Hi all,

Wondered if anyone could help me with a query... Will be flying out of Chennai tomorrow on Air India to SIN. First time on Air India and the flight is part of a booking in economy (M class) from Japan via SIN with SQ (although not a code share), As a united 1k (*AG) will I have any lounge access at Chennai?

many thanks!

Doubt it. But then again, if you want you could use the lounge @ Rs 500 or so per pax.

As you are a star gold on a star alliance flight you just have to ask for a lounge pass at checkin (if you produce your 1K card they'll give you a lounge pass anyway). See if you can't get one for the Bica lounge in MAA - nicer than the others, and right next to security.

Many thanks for the responses. The Air India check in guy said there was no tie-in with united and as was on economy, no lounge access. Had the strange experience of waiting well past boarding time in the terminal without any announcements or updates as to the gate for the flight. When it was finally called went straight to the flight and everyone else had already boarded! Where had they all come from???

While in the process of joining, Air India has not formally joined *A yet, so no, they don't need to give you lounge access if they don't want to.

Does OW have any nice lounges here. I have a 3 hrs layover.

Just looked. Seems there are 2 of them.

All the lounges in MAA are contract lounges not OW lounges. So they wont let you in without a lounge pass.

Will they give passes to OW emerald passengers? Still concerned about the 2 month re-entry into India right now??

Just and update. No lounge access anywhere in India thus far, flying Y with Jet.

DEL,MAA, or CMB. Will try BOM on the way out fri.

The contract lounges don't let you in without passes from the airline or if you don't have the right credit card.

Yea, I didnt try after they said no. Would be nice for Jet to have some lounges for OW elite passengers, although they arent a OW partner, just mileage/redemption earning partner.

I have a four hour layover tomorrow in MAA. I will be coming in on the international terminal and departing on the domestic terminal connecting to Hyderabad.

I have priority pass and it looks like I can use the Bica lounge. From the description it sounds like this is outside security. I'm thinking I should allow myself one hour to clear security after leaving the lounge to be safe?

Depends. When are you flying in?

Oops: Haven't used Chennai as much, the lines (and the airport) aren't nearly as good as Hyderabad, Bangalore or (soon) Trivandrum. An hour at Chennai should be more than enough. You can eyeball security from the lounge, there is usually one or more airline reps floating around and you can ask them for a current estimate of wait times.

Security at Hyderabad with the new airport isn't bad at all. Rarely ever see long lines. True of Bangalore as well during the times I've been there.

The lounges in Hyderabad (which you can get access to via Priority Pass) aren't too bad, and have fairly fast internet connections with laptops if you don't have your own. Easy to connect with your own laptop as well with the ethernet cable. They have hot food at meal times.

if you are in the lounge then they will let you know when to leave for your flight....