Sky Team lounge access
 

I am a Delta GM. I noticed that Sky Team Elite + have lounge access on international travel.
For lounge access, is travel between the United States and Mexico considered international?

Welcome to FlyerTalk, bh357!

In my experience, USA to Canada counts as international for lounge access purposes, so I would assume the same applies for USA to Mexico.

However, you may get a better response to this question in the Delta forum (as you're Delta GM, and presumably talking about flights on DL). So, perhaps a moderator can move it over?

Welcome to FT.

This is a technical question about DL SC policies. You might want to try to find and print the rules that apply to you on the DL website to show to lounge dragons if you have a problem.

As posted above, Canada counts as international (at least for SCs in certain key airports) while Caribbean does not. I *think* for Mexico on DL operated flights, MEX has different rules than other airports in Mexico. It could also matter whether your ticket is for a DL operated and/or DL marketed flight.

Check the rules carefully and good luck!

good luck finding a well informed lounge dragon even if the policy sides with you!

Since this is in the SkyTeam Forum, I want to ask about the policy. It says that an Elite plus must be flying internationally to get lounge access? So as a Flying Blue Gold, flying China Southern from Urumqi to Guangzhou will not allow me access? What about Guangzhou to HKG or TPE, are those considered international for lounge access?

CAN-HKG/TPE should be international.

You would/should also be granted access if you are connecting to/from a same-day international flight.

For example, if I am flying LIN-FCO on AZ, I would not get access at LIN, but if I am flying LIN-FCO-AGP the same day, I would get at LIN.

Cheers,

GenevaFlyer

Thanks for the feedback. I likely have a trip coming up in mid Feb (DTW-MTY), and I'll give it a shot then. Last week I didn't have the guts to try (DTW-MEX).

I am thinking about changing my loyalty over from DL to KE. Currently I am DL gold which makes me ST Elite+ and most of my travel was on KE to Asia so I would always have access to the ST lounges operated by KE in the asian airports. But since DL made all the changes with their partner airlines it's not worth my loyalty to stick with them and it will be much hard to reach status since they have such a limited network in Asia. Once I switch over I won't have Elite+ status with KE but I will still have it with DL. So can I just use my DL Gold Medallion card to get me in the lounges even though I'm not flying on a DL operated or ticketed flight? It used to work since I was flying KE but the flights were ticketed by DL. Not sure how it works the other way around. Anybody know about this? I was hoping my Elite+ would be honored this year until I have enough miles to reach ST Elite+ w/ KE. anyone know the policy on this? thanks

It should be no problem. Just show your DL Gold card and you should be fine. OTOH, I hope you realize that it takes 500K miles to reach STE+ on KE.:(

Isn't the 500K miles for lifetime status equivalent of SkyTeam ElitePlus? It can't be 500,000 status miles in one year.

No, it's not per year. It's lifetime miles that count and status is valid for lifetime, too. However, it seems that KE's program offers no other way to get ST E+ than through this lifetime status. So you really need 500000 miles for ST E+ with KE.
In a way it's a reasonable concept if, as an airline, you want to give ST E+ status only to your really high long-haul flyers and want to reward medium- to long-term loyalty. Due to the distance between Korea and both Europe and the US, it is not really difficult to get this status in say 5 years. The typical status perks are included in Business/First tickets anyway, so this concept reduces status to the long-term loyalty essentials: having the perks of Business/First when you do not fly that much anymore.
(Of course, I personally prefer FB's concept, but my point here is: it's not a stupid idea.)

Oh I see...well this wouldn't be a problem if I had just been with KE starting 3 years ago. I've probably accumulated 300k+ on KE metal but getting credit via DL. Wish they would honor that if I switched over. Do you think there would be some way they would if I could prove I've flown that much on KE metal? I doubt it but here's to hoping.

Yes, but KE only awards lifetime STE+. There is no KE annual STE+.:(

I highly doubt it. I would love it if KE would honor it as I had a lot of KE flights credited to other programs too. Please let us know if it works.:)