chinatraderjmr

LX (not LH so far) has updated their rules for use of the LX F lounges in ZRH & GVA. If you are ticketed on a code share (UA flt # operated by LX or LH) we no longer have access to the LX F lounges. What is so ridiculous is award tickets are still ok since they are ticketed using the LX/LH #. It's those of us who are paying F fares but buying the tickets from UA who are no longer welcome in the LX F lounge. Apparently according to the LX FT site this just started this month.

I hope LH does not come next but for those of us that keep our 1K status by flying mostly LX or LH now have one more reason to drop UA for Either LH or LX's program. What's even more ridiculous is my upcoming F ticket JFK-FRA-ZRH / ZRH-AMS / AMS-ZRH-DXB which are all on flights operated by LH or LX BUT USING UA FLIGHT NUMBERS was a little more expensive then if I bought the ticket from LH directly and I now must use the Senator lounge in ZRH (and I have 2 stops in ZRH, One only within Europe so no F anyway but the other one is w a long layover. This is absurd. Award tickets are ok but full fare not ?????

Does anyone know if I can ask UA to change my flight numbers from the code share to the actual??? Booked in A not F or I would just refund it and buy a new one from LH but A class is restricted

mherdeg

Yup, see discussion in the LX forum (which started in the UA forum and was merged to LX) at http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/swiss...ode-share.html . A key tip is to try using the LX mobile boarding pass to access the FCL; they seem to be unaware that you are a second class citizen on a UA coded flight with the mobile BP.

entropy

Award tickets are not available on LX F at all except for M&M SEN/HON

olouie

Only a matter of time before the alliances mean nothing.

uanj

Last month I flew in GF out or TPE and BR lounge staff told me UA only pays for business class lounge and therefore I cannot access the FCL. This does not match the Star Alliance website rules but they did not care.

Maybe it is UA initiating this.

jsl42

This happened to me on Sunday and it is insane. There is an ongoing "newbie" thread about this very issue in the Miles & More forum. Apparently online boarding passes omit the UA codeshare flight number, the agents miss it, and you can "sneak" into the lounge.

At the conclusion of the flight I complained to the chef de cabine on his goodbye rounds about what happened at the airport. He and the crew were flabbergasted and he prepared a complaint with the head of customer experience before we were on the ground.

Very disappointing indeed. I will fly LH first instead; it's a better product anyway.

BlissWorld

BR does not have a F lounge out of TPE. BR has 4 lounges in TPE, 1 for their own Diamond, one for F/J pax, one for star gold, and one for their silver members.

Kacee

This policy has nothing to do with Star Alliance.

Airlines need not be alliance partners to sell codeshares.

jmanirish

Yes they can, not sure if they will though. I've done it 10+ times but always from UA codeshares to true LH flight numbers because that's what's required to apply at GPU to a LH flight. They manually store the fare and reissue the ticket. Now they do it for LH because it's required. Not sure if they'll do it in this instance.

olouie

Yes but the whole idea behind alliances is to make such codeshares work better for everyone. It's clear that United is the odd man out in the *A. Better off for all the other carriers to not work with them.

ORDnHKG

What are you talking about ? Doesn't make any sense at all.

What's BR FCL ? The highest class of service with BR is either Royal Laurel on 77W or Premium Laurel on 744 and 330, then Business on A321 and MD90, which all are C class with different hard products, which means BR has no FCL.

So which lounge did you really get deny ? Flying F out of TPE you should be able to use the Infinity lounge, which is also used for BR's own C class pax which are not BR Diamond. I had flown BR C out of TPE and was only able to use the Star lounge as I was told the Infinity lounge is closed for cleaning due to late evening. But seriously both Star and Infinity not a whole lot of difference in food options, just the Infinity lounge has a more hip style décor.

JVPhoto

2nd thread on this in the UA forum this week...on going thread about it in the LX forum.

I had prepped myself (even after a confirmation email from the LX lurker) for disappointment. But my mobile LX BP and a little chat about visiting CH for my aging grandpa I was let in. Others have posted success.

Honestly, that coupled with the F product on the A340 and LH-lite ground service at ZRH left me nonplussed. I would rather just go out of FRA instead...maybe give it a try down the road on the new 777s if things change at ZRH or I'm for some reason not tied to booking UA/016.

chinatraderjmr

But if you fly an award in LX C to FRA connecting to a LH F flight your still out of luck. Since there are no F awards on LX many people use LH F awards to get to / from ZRH tru Germany. Moot point anyway as AWARD tickets are issued USING LH/LX flights. It's those of us paying full fare getting screwed. Award travel still has use of the lounge

I can only imagine UA does not want to pay for F lounge use out of their cut of the code share revenue. If this is the case then LH will be next. No problem, once you reach $12,000 in PQD's just start buying tickets direct from LX (let UA try to figure out why that's happening

chinatraderjmr

True. I checked last night and THIS IS ONLY FOR UA CODE SHARES. All others the rules have not changed. It's gotta be UA trying to cut costs & if they are dumb enough to think this won't be noticed, they are nuts. Now they are playing with people who buy full F tickets & most of us could give a damn about the miles. 1-2 tickets gives us the PQD's needed for 1K and then every flight after that there is no need to buy thru UA any longer

Often1

Despite the desire to attribute this to some conspiracy by UA, if you read the LX lounge rules, you will see that the decision has zippo to do with *A. LX F lounge is open only to LX, LH and Hon Circle. Period. No other *A member, no other partner.

BA, for instance, does the same thing with its CCR's at JFK & LHR.

It's not surprising and it's fine that a carrier wants to have its own top-end lounge for its own top-end pax. Alliances provide certain benefits, but the carriers still compete.