Originally Posted by
Legend717
...And the days of using the Lounge Dragons as a powerful weapon in IRROPS are long gone...
On average, maybe, long-gone absolutely not. Spent last year as 1K having lost access to the GS desk. Was flying ORD > MIA in the midst of a ridiculous sub-zero day in Chicago that had O'Hare in pear-shape mode. ORD B6 UC agent was working me ORD > MIA, ORD > PBI, ORD > EWR > MIA, and ORD > FLL all for departures going in the next hour. Ended up needing to do ORD > EWR > MIA and she even kept me in F on a C fare. O'Hare probably had 50%+ cancellations that day so every seat on every plane was full. All that work allowed me to make a meeting that was hugely important to me. I would have paid $650 incrementally for that seat out of my own pocket in two seconds.
I don't take exception with people that point out that the lounge experience today is not as good as the lounge experience in 1980 or 1990 or 2000. Nor do I take exception with relatively infrequent travelers not seeing the value in lounge access, or uber-frequent travelers finding a set of lounges that provide better value for them, but the idea that if you are a heavy UA flyer that the UC is "worthless" to me is just hyperbole.