Emirates is tightening its rules for guess access to its lounges worldwide, and even gold-class status members of its Skywards frequent flyer program are not exempt.

Starting this week, Skywards Gold members flying in economy class are no longer permitted to bring a guest into Emirates lounges. ‘Guesting’ will be restricted to passengers travelling in business and first class.

Citing “tremendous growth” in both the airline and its Skywards program, Emirates says it has “undertaken a major programme to expand the size and facilities of our existing lounges” and will also “build eight new lounges across our network.”

Emirates claims that “until these new facilities are ready we must temporarily suspend the benefit of bringing a guest into the Lounges when travelling in Economy Class. We plan to reinstate this benefit as soon as we are able to alleviate the current facilities constraint.”