US Airways Dividend Miles (Pre-FlightFund Merger) - Comments on FRA Cathay Lounge for arriving pax

I will be traveling to FRA in August in Envoy and am curious about the lounge access/amenities in FRA upon arrival. The US website indicates shower facilities and breakfast, but if I compare it to my experiences at CDG as an arriving US Envoy pax, I would NEVER again plan to freshen up nor eat upon arrival. By the way, US should be ashamed to advertise arrival shower facilities at CDG unless they have chnaged lounge contractors. IIRC they give you what amounts to a small paper table cloth item to serve as your towel to dry off after a shower. NOt to mention that you have to take your suitcase into the shower room with you otherwise it could be looted. So my clothes became all wet and had to put stuff on the floor as there were no shelves or table/rack for the suitcase etc.

Anyone who's used the Cathay facility at FRA please share your experiences would be great.

Thanks,
James

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US-CP; UA PE; Hilton Gold VIP; Crowne Plaza Gold

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by US1@ORF:
Anyone who's used the Cathay facility at FRA please share your experiences would be great. </font>

I've used the Cathay arrival lounge at FRA. It's pretty decent... coffee, juices, morning snacks (I would not call it breakfast) and all the other usual lounge items. This lounge serves Cathay flights later that day so I found it nice and empty when US's flights arrive. Very few of my fellow Envoy passengers used it. I also checked out the showers... they're fine and have space for your stuff. I was in a bit of a hurry to meet a FT'er for breakfast so I only stayed about 20 minutes...

That's good info. However, what will happen to your checked bags? I don't feel all that confident about them going round and round on the carousel while I relax and take a shower. Provided that the priority stickers actually work for a change. What are your thoughts on security?

The shower facilites at the CX FRA lounge are fine. There's a change area seperated from the shower area by a sink with a bench and rack to hang your clothes and keep them dry. I used these first before the disappointment (or disgust) at CDG.

Your checked bags do go around the carousel but mine have been fine (2x). Since the bags are behind customs, people from the outside don't have access to them unlike U.S. domestic arrivals.

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by lt1GM:
That's good info. However, what will happen to your checked bags? I don't feel all that confident about them going round and round on the carousel while I relax and take a shower. Provided that the priority stickers actually work for a change. What are your thoughts on security?</font>

I'm connecting to TXL so this won't be an issue for me. But as Terenz indicates above, in Europe only arriving pax can get to the luggage carasel has been my experience.

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US-CP; UA PE; Hilton Gold VIP; Crowne Plaza Gold

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by terenz:
The shower facilites at the CX FRA lounge are fine. There's a change area seperated from the shower area by a sink with a bench and rack to hang your clothes and keep them dry. I used these first before the disappointment (or disgust) at CDG.

Your checked bags do go around the carousel but mine have been fine (2x). Since the bags are behind customs, people from the outside don't have access to them unlike U.S. domestic arrivals.</font>


Thanks for the info. I'm glad to hear they are better than CDG and also that I'm not the only one who is seriously disappointed in the facilities.


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US-CP; UA PE; Hilton Gold VIP; Crowne Plaza Gold

I used the FRA CX lounge on arrival from PHL in January. Worked fine. The flight attendants on the flight failed to give us arrival service cards, but the guy sitting next to me said not to worry. The CX lounge is close to US' arrival gate. The lounge staff were ok with me just showing my US envoy boarding card. I was expecting something as nice as BA's LHR spa or at least DL's JFK BizElite showers, so was a bit disappointed, but have to say the facilities at CX FRA were OK- small cloth towel and the shower room was decent. Serviceable is probably the best way to describe it. There was enough room for me to keep my hand bag with me. Thanks for the warning about CDG!

Be careful follwing the instructions on the arrival card distributed on thye flight. The card says the lounge is before customs. That's technically true, but it is actually before immigration right when you get off the plane. If you go through immigration and then look for the lounge before customs, you're out of luck.

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by mamoo:
Be careful follwing the instructions on the arrival card distributed on thye flight. The card says the lounge is before customs. That's technically true, but it is actually before immigration right when you get off the plane. If you go through immigration and then look for the lounge before customs, you're out of luck.</font>


Thanks for the tip. I probably would have missed it and been very disappointed.

James


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US-CP; UA PE; Hilton Gold VIP; Crowne Plaza Gold

I've used the facilities there a few times.
Shower is fine, plenty of room with hangers for clothes and normal towels.

Most importantly, it takes me about 20mins to check in, take a shower, shave and brush my teeth, dress and head out. When I go to immigration the line is gone and I breeze through. (Didn't think about that did ya?)

The luggage is just showing up on the line. Twice I walked up as the carousel started.

Regards,
-Bouncer-

I've used the facilities there a few times.
Shower is fine, plenty of room with hangers for clothes and normal towels.

Most importantly, it takes me about 20mins to check in, take a shower, shave and brush my teeth, dress and head out. Remember the pain in the butt immigration lines?

When I go to immigration the line is gone and I breeze through in about 10 seconds.

The luggage is just showing up on the line at that point. Twice I've walked up as the carousel started.

Regards,
-Bouncer-

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by Bouncer:
Most importantly, it takes me about 20mins to check in, take a shower, shave and brush my teeth, dress and head out. When I go to immigration the line is gone and I breeze through. (Didn't think about that did ya?) </font>

I'd love to be there when the cleanly shaved and showered Bouncer emerges from the CX Lounge and gets to immigration only to find a charter 747-100 landed while he was powdering his face.

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/wink.gif http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/redface.gif

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by geo1004:
I'd love to be there when the cleanly shaved and showered Bouncer emerges from the CX Lounge and gets to immigration only to find a charter 747-100 landed while he was powdering his face.

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/wink.gif http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/redface.gif


</font>


geo1004 - Too Funny!! I don't think I'd be too pleased. But I think Bouncer speaks from experience and has not had this happen yet.



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US-CP; UA PE; Hilton Gold VIP; Crowne Plaza Gold

OK, it's not the Wing or the Pier or SQ's Raffles lounge in Singapore, but it's a very nice lounge and they're very accomodating -- Mike is the guy at the counter, very helpful. I've used it a couple of times arriving into Frankfurt and have been the only person using the showers.

When Delta used to run their Bombay flights through Frankfurt, I've taken DL from BOM-FRA and US from FRA-PHL. While the USAirways departures lounge is not the CX lounge (it's the dumpy lounge next to it...), Mike has always been kind enough to let me use the showers at the CX lounge PRIOR to my FRA-PHL flight. Very refreshing after spending 4 hours or so waiting around the Bombay airport and 9 hours on the overnight flight from Bombay!

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by kv99:
When Delta used to run their Bombay flights through Frankfurt, I've taken DL from BOM-FRA and US from FRA-PHL. While the USAirways departures lounge is not the CX lounge (it's the dumpy lounge next to it...), Mike has always been kind enough to let me use the showers at the CX lounge PRIOR to my FRA-PHL flight. </font>

That's the weird quirk of the Envoy departure lounge at FRA - CLT and PIT flights get to use the CX lounge, while the PHL departure is forced to use the other lounge (IIRC the CX flight leaves around time of the PHL flight - thus requiring the lounge change).

I think the CX lounge is quite nice - better than the Broom Suite at LGW (of course, we now have a Club there - so I won't miss the Broom Suite at all).