SFHokie

But that's just for Star Alliance lounges. If you have other memberships (Priority Pass, Amex Centurion, other airlines that are not part of *A), the Lounge Buddy app is really great. The phone app works better than the web site IME.

Oh, it also lets you buy passes to lounges if you have no memberships!

Charly61

sounds really very complicated to me. this means that I have no lounge access even with an F ticket ? I will be flying LH routed zrh - fra - ord and have frequent traveller status only. I have approx. 5 hours between flights

JimInOhio

Charly, can you tell us what you mean by “frequent traveler status only”? It probably matters in this case.

findark

As an M&M FTL arriving on LH in J, unfortunately you have no lounge access at all in ORD. The USA (domestic) is an unusual market where lounge access is not generally granted to premium cabin pax. The exceptions that were being cited in the thread were:

(a) if you were SEN (or any other Star Alliance Gold), you would get access to the United Club as an alliance benefit
(b) if you were arriving in United Polaris business class, United would grant you access to its own lounges (both Polaris and the United Club) as a courtesy benefit

Unfortunately, neither of these apply. If you return though ORD, then the departure on an international flight in business class will get you lounge access there (Polaris if the flight is long-haul).


ed. to add: I don't know if the LX lounge in T5 would make an exception for arriving LH J pax.. probably a question for the LX forum.

threeoh

What? I thought that'd been running for several months.

https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/31278614-post223.html

If you have a 5 hour wait and you have to clear security either way (either at T5 or T1), might as well clear in T5 if you have lounge access and take the TTB bus.

jsloan

Frequent Traveler status is a specific Miles & More status level. It does not include *G.

mpw81

Good to know. Full disclosure, I haven't been in T5 since April/May and I don't spend much time on the midwest forum.

The target market for the bus is tiny since almost everyone has to clear to landside anyway, but if they are already driving a ton of buses in the opposite direction, I suppose even one passenger taking the bus back ins't really creating any additional cost or work.

IAH-OIL-TRASH

Unfortunately, most US domestic F tickets, in themselves, do not provide lounge access. If capacity is available, United Club sells a day pass for $59.

threeoh

Yes, I think the 3-way logic is (1) they are driving the buses that way anyway, (2) there are *some* pre-clearance passengers, even if not many, and (3) anything to take some load off of the landside ATS replacement buses is welcomed.

Clearly not the motivation, but an additional side perk is for I-D transfer pax like OP who might have PP or status/cabin access to the lounges in T5 and can now access them with a quick airside bus.

WineCountryUA

The access to LX lounge for an arriving LH J (low level "*S" status) passenger is not a given, especially LX's pattern of being very strict / limited in providing access -- ORD would have to be an exception in the LX system.

dkc192

Correction: if OP has *G from any airline, including UA, they get ORD UC access based on their *G status combined with international arrival. Class of service to BZN doesn't matter; *G trumps here.

MSPeconomist

If OP has *Gold on a *A carrier other than UA, OP would have access to the UC before any domestic UA flight, regardless of whether it is booked in FC or coach. The FC ticket doesn't matter in this case.

WineCountryUA

OP has stated they are FTL in the M&M program, *S

And general *G case has been corrected by others.

Hipplewm

Lets face it, he is better off playing tiddly winks in the side hallway than going to an overcrowded lounge in ORD.

His best option would be toi have the flight out of E (term 2) and then have the best UA club in ORD, but even that is meh.

Find a decent restaurant and have a nice meal and relax. US domestic flying isn't anything to write home about, even in F it is like the inter EU flights, except the seats are better and IME the service is far worse.

FlyerTalker70

Agree with you that at least the UCs in the US at outstations like ORD aren't that good. The best part of those lounges is the breakfast which has a decent selection of food but after that everything goes downhill. I'm at the PHL lounge and have some veg, pita bread, hummus, soup, cheese and brownies. Unless you're a mouse you're not going to get a food fill.

That being said, per UA's website, OP should have access to the UC at ORD:



So long as OP still has their ZRH > ORD J boarding pass on LX that should qualify since we're talking same-day travel here (he would need to present that to the Dragon).

LX should also be an option:



It is true that lounges operated by the LH Group of companies tends to have stricter access policies than other partners. However, I doubt they'll bat an eye if OP has flown them in J, especially if the ticket was issued on LX stock. Again save your boarding passes since they should be the key to get into those lounges.

As for transfers between terminals. I found the landslide transfers to be quite quick (maybe 10 minutes by bus from T5 to T1) - they basically loop around the airport so T1 will be the first terminal they stop at anyway. That being said, it's good to see that they have T5 > T1 going airside which should provide OP all the incentive to re-clear security at T5 to enjoy the LX lounge. I haven't been to the LX lounge at ORD but suspect it'll be better than what UA has at their ORD outstation.

Safe Travels,

James