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Qantas has been caught out denying lounge access to frequent flyers, despite them clearly being eligible under Oneworld alliance rules.
In one recent case, Qantas incorrectly refused lounge entry in Perth. To make matters worse, Qantas later defended their ground staff’s actions and refused to admit the mistake or offer compensation.
Spieck‘s daughter had just arrived in Perth on a Cathay Pacific flight in Business class, and was continuing to Adelaide with Qantas in Economy class. Under Oneworld rules, passengers are entitled to use the lounge when connecting on the same day from an international long-haul flight in Business or First class to a short-haul flight in Economy. According to the rules, the long-haul flight needs to be at least 5 hours in length and can be operated by any Oneworld airline. The connecting Economy class flight needs to be either a domestic flight or an international flight of less than 5 hours to be eligible.
All of these criteria were met. But it seems the Qantas lounge staff in Perth were unaware of this rule as Spieck‘s daughter was refused entry.
She has just been refused entry to both qantas lounges. Arrived 6am this moning on cx j and departing to adelaide later this morning in Y. She tried to reason and they just kept saying no.
I told her to tell them it was a one world rule (which she did) and they just got nasty and told her to go away. She won’t go back now because she’s feeling emotional and doesn’t want to get teary in front of them. Quite disappointing when they don’t know the rules.
Spieck followed this up with Qantas’ customer support team, which seemed equally unaware of the Oneworld rules and refused to apologise.
Qantas is a serial offender
Sadly, this is not a one-off incident. Several other AFF members have reported instances where Qantas has blatantly ignored Oneworld lounge access rules such as the one applying to connecting flights in Economy class.
The QF SIN lounge is also not aware of this rule. The BA SIN lounge is aware of it however. Both are from a recent experience in May 2019.
Separately, a Qantas Gold member was recently refused access to the Qantas international lounge in Brisbane despite holding a Cathay Pacific boarding pass. Under Oneworld rules, she should have been allowed in without issue.
If you’re flying on a Oneworld airline soon and plan to rely on the Oneworld rules for Qantas lounge access, you may wish to have the lounge access rules from the Oneworld website handy. Regardless of what the airline’s own website says, Qantas is obliged as a Oneworld alliance member to follow those guidelines.
Join the discussion on the Australian Frequent Flyer forum: QF Lounge access flying into PER on CX J; out on QF Dom Y [Denied despite oneworld rules]
