goodeats21

I don't mind the food and drinks at the NRT United Club. I rarely am looking for much to eat during layovers there and what they do provide is fine. My main issue with it is overcrowding. However....

It does have absolutely the worst floor finish of any lounge I have visited. Those tiles with grooves in them make every rollerboard and cart-full-of-dirty-dishes into noise machines which echo everywhere.

Antonio8069

This thread contains a huge amount of misinformation. This one tops the list:

In fact, the UCL in GUM is quite large and has huge windows.

Other FTs have incorrectly suggested that UCL's are the bottom of the barrel. IME, the recent addition of food in the UA lounges is a big improvement - not recognized or acknowledged in posts #22, 32, or 38.

I suggest that future posts in this thread contain relevant comparisons?

Also, my worst lounge is HA's in HNL. It is no bigger than a closet.

dvs7310

This thread isn't only about United Clubs, it's about *A lounges globally. When comparing, United Clubs are far worse than most other *A lounge products, both in terms of extreme overcrowding and offerings (food, alcohol, etc). I can't think of too many airlines in *A who have a network of (their own) lounges and are worse than the average United Club.

The recent food additions in United Clubs that you mentioned, while certainly welcome compared to the past, are still meager in comparison to what most *A lounges offer. Quite a few put out a full breakfast, lunch, or dinner spread. Even within the US, AA Admirals Club food offerings outpace UA's and though I haven't been in a Delta Sky Club for ages, I've heard that they are even better than AA these days. I don't expect UA to have full meals at every domestic outpost Club but they certainly could do it at the international gateways if they really wanted to offer a world class product.

ORDnHKG

NH domestic clubs are one, but sadly not many people are aware how dismal their offerings, the Americans always think or know about how great are the NRT and HND lounges (most are non NH F and C pax, they don't even know how bad is their NRT domestic / arrival lounge)

You talk about extreme overcrowding ? Well the last few times I went to the NH lounge by gate 50s, even though it had refurbished to have more space and more seat, the last few times I was there, I was kept hearing the announcement about telling people to remove belongings off the empty seats, as there were tons (yes I said tons) of people standing around with no seats, that is around late afternoon, usually I avoid the one by gate 40s as that one usually is crowded because of all the UA flights, but both clubs are at maximum capacity, no difference than any UA clubs at the rush hour.

I have seen extreme overcrowding at other *A clubs as well, LH for example has overcrowding issue as well like the SEN lounge in IAD, even SEN lounge in FRA as well, quite many times SEN lounge in B are so packed that you can only find seats inside the smoking lounge, which for me is fine since I am a smoker, but for others saw quite many people were sitting on the floor !

I didn't find the AA Admirals Club outplace UA clubs, I was just in all the DFW clubs a few days ago, 2 choices of soup, hummus, tomato/celery/carrot sticks for dip, cookies, trail mix, that's all. Sure there are a lot more food available, but the rest are for sale and not for free !

You want full meals at UA clubs ? Well ever been to HKG or LHR ? Those are world class product ! NRT is not bad but like I said, there is room for improvement. Just like NH, it is a pure domestic vs international.

oliver2002

All US based UCC are dire foodwise and have nothing that I voluntarily in normal life. Even after the upgrades.

Kacee

I was in the NH lounge in the 50s last week waiting for UA838 to depart and while the newly refurbished lounge itself is very nice, the constant announcements over the PA are really awful. Seemed like every two minutes or so, very loud, and because they do them in both Japanese and English they go on forever. I don't remember it being so bad before they refurbished that lounge.

EnvoyBoy

SA lounges in their capital city at their primary hub were a joke.

Ortia arrivals lounge was barely bigger than a closet with no proper food and expected 45 minute wait for a shower.

Ortia Cycad First Class Lounge was old, poorly staffed, and had stale donuts out at 5pm in the afternoon.

Found both to be just shocking and embarrassing.

Mr. Roboto

Now that NH & SQ have moved to Terminal 3, the new SilverKris Lounge serves as the Star Alliance Lounge for *A flights ex-T3 (SQ & NH as of this date):
More info: MNL SilverKris Lounge NAIA T3

Passengers on other Star Alliance carriers departing from T1 (UA, TG, OZ, BR, CA, TK, and ET) are out of luck.

