Unlike Star Alliance and Oneworld, Skyteam restricts lounge access benefits for its Elite Plus members to international itineraries only. For travelling in Europe it might not be a major concern, but in larger countries like USA and China it could be very annoying.
In China for example, members of China Eastern, Xiamen Air and China Airlines can access airport lounges when flying domestic as well thanks to a special arrangement. If you are an Elite Plus member from another airline however, no lounge for you!
Looks like it’s finally going to change. China Eastern has just sent out a communication update regarding lounge benefits. I cannot find the source myself and suspect it was an email sent to elite members only, but it’s very widely shared and discussed already. You can find a screenshot of it in this FlyerT thread. (UPDATE: Skyteam has made an official announcement.)
Starting from April 1, 2025, China Eastern’s elite members (and understandably all Elite Plus cardholders across the alliance) will have access to select Skyteam lounges when travelling on a domestic flight.
The full list is as below. I trust you can understand the airport code, and please use Google Translate to translate the image if needed.
Air France / KLM is the most generous airline here, offering both Paris airports in addition to a few others in France and the USA. If I remember correctly some of them are on Priority Pass already. Given how Delta keeps imposing new restrictions on lounge entry rules, I’m not surprised they’ve remained silent.
Although they are only starting with 25 airports for now, if the trial goes well I expect they extend the benefit to the whole network to achieve parity with Star Alliance and Oneworld.
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