What happened to first class lounge access?
 

Sorry if this is in the wrong forum, I'm sure it will be moved if so.

I haven't flown first class a tremendous amount of times in my life. In the times that I have flown domestic first class, however, I always got lounge access with my ticket. In the last three times I've flown first (all on three different airlines) on domestic routes, I've been denied lounge access because my tickets weren't international first class. Was this a change that all the airlines made recently, or has it been going on for a while? Are there any airlines that still provide lounge access for domestic first class tickets?

If you are flying out of PDX (rather than PWM), AS provides lounge access for paid FC.

AA never has or at least has not since I have been flying domestic F with them.

I think you do with "flagship" service i.e., 3 class of service domestic flights, essentially limited to JFK-LAX and a few others(?) these days.

It is not a new policy and there are some exceptions. On AA you get access for the JFK-LAX/SFO transcons. On DL you get access for many more transcons: "Same day travel on a nonstop Delta flight between: JFK to/from Denver, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Portland, Phoenix, San Diego, Seattle, and San Francisco." CO doesn't offer it at all. UA does for C/F transcons in p.s., I believe.

That would explain it. All of the previous F trips I've taken have been transcon. I guess I just started to think all domestic F trips had lounge access, until I found out differently on a few recent shorter trips.

Correct. I was referring to the non-transcon flights.