That's correct. The partnership with NW started in the late 1990s and predated either airline's involvement with SkyTeam by 4-5 years.

But be prepared for a fight at CLT. YMMV

The way I hear it. Star *gold members will be allowed access into a lounge only from the international leg departing city. It was explained that routing from San Antonio to Houston to London. * Gold members will only have access to the lounge in Houston, not San Antonio. Caribbean destinations probably still won't be considered international either :(

[QUOTE=SS255;12397082]
This is not correct.

It's any lounge so long as you have a same-day international boarding pass.

The *A Lounge Access Policy is clearly posted at the *A website. Probably best to familiarize yourself with it rather than posting factually incorrect information that could be confusing to others.

As for Caribbean destinations, they are considered international. However, an airline may restrict its own members on that type of ticket. So if CO decides to say Caribbean does not qualify, then CO *G's can be denied access on Caribbean tickets. However, CO would not be allowed to deny UA or US *G's on Caribbean tickets.

This is very similar to how it works with Mexico presently. US denies their own US *G members access to the US Clubs when travelling to/from Mexico. However, US may not deny UA *G's or any other *Gs because they meet the int'l BP definiation.

I believe this is the rule for international business class tickets, but not for *G. This may only apply to US, UA, and CO, since a C ticket on ex-US airlines IME typically comes with lounge access regardless of destination.

Except that it is not CO's policy on International premium cabin tickets either. If you have SAT-IAH-LHR in BF you get access to the PCs in SAT and IAH, as well as arrivals access in LHR.

Hi CO Insider. I am the guy who has been tracking comparison of all Star Alliance frequent flyer progams since 1998 through my comparison charts.

To get ready for CO's induction into Star, I have prepared a preliminary comparison. I would love to get the comparison correct, so would appreciate any input you can provide into the chart. I realize that some things may not be finalized for a while but anything you can say would be great--the chart is designed to be applicable once all changes are made in January 2010 and won't deal with short term transitional issues.

The chart can be found at:

http://lb.redirectingat.com/?id=42X1...ontinental.doc

True, but the *A lounge policy linked above says that, for an international business class ticket, the passenger must be departing the local airport in international business class. So what I suppose this means is that, if you are flying CLT-EWR-BRS in BF, for example, the US clubs in CLT don't need to let you in?

Technically, yes, though most airlines allow it on biz tickets. It would be up to US, if you're on a biz class ticket.

However, this assumes no *G status. If you have *G status, and present your card, they must let you in.

So, as a OP Gold (soon to be Plat) if I buy an L fare from BOS - IAH - GIG, I can use the lounge in Boston and in Houston?

And I'll be able to use the lounge in Houston on my return trip to the US? I usually have a 2 - 3 hour window between flights coming back to Boston..

Yep, I shopped UA before choosing CO for my NYC-SFO commute. JFK-SFO is 2,586 miles, so they want 3,000 miles worth of certs. If I asked them to round up my EQMs and miles to 3,000 for each flight, their bean-counters would think I was trying to steal from them.

So I drew the only logical conclusion: They were trying to steal from me.

So what do you do now? Fly CO SFO-EWR and never get the upgrade? :p

But there is a grace, it's just not 86 miles, it's more like 50. Which makes something like SFO-PHL a better value at 2,521 (or 5 x 500-milers).

Seriously, though, if all you fly is SFO-JFK, nothing else, you'd still get > 50% upgrades if you blew your CR1s and SWUs on it, along with your 500's. Hard to believe any CO Plat does this well on SFO-EWR. You'd have to manage the certs, though.

Or they should fly JFK-LAX (UP using 5 @ 500s) then LAX-SFO in E+, and back SFO-LAX-JFK do the same thing LAX-JFK total EQMs 1 way is now 2975, and it can usually be had for the same price as the non-stops or a couple of $ more

"# Full Elite Qualification is back. Effective Oct. 27, you’ll earn 100% Elite Qualification Miles and full Elite Qualification Points on discounted fares, regardless of where they’re purchased. To all of our loyal corporate travelers: message received".

Does Full Elite Qualification apply to tickets booked after Oct, 27 or travel after Oct, 27?

Answered by CO Insider up thread