After two weeks and various email exchanges with Emirates, the airlines finally gave me a definite answer. Please refer to the following email response from Emirates Skywards team for your information and further consideration if you are flying to China - another reason to stick with QF metals to Beijing.
------------------ Original ------------------
From: "emiratesskywards";
Date: Sun, Oct 28, 2018 03:11 PM
To: "****** ***";
Subject: Re: FW: : RQ/DXB/X/HN/******/******
Dear Mr ***,
Thank you for your
feedback.
I apologise for the
inconvenience caused while you tried to access the Beijing Emirates lounge.
As a Qantas Gold member,
you can access the Emirates Business lounge across the network.
All you need to do is
ensure that your Qantas membership is quoted on your booking. This will enable
your membership to reflect on your boarding pass in which your benefits will be
recognised. Please ensure to quote your Qantas membership at the earliest convenience
on your e-ticket numbered ************.
Have a good day.
Regards,
Emirates Member
Services
Emirates Airline
Comments: 1
Upon reading the Qantas Tier Benefits, which states the following:
"Benefits of Gold with Emirates - Lounge Access in Australia, Europe, Asia, North Africa and the Middle East when travelling on a flight with a Qantas (QF) or Emirates (EK) flight number you can enjoy access for you and one guest who is travelling with you on the same flight, to Emirates Lounges throughout Australia, Europe, Asia, North Africa and the Middle East. In Dubai, you and a guest may enjoy the luxurious Emirates Business Lounge and in other airports, the Emirates Lounges."
I had a recent problem accessing the EK lounge in Beijing when travelling on a Qantas flight with a QF flight number. I was in business class and am a Qantas Platinum FF. The EK lounge staff in Beijing firmly said there is no agreement in China to allow such access.
I asked Qantas and received this last week from Qantas Customer Care:
After speaking to you, I contacted Emirates to confirm access for their
lounge in Beijing and confirmed what you found is true. Our passengers
must be on an Emirates flight number to access their lounge.
I think if the Emirates Beijing lounge is not fully part of the
Qantas and Emirates lounge partnership, that should be clearly
stated somewhere.
At present the Qantas statement is:
Qantas Gold, Platinum and Platinum One Frequent Flyers, as well
as travellers flying in First or Business cabins, can access Qantas Lounges and
Emirates Lounges across Australia, Europe, Asia, North Africa
and the Middle East.
I think that statement is very misleading if Emirates lounges cannot
be accessed in some parts of Asia (eg Beijing) but can
be accessed in other parts of Asia (eg Singapore) when
flying on a Qantas marketed and operated flight.
I had a recent problem accessing the EK lounge in Beijing when travelling on a Qantas flight with a QF flight number. I was in business class and am a Qantas Platinum FF. The EK lounge staff in Beijing firmly said there is no agreement in China to allow such access.
@Austman, thank you for the insight. In light of the above, does that mean there is no point for me to even giving it a try at Emirates' gate in PEK? I have printed all my email correspondence with the airlines and will be flying in (I) with Gold, and the walking distance from EK lounge to CX lounge is far (one can pay CNY10 for a ride between the gates, a service offered by CA - I found it very interesting).
Worth a shot. Often in China if you put up enough of a fuss the staff will let you in. Id say bringing the printout will help. I was allowed into the Air China lounge in Beijing on an econony ticket because I showed I was connecting in to a SQ business class flight in Shanghai.
@Austman, thank you for the insight. In light of the above, does that mean there is no point for me to even giving it a try at Emirates' gate in PEK?
No harm in trying but unless you are actually flying on an EK flight, expect a refusal.
Even your email from EK seemed to confirm that you need the lounge invite to be on your boarding pass. You'll get that as a Qantas status FF'er when flying on EK if you put your QF FF number into your Emirates booking.
So, no dice, when flying on Qantas I'm afraid...
Which is not what both Qantas and even Australian Business Traveller has stated should happen. The QF/EK "partnership" is supposed to cover all of Asia with recipical lounge access...
The CX lounge is OK but not great and their signature noodle bar closes each day at 20:30, far too early for QF departures. At the Qantas check-in you'll get a CX lounge invitation (near gate E20) and a shower invitation that's good for the transit hotel (near gate E10).
I suspect this is all a bureaucratic stuff-up. When the QF-EK partnership was negotiated, QF did not fly to PEK. As such, I suspect EK - at that time - put together a list of all the airports where QF flies, and informed EK lounge staff at those airports that they were to allow QF pax entry.
