Originally Posted by
QueenOfCoach
Full disclosure: I am not an AC member. I get free day passes with my Business Extra account. If I don't have a day pass, I just find some comfy place near the departure gate to wait and immerse myself in Killer Sudoku.
I have been in the LAX AC a few times since they started construction that was supposed to be finished in "Spring 2017". We are almost to July 2017, past Midsummer, and it's still not done. I've read here in FT that they don't expect the LAX lounge to be finished until October 2017. I've also read, here on FT, that the JFK lounge is sub-optimal.
I look around me and see a crowded and noisy room. I can't say this is the "oasis of calm" they advertise. I wonder, to myself, "Who in their right mind would pay $400 (+/-) a year for this? Is this really that much better than just waiting at the departure gate or sitting in an airport restaurant?"
So, please enlighten me. Is it worth your annual membership dollars? Has anyone taken it up with the airline and, perhaps, received a discount or rebate for their annual membership fee? If your annual membership is paid by OPM, would you pay for it out of your own pocket, if your employment situation changed?
AC membership entitles you to more than just the LAX lounge, once.
If you're comfortable playing Sodoku in a corner hundreds of times a year as you wait for various flights, or if you don't fly as often as some, then perhaps it's not for you. Believe it or not, other folks travel to different places, more often, and may have different needs.
No, I wouldn't pay out of my own pocket, but I understand those who do.