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On 3rd May 2021, Star Alliance will tighten rules for elite members who want to take a guest into their lounges.

The current rules are that you can bring a guest who is on any Star Alliance departure (see below from the Star Alliance website which has not yet been updated with the new rules):

According to an announcement from Star alliance member SAS today, via email to its EuroBonus members, in the future you will only be able to take a guest into the lounge if they are on the same departure as you:

“CHANGE OF STAR LOUNGE GUEST POLICY

From May 3, 2021, as a Star Gold member, you can bring a guest to Star lounges if you both travel on the same Star Alliance flight. As a Diamond member of SAS EuroBonus, you can continue to bring a guest or up to four family members to SAS Lounges, as long as everyone travels with the same SAS, Star Alliance or Widerøe aircraft.”

The websites of SAS and Star Alliance have not yet been updated with the new requirements, but other alliance members like Aegean, have now written about the change:

“We would like to inform our Gold members that they can visit Star Alliance Lounges with a guest of theirs, only if they travel on the same flight,  as of 03.05.2021 . Until that date, the access is allowed even if Gold members and their partners travel with different flights of Star Alliance.”

Bottom line

If you usually just guest in your partner or other travel companion, this is unlikely to bother you very much. If you regularly use your status to guest in friends and colleagues flying elsewhere though, this is significant change and may even cause you to consider whether you want to stick with Star Alliance.

Image: Star Alliance