Just found out that my Etihad - QANTAS Gold membership match card won't be coming for a while.

Just found out that my Etihad - QANTAS Gold membership match card won't be coming for a while. I'm flying to Denpasar tomorrow afternoon in economy, tried to upgrade last week, booked out. My Velocity membership doesn't allow lounge access. Any ideas on how to access either Virgin or Qantas lounge??

Which carrier are you flying to DPS on, and from which Australian port are you departing?

Virgin VA from Sydney. Thinking buying a cheap jetstar flight is my only option

Does your online profile for Etihad correctly show your new status? If so, you should not have any problems. The VA system validates partner frequent flyer status for EY and will print it on your boarding card (PGL = Partner Gold). This should suffice for lounge access.

Sadly, no. Emails have been pointless. I will not know if I EVEN GET ACCEPTED untill 30th Aug, was the response I finally recieved.

Oh well, should have booked with Qantas. You never know might run into a previous lounge buddy who will take pitty on me , or meet an interesting character outside the comfort of "The Lounge".

Thanks for your help :-)

Except Qantas don't fly to Denpasar anymore. Squeezing onto a Jetstar 787 could have been another option to gain QF Club entry thoguh. 

Hi ALICIA, I believe (and could be wrong as I haven't tried it and am going on hearsay) you can purchase entry to the Koru Lounge (VA's designated lounge) in Sydney? this maybe an option for lounge access ex Sydney. To be honest the lounge in DPS is a temporary one (JQ & VA use the same lounge) and not really worth the fuss!

Contact EY office in MEL & they can email you a letter on their letter-head confirming you are a EY Gold. This has worked for me.

Or download the EY Guest App & there it has a copy of your membership card, which you can also use if you don't have an actual card as yet.

We did a similar trip last week. The virgin lounge you would have had access to is the Air NZ Koru lounge. I was there ten days ago and it isn't that great to be honest so you won't be missing much. Food and drinks are not as good as the domestic Virgin lounges. Nice comfy chairs but the coffee is from an old machine and the beans don't seem high quality (not a barista like the virgin lounge) and food is very ordinary. You are actually better off in my opinion staying in the international terminal where the coffee is better and the food as well and paying for those things unless you are a public face and appreciate the relative privacy. I would hesitate to pay for the lounge. The benefit of the gold or higher status as I see it is more to avoid queuing on check in and through immigration. Well worth it for that. I think Virgin Australia need to look to Virgin Atlantic for inspiration when/if they ever build their own lounge in Sydney

In Denpasar, we were in the lounge last week and parts of the new airport are open so the departures terminal is nice and new. (arrivals seemed old by comparison). The lounge is a temporary lounge shared with all other airlines. Again not brilliant, but the food was better than the Sydney lounge. They also have a massage facility which we used well. It is charged but good value compared to Australia, but not as cheap as the $4 massages in Lombok domestic airport! That was the last flight where I have wanted to spend longer in an airport!

There is free access to the DPS lounge if you have an ANZ Black card and a few other cards (I didn't see which others so maybe check your card provider). If you have priority pass they also give access so purchasing this may be an option. You may even be able to pay for access on the door if they have room. The new permanent lounge apparently opens sometime in September so you'll probably just miss it unless they are ahead of schedule.

Also I would consider flying Garuda doing this trip next time as they are the only carrier who process visas on the plane and thus you avoid the VERY LONG wait in Denpasar. The queues in Bali were horrendous at the time we arrived. It would have taken about two hours if we hadn't managed to get whisked through to make our domestic connection to Lombok. I have never seen such queues before! I think it all depends on the time of arrival and whether you are coming from the West Coast or East Coast as all the East Coast planes arrive in the early afternoon at once and clog the system.

You could look into a VIP service for someone to meet you at the airport and expedite you through the queues. We tried this but the company didn't respond, possibly because it was too last minute when we requested.

Good luck, and I'm sure you'll have a great time whatever happens.

Here's the link detailing paid access to the Koru lounge at Sydney.

http://www.ausbt.com.au/pay-your-way-into-air-new-zealand-s-australian-nz-airport-lounges

Hope that helps..

WOW! Thanks guys! Cheers for all that info daveozsydney. Yes, I'm not impressed with my travel agent at all! No priority for me, but I'm going to Bali!

Can't win them all.

Really wanted to buy the business upgrade, which I should have been in originally.

No worries.. I should mention also, it's worth getting to check in early and ask for row 3. They may offer row 4, but if you then state you would prefer row 3 (I am personally tall so I need the legroom) they may let you have it. The room is about the same, maybe better than business class but the seats aren't as wide (and you have to use the loos at the back)

We got row three out and back.

From what I can gather they seem to reserve this for people with mobility needs/ families that have been split up in seat allocation. When we asked in Bali they had to check with their supervisor to allocate the seats for us. On the outbound flight from Sydney we had row four seats but row three were empty, so we quickly moved!

O.k.  Do you know if they give you a printed priority pass, or could i cheekly flash my QANTAS Gold card when I arive in Bali??

In Bali, cheekily including 100,000 rupiah cash in with the passport at the indonesian only desk may work wonders ;)