Is Star Gold card required?
 

I have a paid business ticket on Swiss - SFO-ZRH-xxx with layover in ZRH. Ticket involves UA on return and is a 016 UA ticket number. i can't find my Star Gold card. Will I have lounge access on my layover? Will they accept just ticket and virtual UA card, or very strict?

It's not clear either way: LH group airlines like to see the card, but I've been allowed in in LHR (LH lounge) without my card, as a one time exception.

The digital card has a barcode (touch it, and it will flip round), which *should* be enough proof of status, but who knows what the Swiss agents will be like. Results are likely to be best if you proactively hand over a BP and the phone at the same time (as opposed to waiting to be asked to show a card).

Note however: you get lounge access based on the business ticket alone. Having *G let's you use the Senator lounge (as opposed to just the business lounge on a business ticket): this is extremely similar to the business lounge, but the senator lounge might have a few more amenities and/or better food/drinks.

The only difference would be that with Star gold you're allowed a guest.

At ZRH, they will let you into the BUS lounge with a BP, but you need your card for the SEN lounge.

Like I have never understood why the LH Group dragons love touching pieces of plastic when both BP and the computer in front of them tells them the truth. What's next? They want to know why you want to visit the lounge.

While they want to see your card in general, showing the virtual card will do the trick. You might have to insist, though..

The thing is, they're apparently unable to verify the status properly. If one wants, he could display himself as whatever he pleases on the boarding pass, without actually holding that status. That's why they want to see the status card (even though some airlines don't ship out physical cards anymore..)

Obviously that's not really a security feature either, but they seem to be content with putting the fence a little bit higher that way, rather than to actually fix the huge hole next to it ;)

SK, TK, UA and AV never need them so what can it be that the LH Group needs "to verify" it. Seems like a game just to annoy customers to me.

Contract lounges are another thing because they do not usually have access to the airlines computer system and bp's may not display the number.

And plus, you could always forge a Star G card as well so I don't see the value.

That's what I meant with "putting the fence a little bit higher".

To forge a boarding pass (at a level they can't verify without an active check against a database if it's correct or not) anyone with a smartphone needs like 30 seconds.

Forging a physical card takes a little bit longer and you need some devices to actually produce them..

That would make a tiny amount of sense _*IF*_ they rejected digital cards to, but they 100% don't.

In my experience they scan the card and/or copy information from it.

The one time I was "exceptionally" let into LH's LHR lounge, they asked for my UA status level (and I think they had my FF number on the BP). I was also using a self-printed LX BP on that occasion.

Don't expect much of "sense" from <s>Germans</s> Swiss :D

The thing is:

-Faking a status on a boarding pass: Required zero effort and very low amount of time, can be done by anyone that is having basic computer knowledge. Probably not even a "criminal offense" if you actually have a valid ticket

-Faking a membership card (like M&M Senator) - requires you to produce a fake card, taking some amount of time. Definitely illegal (I'm not a lawyer, but I'm fairly sure of that :D ) if used to gain lounge access based on it.

-Faking a digital card is probably somewhere in the middle. I guess I won't expect the Lounge attendants ot be IT experts, so after I've had a look how the digital system works, I probably could do an equally-looking fake of it.

This said, you can see the "physical card" requires quite some effort to have a fake copy, and is probably the most clear "illegal" behavior when gaining attendance to a lounge.

Thus, as much as I like to blame LH Group for anything, it does make some (not much, but some :D ) sense..

I'd say faking the digital card is easiest of those three, but this probably isn't the right place nor time to discuss such things.

"Faking" would be a bad term to use in a country that treats "forgery" as a very serious crime.

The reason for the physical or e-card is simply that those are most typically agents who have been burned one way or another when their carrier tried to invoice UA and could not get paid. Thus, they copy the card or information from it.

The *A rules permit carriers to require the card and some do. If you have lost your physical card and your phone and won't be replacing it while traveling, the solution is to go to check-in and ask for an invitation. So far as I know, but I certainly have not done a check of every station served by *A, there is always some form of an "invitation" or pass which can be issued at the counter and which carriers use for all kinds of purposes. Ask for one if you've lost both.

*A carriers are already able to verify status electronically (otherwise they wouldn't print status on a BP), it's somewhat ridiculous that they can't just query your status based on your FF number (which is usually also on your BP, if you entered as part of your booking and/or during checkin). In fact this is *probably* what most other airlines are doing, when they let you in with just a BP scan. There's no reason that fraud would be any more prevalent when not using a card (they already seem to scan the card, which I'm guessing lets them verify my status electronically).