Originally Posted by
JBord
I happen to love visiting the Senator's lounges, but that's a totally different model.
You can get access to UA lounges for <$500/yr. LH, and I assume most of the others, are almost exclusively international travelers, *G, or on a premium ticket.
UA's lounges are full of domestic travelers, many of whom haven't paid for a premium ticket. My typical year includes about 50 visits to UA clubs as I'm taking 2 hour flights ORD-IAH or wherever for work. I get my money's worth. I would bankrupt the clubs if they had the spread and beer taps like the LH lounges.
The reality is they're not competing with the international carriers, they're competing with AA and DL, and the recent food changes have made them much more competitive in the regard. And there are rumors of paid food (AA-like) in the future.
Perhaps there's another product they should offer just for premium international travelers at EWR, ORD, IAH, SFO, which is more like you suggest. Or they could raise the membership fees. But comparing a domestic UA lounge to many of the non-US airlines is apples and oranges.
IIRC there was a case of a Gentleman who bought a refundable ticket just to visit the Lufthansa Business Class Lounge and then refunded his ticket. Again, if memory serves this Gentleman visited the Lufthansa Business Class Lounge 36 or so times over the year and after Lufthansa caught on they sent him a bill for 2000 Euros or approximately 55 Euros a visit.
If I did my math correctly, 55 Euros back in 2014 was hovering around 1.33 Dollars to the Euro and 55 Euros would be approximately $73.15.
UNITED offers Day Passes for $50.00 so clearly Lufthansa is valuing their product and its offerings higher than UNITED is, thus I expect less from UNITED.
The problem is that I always expect less from UNITED and that is not anyone person's fault, it is an institutional problem that can only be fixed from the top down.
I find myself saying well it is UNITED so I set my expectations low and sometimes even set low UNITED manages to fall so below par that I am amazed and let me tell you my expectations are not high to begin with. Case in point the SFO United Club, my buddy took me to wait for our flight and he went to get some soup only to find it out, no problem except the cleaner told him they were out for the day.
He said something to one of the UNITED Employees in the club who said that she has nothing to do with it and to complain on the website, not let me see what I can do or let me call someone, just go make a complaint in any other place than in front of me.
My point, I do not expect Lufthansa nor do I expect DELTA, I know going in that I am going to expect UNITED and it is not something worth expecting, it is more like something you tolerate.