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A new partnership gives more than 15,000 travel resellers a chance to sell airport lounge access, starting with 10 Asia-Pacific locations.

First came the flight, the hotel and the airport transfer. Now travel agents can add one more thing to the booking: a comfortable seat before take-off.

GlobalTix has joined forces with Plaza Premium Group (PPG) to sell airport lounge passes through its travel trade network. More than 15,000 resellers could gain access. They include travel agents, online travel agencies (OTAs) and destination management companies (DMCs).

The deal starts with 10 Plaza Premium lounge locations across Asia-Pacific. More are planned. Neither company has named the first 10 sites in the material supplied. Prices and reseller margins were not disclosed.

A new item for the travel agent’s basket

GlobalTix says agents can see live lounge availability, book a pass and receive a confirmation through its existing platform. It is the same system many already use to sell tours and attractions.

Agents can sell a lounge visit on its own. Or they can add it to a package with flights, hotels and transfers. The companies say this cuts out the need for separate lounge contracts and manual bookings.

For travel sellers, the appeal is clear. A lounge pass may be a small extra sale. Yet for a family facing a long stopover, a quiet place to sit could be worth rather more than another airport coffee.

Chanel Leong, Chief Commercial Officer at GlobalTix, said: “The airport experience sets the tone for the entire trip, and we want our resellers to be the ones who make that possible for their customers.”

There is, of course, a distinction worth making. Paid lounge access is not new. Many independent airport lounges already admit travellers who lack airline status or a premium cabin ticket.

The change is in how those passes reach the customer. Instead of making a separate purchase at the airport, a traveller can ask an agent to arrange access when booking the holiday.

Plaza Premium looks beyond the lounge door

Becky Lim, Chief Sales Officer at Plaza Premium Group, said: “Our mission has always been to make world-class airport hospitality accessible to every traveller.”

For PPG, the deal puts its lounges in front of buyers earlier. For GlobalTix, it adds a new sales channel to its established network.

The scale is worth noting. GlobalTix says it now links more than 180,000 tours, attractions and other travel experiences with over 15,000 resellers. A single sales platform can therefore give a lounge operator access to trade partners across several markets.

The timing is also notable for Australia. Plaza Premium has outlined plans for a new domestic lounge at Sydney Airport, a rebuild of its Brisbane international lounge and a future domestic lounge in Cairns. Those plans form part of a wider Australian expansion programme. They do not confirm that any of these sites are among the deal’s first 10 locations.

What agents should check

The promise of an extra sale is welcome. The detail will matter just as much. Agents should check which lounges take part, which terminal each serves, and what each pass includes. They should also review access times, change rules, cancellation terms and the margin on offer.

The launch adds a sales channel. It does not create 10 new lounges or give agents access to every PPG site.

Resellers can find out more through GlobalTix. Travellers keen to add a lounge pass should consult their travel adviser first.

As for the airport queue, that remains beyond even the best booking system.