TPJ

With all due respect - but this is not my logic - it is SAS logic (and I do not work fo SAS ). For some reason they cut deals with airport lounges at LHR and WAW (and AMS before the *A lounge opened). If you see another reasons, please share your thoughts... And no - they are not allowed to cut ties with LO - you can still access LO lounge, if you wish... Similarly at LHR T2 - you can access LH/SQ/UA/AC lounges

SKT-DK

Why does it not make sense? - They pay LO on a pay per use basis, and every pax they can divert to a cheaper alternative represents a saving for SAS.

JR67

This looks like your logic. I have no views, except to say that cutting a deal with a contract lounge when your customers will likely go to a *A lounge won't cut costs. Especially when there is lounge tourism and you will probably have to pay twice for some pax.

East_and_West

Same holds true for ATH. Although there are already two other *A lounges in Terminal B (Schengen), SK uses the Goldair lounge, and at check-in you are directed there. So there must be some cost savings involved, otherwise SK simply wouldn't do that. As EBG I have access to all three lounges. I am not sure though whether this is true also for non-status Plus pax. Remember, *A rules grant access to all *A members' Business lounges at the departure airport to pax flying Business, while Plus is PE (although for all practical purposes intra-Europe Plus pax are treated at the airport as other airlines' intra-Europe Business)...

JR67

And you have never jumped around to test the other lounges? The risk increases for double fees. Say LO charges €100 and the other lounge charges €50 (inflated, I know, but this is expositional). Of 1000 customers, 90% will knee-jerk go to LO. Now we have €9000 for LO, and €500 for Joe's Lounge. Total cost €9500. If everyone went to LO then the cost would be €10,000. Now it is €9,500. But say 5 people wonder if LO is better. Then we are at €10k. What if 20 people start lounge shopping? With two lounges your max cost for elites/J pax will be higher (€15,000) than it would be with only LO (€10,000), and you can never estimate where it will land, because you don't know who will lounge hop and who won't, not to mention who is comping friends in (Max with one guest - LO €20,000, LO+ contract €30,000).

Adding a contract lounge risks raising max costs, with a potential increase of 50%. It isn't logical, even if the *A lounge is more expensive.

You are welcome for the mini economics lecture. :-)

SKT-DK

Not everybody are FT lounge-hoppers who have time to run around desperately trying every offering in an airport

That said, I hear what you are saying and agree that it is a risk - but I think it is a minority who would exercise this "right", especially on a business heavy route like WAW. Hence, why I did not call that out.

CPH-Flyer

My experience is that the majority of passengers go to the lounge that they are being told about at check in. They will assume that is the only one they are allowed to use. Some will know about the other lounge options and will go there, and few people will lounge hop.

SKT-DK

Exactly my point

East_and_West

It seems it's not by chance that the airports where SK haven't ditched their third-party lounge contracts are mainly those that already have *A lounges.

Exactly that. I would guess that their rationale would be something along the lines of "In case where you can't get rid of lounge access costs completely, at least try to cut them down".

CMK10

One of the two gates at CPH to get into the Gold Lounge was broken last Saturday and still broken this morning. They had an agent manually processing people in when lines formed. Kind of defeats the purpose doesn't it?

highupinthesky

Well. LO is doing the same in CPH. Here LO are using the Aviator lounge as contract lounge, despite there are 2 *G SAS lounges (business and gold). My best guess is that the contract lounge is managed by the same company which handle ground services, so it's part of a package at no extra costs.

SK2751

Do you happen to know if LO admits *G flying Y to the Aviator lounge?

highupinthesky

*G won't grant you access to neither the Aviator nor the Novia lounge, but your gold status at LO might.

marcoos

LOT’s lounge finder shows SAS and non-SAS lounges for *G at CPH, fwiw, including Aviator.

TPJ

Some 3 weeks ago I was specifically sent to SK Gold Lounge. My bad - forgot to check for alternatives - not a typical Flyertalker behavior