Aeroflot airline has deprived its elite passengers of access to two dozen business lounges at various airports in Russia. Perhaps, in this way, the carrier is trying to achieve a reduction in prices for the provision of these lounges, suggests our own correspondent Travel.ru.
Starting from September 15, Aeroflot Bonus Gold level members will no longer have access to lounges at the airports of Nizhny Novgorod, Novosibirsk, Rostov-on-Don, Vladivostok, Khabarovsk, Perm, Samara, Krasnodar, Anapa, Mineralnye Vody, Kemerovo, Novokuznetsk, Barnaul, Kaliningrad, Astrakhan, Saratov, Yakutsk, and Salekhard. Earlier, the same decision was made regarding the lounges at the airports of Arkhangelsk and Magnitogorsk. Access will remain for Aeroflot Bonus Platinum level members and business class passengers.
As compensation, gold level passengers will be awarded 3,000 Aeroflot Bonus miles each time they fly from these airports on Aeroflot, Rossiya and Aurora flights. It is possible that some passengers will find this exchange advantageous, while others will regret the lost opportunity to relax or work in the business lounge. In addition, no compensation will be received by the fellow travelers of these passengers, who also had the opportunity to visit the lounges until now.
All this may, among other things, deprive some passengers of the incentive to earn the gold level of Aeroflot Bonus. Other reasons for many passengers to reconsider their participation in the program may be several rounds of devaluation of Aeroflot Bonus miles undertaken by the airline over the past year and a half.
Aeroflot has repeatedly complained about inflated prices for business lounges at airports in Russia’s regions (the company has its own lounges in Moscow and St. Petersburg). According to Aeroflot, the company’s expenses for its elite passengers’ access to these lounges in Russia can be several times higher than similar ones abroad, with worse service quality. Complaints are not only coming from Aeroflot – for example, Turkish Airlines refused to pay for its passengers’ access to the business lounge at the new Rostov-on-Don airport.
It is not known whether the measures taken by Aeroflot will lead to a reduction in prices in the lounges. Many of these lounges may lose a third or half of their customers and, accordingly, income as a result of this decision by Aeroflot.
Source: travel.ru