Some links to products and partners on this website will earn an affiliate commission.

If you are flying from Rome’s Fuimicino airport, you can now pay to access the Star Alliance lounge. This is the fourth Star Alliance lounge to accept pay-per-use customers – after Buenos Aires (EZE), Rio de Janeiro (GIG) and Los Angeles (LAX).

Subject to availability, you can now pre-book access to the Rome lounge for €45 (£38.50), regardless of membership status or cabin class. Members of a Star Alliance frequent flyer programme receive a small discount. You are allowed 3 hours in the lounge and you must be travelling on a Star Alliance airline that day.

Is this a Good or Bad Thing?

I suspect that depends on your perspective. If you enjoy Star Alliance Gold status, you already receive complimentary entry to the lounge. You certainly wouldn’t appreciate the lounge filling up with paying customers.

But if you don’t have elite status and must arrive to the airport early, paying to enter the Star Alliance lounge is probably a pretty good use of €45…

How Can I Book?

You can purchase your pass(es) on the Star Alliance website. You will receive a confirmation email with a QR code that is valid for the day and time selected. Upon arrival to the airport lounge, you simply scan your QR code.

Bottom Line

Regular queues at “paid-for” lounges suggest that there is substantial demand for a more relaxing place to wait for a flight. But should an airline (or alliance) be filling up its lounges – intended for its most valuable passengers – with people willing to pay a small fee? Let us know your opinion in the comments section…