ND76

It appears that AZ's lounges in FCO are closed as of this writing. What is Delta providing for lounge access in FCO?

Mrs. ND76 and I decided to celebrate our 42nd wedding anniversary in the Eternal City during the first week of September. We are going over on AZ metal and returning on DL metal.

flyerCO

Last time I knew the AZ lounge in area where US departure occur is open. If that is still the case, AZ ceases operating Oct 15th. After that there will likely be period of time with no lounge till AZ assests are sold at auction.

ND76

Their lounge in the international departures area of FCO was gorgeous and had both a great buffet and a great bar. I'm guessing that they don't reopen before AZ goes poof.

I bought an itinerary through Delta for $1,750 PP IAD-JFK-FCO-JFK-IAD, with the eastbound from JFK in PE on AZ and the westbound to JFK in Delta PS. This was about $800 cheaper than flying Delta PS roundtrip. I'm sort of hoping that our AZ flight is canceled and we end up on either Delta or Air France.

ATLConsultant

Hi - I'm in Italy now. Flying out of FCO to ATL on Friday. I was in FCO on Monday, transiting from Venice to Naples. The agent said all the lounges were closed -- she thought. I think that they're putting Delta ONE passengers in a Priority lounge. But not 100% sure. I'll know for sure on Friday.

ATL

Xeno

Please report your findings for those of us headed that way in the near future.

seattleBH

The Priority pass lounge (sorry but I don’t remember the name) across from the AZ lounge which is downstairs near the international departures was open when I flew through a few weeks ago. That lounge has historically been terrible but was in fact quite good this time. And the service was excellent. I was very pleasantly surprised.

As far as I know, all AZ lounges are still closed. Even in airports where the other lounges are open such as VCE.

Dutch101

Just flew out of MXP, AZ lounges closed, not PP lounges open either. Only open lounge was Montale, for Delta One only.

MSPeconomist

This seems consistent with DL's policy of only allowing lounge access to partner or SkyTeam operated lounges for GM+ unless traveling on a D1 ticket (including upgrades confirmed with instruments and award tickets), in which case DL can make contract lounges available, depending on the airport of course.

WillBarrett_68

The way you're wording it there implies two things that are not correct.

1) It's not DL's policy to "allow" access to GMs and higher to skyteam-member-operated (not just skyteam-operated) lounges, that's a SkyTeam policy that Delta must comply with if it wants to remain in the alliance. And likewise those other members must allow DL's elites to enter if they're on a compliant itinerary.

2) DL elite status has zero to do with third party lounge access if they're holding a D1 ticket. It's technically true that GM doesn't get contract lounge access unless they're holding a D1 ticket, but that's the case for every passenger. DL will pay for contract lounge access for all J customers regardless of status in cases where they don't have their own lounge or a partner lounge to use.

MSPeconomist

Thanks for the clarification. Apparently I wasn't awake and I was also thinking specifically of the OP's case of a PM traveling in PS.

However, other SkyTeam carriers tend to provide contract lounge access to SkyTeam ElitePlus (GM+) passengers traveling in coach.

Also, in some airports, there are one or more contract lounges that DL passengers can reach, but DL doesn't pay for contract lounge usage for its D1 customers. Perhaps these are smaller airports, but "will pay" is not guaranteed. It only applies when DL has a contract with the contract lounge (or some other non-partner airline operating a lounge at that airport which is willing to accept some DL passengers when DL agrees to pay the requested fees).

WillBarrett_68

Yes, that's just something they chose to do, there's no skyteam-wide policy requiring this and DL hasn't done it in years. I have no idea how widespread this is, though AF/KL definitely do this.

yes, there's nothing requiring DL to do this but I have not seen any such airport myself. Seems like this would be good info for a wiki post.

flyerCO

AFAIK all airports with D1 service have at minimum a third party contract lounge. Even DBV has one.

Rl 1950

I was at FCO yesterday. The AZ lounge was dark. The Priority Pass lounge was open, not overcrowded, and the food was decent.

VFR

There used to be a SkyTeam policy that STE+ got whatever lounge access J did, but when DL wanted to exclude elites from contract lounges, they added an exception to SkyTeam lounge page for DL in a footnote. It seems to imply that non-DL STE+ should get contract lounge access, but I don't believe that happens.

UA did the same thing but still allows elites contract lounge access in SIN where they would otherwise have to pay more to send elites to the SQ lounge , and Star Alliance changed their policy to allow UA to do this. *A further changed their policy for all airlines so that guests have to be traveling on the same flight as the *G member.

flyerCO

I thought at SIN, issue is that the nice SQ lounge isn't operated as as *A Gold lounge, similar to how Polaris lounges aren't Gold lounges.

For ST, AFAIK the policy technically read that E+ could access any Skyteam lounge. DL just took to following the policy to the word. (Instead of treating a third party contracted lounge as a ST lounge as had been)