside...)

EB

It seemed like that to me too - I thought it was actually connected to the Clipper Lounge through a door. It does seem more spacious than the Clipper Lounge, although it can get absolutely packed.

I think you're right, there is a connecting door - although they keep it tightly shut to keep out non-BA pax