wissel.net

I like flying Singapore Airlines. The planes are modern, the flights clean and on schedule, the staff takes care of one and the lounges provide shelter from the temptation of compulsive buying in duty free. While typically I fly economy class, I was in the air long enough to have gold status with the Star Alliance. For sentimental reasons (and since the Star Alliance members don't allow transferring miles from one to the other program) I'm a Lufthansa Miles and More member. It doesn't matter, Gold status opens the SIA launch anywhere. At least so I thought. Turns out, not in Mumbai. The guy at the lounge labeled "Singapore Airlines" flatly rejected me entry: for SIA only. Explaining Start alliance gold status didn't help. The Mumbai airport is undergoing renovations (from what I can see, it will be nice once finished), so the prospect of killing 2 hours in the regular waiting area dampened my mood a bit.
Luckily the airport staff who showed me the way to the lounge winked me to a different lounge, that is used by Thai, Korean Air and the likes. After a short discussion with the guy at the entrance they noted down my number and now I'm happily sitting and writing this rant. Anyway a general impression here in Mumbai: people take service really serious.