highupinthesky

EBG doesn't help when flying LH metal, unless there is a *G lounge, in which cases EBG will give you access flying any *A metal, incl. SK.

fassy

CPH-Flyer

That is absolutely wrong. If LH gives access to a contract lounge based on passengers being Senator with Lufthansa, they will give access for all *G. If the access to the contract lounge is given based on J, F, or HON only, then *G will not help you if you are in Y.

Should be noted, in the last example, a Lufthansa Senator member in Y would also be the excluded.

CPH-Flyer

For Star Alliance lounges yes, in this case contract lounges the operating carrier will pay for all.

AlicorporateUK

Exactly and to reiterate (given that I'm on the same boat), SK*G flying LH/LX/OS/LO etc. in Y would get the same treatment in terms of lounge access as LH's own SENs (e.g. flying often out of GDN on LH, I get lounge access whereas I wouldn't if flying SK, one of the reasons why I switched).

G

SK AAR

You got be kidding? Change from a direct flight to LH via MUC/FRA and even more expensive, just to get into a lounge? Why don't you use the savings on the fare to buy a nice mean at WRO - or when arriving at CPH?

Yes, lounge is nice (but in general totally overrated IMO) but not a necessity and certainly not something I would purchase a more expensive fare for and fly via Germany for if there is a direct flight.

fassy

Take it with a grain of salt. MAIN reason is the obvious bad schedule, low frequency and obscene high price of SK flights lately (as in the last 18 months). Of course, if SK would be cheaper than via FRA or MUC I would go with them. But this is rarely the case. As expected, direct flight is almost always more expensive but often I get the LH flights through FRA or MUC at half or even less than half of the cost for what SK asks for. One important note is, I usually book travel 2 to 3 days out.

And often I spend hours at airport, doing work, phone calls etc. So having the lounge - even if it is a really bad one - makes my life much more comfortable. I actually do not mind the extra connection to much, besides the few minutes walking inbetween flights more time to work, read or relax.

highupinthesky

I agree with Fassy. The value of the lounges are really the ability to turn travel/wait time into working time. Any savings on airline ticket etc. is absorbed by the company and can't be used on meals etc.

RedChili

I realize that the answer to the following question will depend on which employer somebody has, and if they're self-employed, etc. But e.g. the WRO lounge gives *G and *S pax flying with SK a discounted access for PLN 49, which in my opinion is an extremely good offer. Wouldn't most employers be willing to cough up those 49 zloty to give their employees some valuable time to work and/or rest?

Executive Lounge | Port Lotniczy Wroc?aw

AlicorporateUK

They won't. Imagine the conversation with my manager – "Sadly my SAS Gold card no longer grants me access to the lounge in Gdańsk, would you by any chance be able to authorise XX GBP for me to get to the lounge?".

And it isn't about the money (as you would most certainly spend more in one of the restaurants/bars), just that businesses get 'funny' about things like that (our new managing director once made a sarcastic comment about all the Gold cards attached to employee's laptop bags and those who travel purely to get their shiny card renewed for another year...).

G

fassy

Wasn't aware of that. Thanks. 49 PLN is not too bad to have a decent place to sit and work. Still doesn't solve the issue of bad schedule and high prices on SK... so I still end up on LH via FRA/MUC and get into the WRO pleasure temple for free

For July and most of August they pulled ALL flights. Like with WAW. I wonder what the SK executive team is smoking.

view

Yes same here, clearly stated in corporate travel policy that no lounge access, club memberships or similar may be expensed. However I can go overboard in the airport restaurant, no problem as that is an approved expense type. For Poland and SK I access the lounges with LoungeKey which I have via my Mastercard.

highupinthesky

Not mine, Also if I go 1 cent over the daily meal limit, I have to claim that 1 cent as personal expense and pay it out of my own pocket. Our meal limits are defined in USD so we of course often has a discussion about which exchange rate to use. Once I was in US and had to spend a month arguing that when my meal bills says USD $69, then I'm within the meal limit even when the exchange rate the company and credit card company uses makes it over USD $70 when it's converted to DKK and back to USD.
Internet access in hotels and airports without free internet is also an extravagance we have to pay our self, but there is no limit on how much data I can use through the phone, so once I came back from a 1 week trip to Japan with a phone data bill of 8K DKK. If I had bought a free data plan at the airport at 4K Yen (roughly 250 DKK) I would have had to pay it my self.

Ocn Vw 1K

Moderator note, this thread to discuss airport-managed lounges open to SAS passengers, has gotten way off topic. You'll find those off-topic posts in the SAS Kafe thread.

Thanks, Ocn Vw 1K, Senior Moderator.

ksu

No, as has been stated by others: if the lounge is a contract lounge, one *A airline might buy access for their passengers (usually both for business passengers and *G passengers) flying on their own metal, and at the same time other *A airlines flying from the same airport might not buy access. At many airports Lufthansa has bought access for their passengers, when SAS has not. The lounges will then not be Star Gold lounges (thus no access when flying any *A metal), just lounges for passengers flying the metal of the airline which has bought access. When checking the lounge finder on the Lufthansa homepage I have not yet found any airports where LH gives access to Senators and not to *G when flying LH metal.

Widerøe is in a similar situation to SAS. Widerøe is no longer owned by SAS but uses Eurobonus as its FF programme, earning basic points for status. Those WF flights eligible for points accrual can only be credited to Eurobonus, and not to any other *A FFP AFAIK. WF flights even counts as legs for status, unlike non-SK *A flights. When flying WF metal SVG-ABZ, EBG gives lounge access at both ends, flying SAS metal there is no lounge access. (And WF uses other lounges at HAM and MUC, not the LH lounges)