Accessing the Sydney Air New Zealand lounge as an Etihad Guest Gold status member

Frequent Flyer Programs
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Hi all,

I’ve just been denied access to the Air New Zealand lounge in Auckland with my Ethiad gold card.

They stated that since I booked the ticket through Virgin Australia and not Etihad, that I couldn’t use the card to access the lounge. I had no issue accessing the AirNZ lounge in Melbourne on the way out.

This strikes me as very odd, and I couldn’t actually find a definite statement on AirNZ, VAust or Etihad websites to support or deny their claim.

Does anyone know if this is correct, or did I just hit a lounge dragon?

Andy B.

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Hey Andy,

I had this exact same thing happen last week! Travelling on Premium Economy Air NZ from Sydney to Auckland.
I pushed at the door, but on looking more closely at the Air New Zealand page on the Etihad website, the small print states that the lounge access policy is for access only on EY coded flights operated by Air New Zealand. In addition, the EY lounge was closed, so I couldn’t try for access there either.
This policy sucks! These business partnerships are somewhat fake alliances sometimes.

Cheers

Keith

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This was the twitter message I got back from Ethiad:

Hi Andrew, Unfortunately you are eligible for it only when traveling using an Etihad ticket. Thanks *AS

Ohh well, I’m only one flight away from my Virgin Gold now which apparently would have let me in!

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