Originally Posted by
Superguy
Thought I'd report back on my experience.
We came in to gate 31. With going to the satellite 5 NH club, I opted against "going against the flow" as boca suggested. I think it would have been longer and there was practically no one in the concourse, so I didn't want to get questioned. The economy line for transfers at the central point was backing up, but I zipped right thru with Premier Access since I was in C. Interestingly enough, they had one WTMD for Y but 2 or 3 open for C/elites....
Headed to the sat 5 NH club. Boca was right again ... the showers were quite warm. It wasn't so bad while the shower was going as the vent worked, but once it was off, I started sweating. They are warm by western standards. The toilet seat trick didn't work. Lifting the seat didn't do anything ... the fan only comes on if your butt's on it so it seems to be weight sensitive. Maybe if you have a carryon big enough not to fall thru, you might be able to risk it. I didn't, so I sweated after the shower. Still felt great to have a shower. NH's are nice, clean and well kept. Noodle bar at the club rocks too. ^ I wish I had known about that last time I went thru...
Last week I was directed almost by default to the non-central security checks, where I was the 3rd person in on trip 1 and the first on trip 2 - definitely low stress, took mere moments and unlike the TSA with it's nasty-tude, the NRT screeners are always smiling and even help put your bags on the belt. When they ask to check something, it's almost with a look of apology.
I tried the UA shower this time around - it was warmer than the NH showers! The shower room was larger and had a decent floor fan in the room. I rinsed in fairly cool water and even then had the fan blowing on me to keep from getting soaked again - it worked, but once I stepped outside and started walking back to the NH club, I was soaked again
NH aircraft are just as bad - the onboard temperature must be almost 80F and they still come around and insist you take a blanket. If I had metabolism that slow, I'd be 900 lbs.