Several years later, QF started flying to PEK. But I'm betting no-one on the QF-EK alliance team thought to tell EK that, and request that PEK be added to the list of EK lounges to which QF pax were allowed entry.
So really the ball is back with QF - their alliance team needs to liaise with EK to add PEK to the lounge list.
Hi Guest, join in the discussion on
Qantas Gold Members Accessing Emirates Lounge in Beijing
StarTeam
StarTeam
Member since 06 Oct 2018
Total posts 5
After two weeks and various email exchanges with Emirates, the airlines finally gave me a definite answer. Please refer to the following email response from Emirates Skywards team for your information and further consideration if you are flying to China - another reason to stick with QF metals to Beijing.
------------------ Original ------------------
From: "emiratesskywards";
Date: Sun, Oct 28, 2018 03:11 PM
To: "****** ***";
Subject: Re: FW: : RQ/DXB/X/HN/******/******
Dear Mr ***,
Thank you for your feedback.
I apologise for the inconvenience caused while you tried to access the Beijing Emirates lounge.
As a Qantas Gold member, you can access the Emirates Business lounge across the network.
All you need to do is ensure that your Qantas membership is quoted on your booking. This will enable your membership to reflect on your boarding pass in which your benefits will be recognised. Please ensure to quote your Qantas membership at the earliest convenience on your e-ticket numbered ************.
Have a good day.
Regards,
Emirates Member Services
Emirates Airline
Comments: 1
Upon reading the Qantas Tier Benefits, which states the following:
"Benefits of Gold with Emirates - Lounge Access in Australia, Europe, Asia, North Africa and the Middle East when travelling on a flight with a Qantas (QF) or Emirates (EK) flight number you can enjoy access for you and one guest who is travelling with you on the same flight, to Emirates Lounges throughout Australia, Europe, Asia, North Africa and the Middle East. In Dubai, you and a guest may enjoy the luxurious Emirates Business Lounge and in other airports, the Emirates Lounges."
patrickk
patrickk
Qantas
Member since 19 Apr 2012
Total posts 731
I have used their lounge in Bangkok which is by far the best with no problems.
Austman
Austman
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer
Member since 09 Jan 2013
Total posts 15
I think if the Emirates Beijing lounge is not fully part of the Qantas and Emirates lounge partnership, that should be clearly stated somewhere.
At present the Qantas statement is:
I think that statement is very misleading if Emirates lounges cannot be accessed in some parts of Asia (eg Beijing) but can be accessed in other parts of Asia (eg Singapore) when flying on a Qantas marketed and operated flight.
StarTeam
StarTeam
Member since 06 Oct 2018
Total posts 5
@Austman, thank you for the insight. In light of the above, does that mean there is no point for me to even giving it a try at Emirates' gate in PEK? I have printed all my email correspondence with the airlines and will be flying in (I) with Gold, and the walking distance from EK lounge to CX lounge is far (one can pay CNY10 for a ride between the gates, a service offered by CA - I found it very interesting).
jch
jch
Virgin Australia - Velocity Rewards
Member since 15 Nov 2017
Total posts 143
Worth a shot. Often in China if you put up enough of a fuss the staff will let you in. Id say bringing the printout will help. I was allowed into the Air China lounge in Beijing on an econony ticket because I showed I was connecting in to a SQ business class flight in Shanghai.
Austman
Austman
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer
Member since 09 Jan 2013
Total posts 15
No harm in trying but unless you are actually flying on an EK flight, expect a refusal.
Even your email from EK seemed to confirm that you need the lounge invite to be on your boarding pass. You'll get that as a Qantas status FF'er when flying on EK if you put your QF FF number into your Emirates booking.
So, no dice, when flying on Qantas I'm afraid...
Which is not what both Qantas and even Australian Business Traveller has stated should happen. The QF/EK "partnership" is supposed to cover all of Asia with recipical lounge access...
The CX lounge is OK but not great and their signature noodle bar closes each day at 20:30, far too early for QF departures. At the Qantas check-in you'll get a CX lounge invitation (near gate E20) and a shower invitation that's good for the transit hotel (near gate E10).
John Phelan
John Phelan
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer
Member since 28 Oct 2011
Total posts 261
I suspect this is all a bureaucratic stuff-up. When the QF-EK partnership was negotiated, QF did not fly to PEK. As such, I suspect EK - at that time - put together a list of all the airports where QF flies, and informed EK lounge staff at those airports that they were to allow QF pax entry.