CMK10

The OZ Lounge at PUS is pretty bad. It's a small, windowless room with just packaged snacks and a nut mix for dinner plus two bottles of wine and two of whiskey.

appenzeller

The worst lounge is if there is acutally no lounge at all - or the lounge is outside of security - which somehow makes it not really that useful - like at Florence Airport in Italy which is served by several Star Alliance airlines

Transpacificflyer

HKG is spectacular by United standards, but it's still at the bottom with the garbage can airlines like Egyptair and Air China. The HKG TG lounge is always busy because people walk into the UA lounge, gasp in despair and flee. Lots of room for guests in the UA HKG lounge because *A pax don't want to go there. It's perfect for the type of people who fly on United and consider 4 seats abreast in business to be premium service. United international lounges are the Day's Inns and Super 8 Motels of the airline industry. I'm sorry but anything United has been crap for ages. It's an embarrassment . As Delta keeps ratcheting up its quality levels, United is looking more and more like the national airline of a primitive 3rd world state.

One of the most over rated lounges is the BR flagship in TPE. It's about the same as an AC Int'l MLL.

TG's domestic lounges in the 2ndary markets of HKT, CNX etc. are as depressing as a United lounge. They do however, offer the room temperature tuna sandwiches for which TG domestic lounges are famous.

Transpacificflyer

The lounge at FCO used by TG and other *A airlines is disgusting. True, FCO is a filthy inefficient disgusting airport that makes U.S. , and sub saharan airports seem modern in comparison, so one should not expect the lounges to be any different, but it is Italy. The country that gave us wonderful food, culture, art, hi tech equipment etc, has airport lounges that can't even reflect decent Italian food or wines. I wondered if I was in Italy when I saw the lounge "food". The worst part was the miserable unhappy staff and the foul stench in the lounge. We all know Italy for its "design" skills. Why oh why, couldn't they have applied some of that style to the lounge?

mad_atta

Worst ever lounges while flying *A have generally been contract lounges. The contract lounge UA sent us to in MNL was grotesque, as others have mentioned.

Most comedically devoid of anything at all in the way of facilities was the 'VIP lounge' at Podgorica Airport in Montenegro, when flying TK. It was literally just a glass cube, completely deserted, with some sad chairs around the outside and, um, well that's all. Not even a lounge dragon, or a single item of food or drink. Scroll down on this link for pictures:
http://s.ameblo.jp/aromaciel/entry-11765164102.html

Most disappointing on a systemwide basis are UA's RCCs, though to be fair they have slowly improved a bit in recent years. (And I thought the GUM lounge was large, clean and one of their better efforts.)

Most surprisingly bad, given the airline and the location, is SQ's Krisflyer Gold lounge in SIN. Talk about a minimum effort from SQ: paltry food, lousy booze, no bathrooms. It makes no sense that you can access SQ's very nice outstation lounges as a *G but then at their hub lounge (perhaps in the middle of two longhaul flights when a shower is what you need to feel human again) they have that feeble effort. So very cynical.

timster

Yes, cynical indeed, separating their seemingly-lowly Star Gold / SQ Gold pax (Krisflyer lounge) from their Business and above pax (SilverKris lounge).

T3 and T2 Krisflyer lounges vary somewhat, but no toilets, no showers, at your home airport ? Seriously ?

YuropFlyer

mad_atta, I think we got our winner here. That "lounge" at Podgorica is really the best

I mean, I've had lounges with smelly toilets, lounges with warm beer, lounges with hardly any food, lounges without any alcohol, lounges without showers (plenty of them), or many other things..

But Podgorica.. doesn't have anything but seats, a single computer and a TV, as it seems. Can't beat that.

I'll never ever complain about other lounges

Regarding the KrisFlyer Gold lounge in SIN: Bathroom outside (and no shower) imho is intentional. Food isn't great, but quite OK. I found the hard liquor to be quite OK in comparison (JW Black, iirc) and Tiger on Tab from Ice cold glasses is fine. Wine didn't looked good, but then I'm not a big wine drinker, especially not in hot countries. It's not a great lounge, not a good lounge either, about en par with CA C in PEK I would say. But it's their saying of "Pay for C or get into less good lounges as "Elite" - I don't really mind them doing it." And I've been using it plenty of times.. just usually when flying Ex-SIN in Y, I'll just arrive to the airport with around 70-90min before departure, ie just enough for a glas of Tiger or two.