In the corona crisis, most of the lounges had to close temporarily, including many of Lufthansa. Now it is clear: at some airports they will never reopen. With Bremen, Dresden, Cologne / Bonn, Leipzig / Halle and Nuremberg, this also affects five German airports. Internationally, the lounge in New Delhi is affected. This is particularly bad news for all frequent flyers with Frequent Traveler Status (FTL) as well as everyone who frequently travels with the Lufthansa subsidiary Eurowings.
Those who fly from one of the five airports with FTL status will in future have to wait at the gate. The same also applies to travelers with Eurowings, even if they have Senator or even HON Circle status. This is particularly annoying because Lufthansa has been connecting German airports with their hubs in Frankfurt and Munich for several years. Decentralized routes such as Nuremberg – Cologne / Bonn were taken over by Eurowings.
It is still unclear whether customers in the Eurowings Biz Class as well as Senators and HONs in the SMART tariff will have access to external lounges. So far this has been the case at some locations, but not at many either.
Positive: Individual contract lounges accessible again
At the beginning of July Lufthansa terminated all contract lounges abroad, i.e. lounges that are not operated by Lufthansa itself, practically overnight. The result: Even with a business class ticket and / or frequent flyer status, Lufthansa passengers can no longer get into the lounges at many airports. The implausible reason was that they wanted to concentrate on reopening their own lounges. What their reopening has to do with maintaining existing contracts with partner lounges remained a secret of Lufthansa.
The measure was originally intended to last until the end of the year. Now, at least here, it seems to be taking a small step backwards, because Lufthansa passengers are once again available to contract lounges at the following airports:
The First Class Terminal is also due to reopen soon.
Priority Pass als Alternative
Those who fly frequently appreciate the value of lounges. Now that Lufthansa will no longer offer this for many German frequent flyers, it can be a good idea to take matters into your own hands. In our opinion, the best alternative (or addition) to frequent flyer status is the Priority Pass. It gives you access to over 850 lounges worldwide, regardless of the airline and booking class, including some in Cologne / Bonn and Nuremberg.
The Priority Pass is available free of charge for holders of the American Express Platinum card. You currently get this including 75,000 points (= 60,000 miles!) As a welcome bonus.
Those: Lufthansa press release
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