A Virgin Australia flyer has been incorrectly denied entry to the airline’s newly-reopened lounge at Sydney Airport. Despite holding a valid lounge pass issued by ANZ Bank, the Virgin lounge attendant erroneously informed the customer that single-use lounge passes issued via the customer’s ANZ credit card were no longer being honoured.
AFF member Duck posted on Wednesday:
At Sydney airport and have been denied Virgin Lounge access with the ANZ complimentary pass. Very disappointed considering there is hardly anyone here and they are trying to relaunch the airline. Passes expire soon. Called ANZ and they said they have had many people today advise them of this. Shame on you Virgin. Looks like the Qantas group yet again are winners with my business and I fly every week
Although numerous Virgin Australia customers may have been affected in recent days, the good news is that this appears to have been an error.
Following this incident, a Virgin Australia Group spokesman confirmed to Australian Frequent Flyer that all single-use lounge passes issued by Australian banks remain valid for lounge entry. Amex charge cardholders can also now continue to receive complimentary Virgin Australia Lounge access at Virgin’s reopened Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne airport lounges.
“Customers who hold single use lounge passes issued by AMEX, Virgin Money, Velocity Silver, Westpac and ANZ are eligible to obtain entry to our reopened lounges in Sydney, Brisbane and Melbourne,” the Virgin Australia spokesman said.
An ANZ spokesman told Australian Frequent Flyer that ANZ has been in discussions with Virgin about reinstating entry to the airline’s lounges.
“The lounges in many locations have just reopened this week and are still being reconfigured to comply with COVID-19 requirements,” the ANZ spokesman said.
“As a result, lounge capacity is restricted and some customers may have been denied entry.”
Join the discussion on the Australian Frequent Flyer forum: Virgin no access to Sydney lounge
ANZ Rewards Travel Adventures lounge passes are on their way
A complimentary Virgin Australia flight and two complimentary Virgin Australia Lounge passes used to be standard annual benefits of the ANZ Rewards Travel Adventures credit card. ANZ removed these benefits earlier this month. But many cardholders are still waiting to receive their Virgin Australia Lounge passes requested many months ago, before the benefit was revoked.
Virgin Australia had paused sending new Virgin Australia Lounge passes while the airline’s lounges remained closed due to COVID-19. But with Virgin now reopening its airport lounges, ANZ has confirmed that it has now started clearing the backlog of previous ANZ Rewards Travel Adventures cardholder requests for new single-use lounge passes.
“We didn’t send the passes out while the lounges were closed as they expire after 12 months,” the ANZ spokesman confirmed, but “many have been sent now and the remaining passes will be posted in coming days”.
Three of Virgin Australia’s domestic lounges are now open – albeit with a temporarily reduced service offering – and the Gold Coast, Perth and Adelaide lounges are due to follow in early 2021. Virgin Australia has not yet confirmed whether it will reopen its lounge at Canberra Airport and all other Virgin Australia lounges will remain permanently closed.
Join the ANZ Rewards Travel Adventures card discussion on the Australian Frequent Flyer forum: ANZ Rewards Travel Adventure Card
