How did it come about that most US airlines deny lounge access to their own elites on domestic/intra-US itineraries, but not always to elites from other airlines in the alliance? I know there's paid lounge clubs, but it hasn't developed that way in most other markets (except Australia to my knowledge).

It's MUCH easier to get status in the US than elsewhere.

The US market is much more willing to pay for individual services. Club, checked luggage, better seats in Y, early boarding, premium security. Basically everything is for sale. And, people will pay.

On the other hand, status on US airlines means very little. It's easy to earn, can be done with cheap fares and it appears that's the way the public wants it.

Take UA as an example. Gold is the 2nd from the bottom of a 5-tier system. It's basically nothing, except that it gets you *A status internationally, where it's a big deal.

Add to that another simple fact. On a typical domestic flight from a typical domestic airport, there is no reason to arrive more than 60 minutes prior to flight time. In that world, who cares about a lounge? High-end business pax aren't looking for a lounge, they are looking not to waste time. At T-60, you wend your way through landside, the checkpoint, and airside to the gate. At that point, it's close to boarding time and you're off. Needless to say, there are, of course, connections where a lounge can be nice.

Wirelessly posted (Samsung Galaxy S: Mozilla/5.0 (Linux; U; Android 2.3.6; en-us; SGH-T959V Build/GINGERBREAD) AppleWebKit/533.1 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0 Mobile Safari/533.1)

Not true. There are places you can get Gold status for yearly fee of Platinum charge/credit card.

The fact is the lounge access is not free any more than bags are free. It's a question of whether access (or bags) are broken out of the ticket price or not. There's a real market in the USA for rock bottom-priced no frills air tickets.

So if I pay for, or upgrade to, a United First ticket within the US (from SFO to OGG), part of that price does not include lounge access?

Only if you are flying PS transcon or internationally in J or F!

An associated question is that, once you get into said lounges being a premium fare passenger, the US must be the only country where you have to pay for drinks. How did that difference happen ?

Not always. In the US First Class is almost entirely occupied by the Upgraders who have regular coach tickets. Elsewhere in the world first/business class, other than for overcoming overbooking, is only accessed by paying the relevant higher fare.

Correct. You're not missing much in the SFO lounges (some photos of the UA lounges at SFO are here), but you will not have access based on a F seat on SFO-OGG.

Something for something...

I am a Plat with US and I get unlimited F-class upgrades cleared a few days (IIRC 5 days) prior to departure. All my flights cleared this year. Even if these do not clear you can stand by at the airport, with (for Plat & CP - the highest 2 tiers) a very good chance to make it to F.

This is not the truth (any longer) that domestic lounges charge for booze - at all clubs (US/UA/DL/AS) at least wine/beer are for free.

I used to be BD*G and was able to access all US/UA/CO lounges - now I cannot, but - honestly - I value my First upgrade more...

You do know TK and A3 will match your BD*G, right?

Why should it? USA carriers provide lounge access to members and international F/C. Last time I looked, the flag at OGG was Stars & Stripes.

Some exceptions such as p.s in C gets you the UC and in F gets you the IFC.