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For the Rest of the Year: Lufthansa Suspends Contract-Lounge Access

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Bewertung Basel EuroAirport Skyview Lounge Aussicht aufs Rollfeld

Currently, there are far more important topics for frequent flyers than lounge access, e.g. how to even get to the destination with all the cancellations that are taking place. Nevertheless, the airport lounge is a nice retreat for many readers – especially now where layovers of 3+ hours are not rare.

Lufthansa seems to think otherwise. Some of their lounges in Frankfurt & Munich have reopened, but there are long queues to get in. Service abroad is even worse. The 5-star airline uses many third-party contract-lounges but has temporarily suspended the agreements. Even where lounges have reopened, Lufthansa passengers sadly won’t be able to get in.

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There have been reports from Malta, Luxembourg, and Poland. According to a sign at the Business-Class-Lounge in Poznan, this affects all lounges, which are not operated by a Star Alliance member. It seems like the access will be denied until the end of 2022:

LH Partnerlounges Aushang

The only lucky passengers with access are those who own a Priority Pass. This allows you to enter the lounge, regardless of your status or travel class. The other option is paying to enter the lounge. In Poznan, for instance, they’ll charge you the reduced price of PLN 37 (~€8).

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There’s no official announcement regarding the changed access policy. Lufthansa has removed its loungefinder from the internet. Instead, it lists the reopened lounges in Frankfurt, Munich, New York, and Zurich.

When contacted by a user of the Vielfliegertreff-Forum, Lufthansa replied:

Our goal is to always offer our customers a qualitatively high-value lounge, which has been adapted for the current challenges. For this reason, we are currently focusing on reopening our own LH, Austrian and Swiss lounges

Source: Vielfliegertreff-User leoll – (translated)

This justification is not really convincing. The only thing that Lufthansa has to do for such a contract lounge is to pay for access. Suspending the agreements in no way improves the situation in their own lounges.

Conclusion

After losing billions because of the Corona crisis, Lufthansa has now found a new way to save money. The airline no longer wants to pay for the lounge access at foreign airports and simply ditches its business-class passengers and frequent flyers.

It is doubtful, that a downward-spiral is the right way back to normality. It would at least be nice to receive a clear communiqué regarding what frequent flyers can currently expect – and what they can’t. Otherwise, the airline should not be surprised if even their most loyal customers at some point start flying with one of the other airlines.

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