Every airline lounge is suffering from overcrowding problems. The expanded access to credit cardholders has meant that the existing lounge networks can’t handle the number of passengers who have access. This problem is most notable for American Express Platinum and Delta Reserve cardholders who have access to the Centurion Lounges and Delta SkyClubs. While access to these lounges has been restricted to cardholders unless you spend $75,000 for guesting privileges, the club lines can still stretch through the terminal.
Even lounges that are part of the Priority Pass network are suffering from overcrowding, as we found when we tried to enter The Club MCO lounge at Orlando Airport and had to be put on a waiting list.
While we haven’t paid attention to the United Club as we avoided the airline for years, they are apparently having the same problems with overcrowding.
During Sharon’s first trip on United, she was gifted a club pass that she used at SFO before a redeye flight to Orlando. On our next flight home from San Francisco, I used my AMEX Platinum to visit the Centurion Lounge. If I had access to the United Club, I would have used it because the Centurion Club closes before many late-night flights depart SFO for the east coast.
But for my other United flights, I couldn’t visit a United Club unless I paid for a membership because they weren’t allowing non-members to enter the club.
Even if Sharon and I had a pass from the United co-brand card or wanted to pay for a one-time pass, the United Club at Orlando Airport wasn’t accepting one-time passes.
This was an identical sign to the one I found outside of the United Club at Newark Airport. The lounge agent was very nice and explained that they put the sign out every afternoon and on days when there were significant flight delays from Newark as the lounge frequently often hit capacity.
At EWR, I could blame that on one of the large United Clubs being closed and members being directed to a pop-up club with limited capacity.
Instead of paying $50 for club access, I paid $30 for a beer and a hamburger from the airport vendor while sitting across from my gate.
I used the airport Wi-Fi to work on my laptop. Did I get a similar experience while saving $20? Maybe. But if I paid for the United co-brand card for 2 club passes, I might have felt differently when I wasn’t able to use them before my flight.
Delta is giving preferential treatment to their co-brand cardholders with lounge access over their most frequent flyers. On the other hand, United is blocking access to those who pay for access in favor of those who pay for club memberships. As long as United is going to block access for those with single-use passes, there’s no reason for me to consider the United co-brand card which offers two club passes as a yearly benefit.
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