That Auckland Airport-owned lounge might be dubbed the non-denominational one among the city’s offerings, the others being those of Air New Zealand, Emirates, and Qantas.
“A lot of airlines, particularly Air New Zealand, are quite protective of their products around being supplied to their customers only,” Kinnoch said.
But he said LoungePair had partners overseas, including Thailand’s Bangkok Airways and Vietnam Airlines.
LoungePair recently launched a co-branded website with Etihad and made a deal with membership publisher Entertainment Publications of Australia (EPA).
Kinnoch said the Etihad arrangement was nicely timed with the reopening of Middle East travel, notwithstanding the conflict flaring up again this week.
Some travellers were now flying through the United States instead of the Middle East to reach Europe and had longer layovers they wanted catered for.
“We’ve got several other airline relationships that are in the pipeline at the moment … a couple in Asia, one in Central Asia, and another in Europe.”
The EPA partnership was bringing lounge access digital e-gift cards to travellers and businesses across New Zealand and Australia.
The new relationships built on deals LoungePair made last year with travel insurance app Freely, Australian Frequent Flyer (AFF) and the Dragonpass travel platform.
“We’re working with a couple of insurance companies and a few banks, and there’s been a lot of growth in the space around how to make airport time, time well spent.”
Kinnoch said demand was growing, and some traveller tastes were changing.
“We’ve got lounge partners that are focused on everything from creating dedicated sleep zones for longer layovers to offering enhanced dining packages for people who want to actually have a menu.”
As more people learned about innovative ways to access lounges, the competition heated up.
“We’re finding globally that a lot of lounges have quite ambitious plans around renovation and improving floor space.”
But he said making airport time more enjoyable didn’t always involve lounges.
For that reason, the company was working on lounge-adjacent experiences such as spas and massages.
He said better food and beverage options were hot topics and some people now wanted menus instead of lounge buffets.
Dodging crowds
Kinnoch said LoungePair was aware people didn’t want to end up in crowded lounges.
He said when lounges were approaching capacity, LoungePair usually highlighted that online for customers.
“On the occasion they have bought a pass for a lounge where they can’t be let in for some reason because there is a capacity issue, our partners will usually redirect them to another option in the airport, or a 24/7 support team can present them with another option.
“To be fair, if someone’s bought a pass for a crowded lounge, it’d actually be a worse experience for them to be let in. It’d be better that they spend their money elsewhere anyway.”
He said lounge rush hour varied from airport to airport.
“We’ve never had a problem here in New Zealand for outbound customers. Most of the capacity issues are usually at airports that have grown a lot, but the lounge capacity hasn’t grown with it.
“Sometimes places like Singapore and Hong Kong can get quite busy. But then there’s also plenty of other lounge options in those airports.”
Kinnoch said a key focus for LoungePair was using technology to better plan lounge visits in airports where multiple lounges were available.
That involved building a model to help people discover the lounge closest to where they’d most likely fly out of.
“If you know that there’s an 85% chance you’re going to fly out of Concourse F, then we can tell you that one of the lounges there is probably the one that you should buy.”
He said Bangkok had about 25 different lounges and customers might not know in advance which one was best for them.
There was little point booking a lounge for three hours if you had to spend 45 minutes getting to the gate, he said.
The LoungePair system is web-based, so people get a QR code and go to the lounge, show the code, have it scanned, and get access.
John Weekes is a business journalist covering aviation. He previously covered consumer affairs, crime, politics and courts.
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