SkyTeam Is Making Changes to Lounge Access For Elite Plus, Business, and First Class Passengers

by Anthony Losanno
Air France Lounge CDG M 21

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SkyTeam announced today that effective April 1st, it will be making some changes to its lounge access policies. This includes access for some domestic itineraries, changes to guest policies, and a new time limit to enter the lounges.

SAS Lounge ORD 1

Domestic Lounge Access

SkyTeam will begin to offer lounge access to Elite Plus customers on domestic flights as an additional benefit. Domestic lounge access will initially be available at some lounges operated by Air France, China Eastern, Garuda Indonesia, Kenya Airways, KLM, SAS, Saudia, and Vietnam Airlines. SkyTeam says more will be added in the future. Here is the initial list:

  • Air France: Bordeaux-Mérignac Airport (BOD), Boston Logan International Airport (BOS), Geneva Airport (GVA), Houston’s George Bush Intercontinental Airport (IAH), Los Angeles International Airport (LAX), New York John F Kennedy International Airport (JFK), Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport (CDG), and Paris Orly Airport (ORY)
  • China Eastern: Shanghai Hongqiao International Airport (SHA) and Shanghai Pudong International Airport (PVG)
  • Garuda Indonesia: Denpasar International Airport (DPS) and Jakarta’s Soekarno-Hatta International Airport (CGK)
  • Kenya Airways: Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (NBO)
  • SAS: Chicago O’Hare International Airport (ORD), Copenhagen Airport (CPH), Gothenburg Landvetter Airport (GOT), Newark Liberty International Airport (EWR), Oslo Airport (OSL), and Stockholm Arlanda Airport (ARN)
  • Saudia: Jeddah’s King Abdulaziz International Airport (JED) and Riyadh’s King Khalid International Airport (RUH)
  • Vietnam Airlines: Hanoi’s Nội Bài International Airport (HAN)

Elite Plus Guest Changes

Elite Plus members will only be allowed to bring in a guest that is traveling on the same SkyTeam-operated flight as the Elite Plus customer.

Air France Lounge CDG 30

Three-Hour Lounge Access on Departure

Guests will only be allowed to enter a lounge three hours before departure. Elite Plus passengers transferring between two SkyTeam-operated flights will continue to have same-day/24-hour access at the point of connection.

Anthony’s Take: Adding access on domestic itineraries makes sense. These other new rules will make it more restrictive to enter SkyTeam lounges, but I welcome the changes with overcrowding being the serious issue that it currently is today.

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Advertiser & Editorial Disclosure: The Bulkhead Seat earns an affiliate commission for anyone approved through the links above This compensation may impact how and where links appear on this site. We work to provide the best publicly available offers to our readers. We frequently update them, but this site does not include all available offers. Opinions, reviews, analyses & recommendations are the author’s alone, and have not been reviewed, endorsed, or approved by any of these entities.

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