Originally Posted by
Boraxo
Please speak for yourself. My job has sent me to 25 countries (also 100k+ last year) and PP lounges are a godsend in some of the places that our current president described with a expletive. Not to mention that PP is useful even in places like PEK, SVO and BKK where the *A lounge options may not be wonderful. And yes, the lounge is a great safe space for my kids to hang out on our airline trips, not to mention the snacks. As discussed in many other thread, PP may be almost useless in the USA depending on your travel patterns, but that's where the UC membership shines.
Everybody has their own reasons for paying the JPM-R annual fee (or in some cases it is comp'd). Some people rave about the concierge, which I have found mostly useless. Others like the lounges. For me the clincher is the built-in comprehensive travel insurance (including medevac), though the UC + PP combo is easily worth $150 to me, plus the 3x points.
Ah that makes sense. Yeah I am sure there are airports where PP lounges shine. Definitely agree with you on the Concierge. I find them to be useless to me AMEX or JPM. I'm sure they can probably get some amazing things done, but I have not in my life encountered a dependency on such a service. It's one of those "good to have around" perks. I see that you are also in the Bay Area. Have you visited the Polaris Lounge? I think it is my favorite lounge in this country so far, shockingly from an airline that I consider to be one of the worst. But if you travel with your kids like you say you do, you can only bring in 1 guest, not sure if children are counted. If you have the Ritz card, you can add your wife and kids for no additional charge and they will all get their priority pass cards independently. They don't ask for their birthdays or anything, just need the correct spelling of their names.
Also in PVG, I think the best Star A lounge is the Air China First Class lounge that Singapore Airlines uses. It is quite new, they have actual bedrooms to sleep in, a la carte dining, and I was pretty surprised that it wasn't as well known. And both times I went there was less than 5 people.
Oh just noticed you said PEK. Oh the Air China lounge there sucks. Open air and stale food. BKK for Star A I think the Thai lounges are all decent, and the EVA lounge if it is open.