Does The Airport Lounge Influence Your Choice of Airline/Destination?

[clifford]

I guess most people would think I'm a bit odd (!), but I just booked a trip on the basis of getting access to the OneWorld lounges (BA,CX, QF) in LHR T3.

I also wanted to go to somewhere in Italy, but had no particular preference (apart from not Northern Italy). So, looking at BA's destinations in Italy from T3 I chose PEG (Perugia), as I'd never been there before and it seems quite interesting, and it was also quite inexpensive (AUD$114).

I'd previously panned to spend the time in London, but the alternative was a no brainer, as it turned out. Amazing what whims can do for you...

 

[serfty]

Lounge crawls not withstanding, lounge availability and offering does influence my bookings.

Sometimes for sleep as it may be possible in the lounge. For example, SQ in SIN, QR in DOH, MH in KUL are all 24 hours.

Other times for F&B, I'll book a late flight out of AKL where possible given the availability of the EK lounge after 5pm.

 

[Human]

On one occasion it influenced my class of travel.

My wife and I needed to get from Istanbul to Budapest -- it's less than a 2-hour flight and the vast majority of the time we'd have been more than happy in Economy.

Also, using KrisFlyer points, the 33,500 point cost (each) for such a short flight didn't seem worth it.

But I couldn't help it. I'd heard such amazing things about the Turkish Airlines Lounge at IST that I just had to book us in Business, not for the flight but so we could give the Lounge a try.

And we did not regret it for a second. Any Lounge which has gozleme made to order, Turkish coffee and 10 different types of olives is absolutely worth it!