New policy at SFO lounges: no access on domestic flights

[BrianQQ]

Had a really weeiiirdd experience last night at the CX lounge in SFO.

Landed at 4:50ishpm at SF from QF with two to three hours to chill before wanting to move to the CX lounge for some wonton noodle soup and a nice shower. Sidenote: the drinks at the Alaska Lounge are divine.

My itinerary was ticketed as SYD-SFO-SAN, with both my SYD-SFO and SFO-SAN tickets being printed out on Qantas tickets.

Walked on in at 7:15pm, around the time that the CX lounge opens and the attendant proceeds to scan my ticket. I then ask for a shower because I feel yuucky. Got my key, and underwent my shower.

Returned the key and then I went to the buffet and accessed the lounge and its facilities normally.

Around 8:20pm, an attendant comes up and asks if I was Mr. T, I proceed to answer yes and have a look at her sticky note as she talks to me. The sticky notes states my full name, and the flight code and route.

She explains to me that despite my OW Emerald status, that a new policy has been put in place: no access to the CX lounge on domestic flights, even if they're in conjunction with a long-haul connection. Verbatim "but the next time you come to Hong Kong, feel free to hop on by."

Of course, I was apologetic. Had I known about the new policy, I would have just showered and decompressed at AA's Admiral Club instead.

New policy however seems a bit weird (?), given that it was like 70% empty by the time I left?

Just interesting.

 

[SYD]

The SFO CX Lounge has always had some quirky access rules, even before long haul international.

We didn’t try going there recently before an AA dom flight but actually found the relatively new AA lounge quite decent. Didn’t try AS but saw it as we walked by.