Originally Posted by
jiburi
I find it hard to believe that New York equates to EWR and LGA. Clearly JFK is #1 where UA is the weakest.
In terms of what? International? Yes JFK is #! there. But in normal times, JFK is weaker than EWR and LGA in yields for nearly all domestic markets.
The de-emphasis on Manhattan following COVID-19 (even if most businesses "return" to the office), with a demonstrable migration of wealthy NYers to suburbs in NJ/CT/upstate NY/LI means the market is even further fragmented, and nobody is entirely sure what that equates to going forward.
It's one of the stupidest (yet evergreen) arguments on aviation message boards, simply because the NYC metro market is not limited to the boundaries of the State of New York.
Certainly a point of personal preference but at EWR this Thr/Fri the lounge was standing room only and I spent my 90 minutes at one of the restaurants instead. I would guess that Saturday afternoon is a better bet but the lounge experience at EWR is pretty abysmal.
I agree, but I suspect UA is also looking at total visits throughout the day, which I suspect do not yet justify reopening the pop-up lounge "down the hall" in C-1. Since that space doesn't really serve a different segment (and was only open at limited hours prior to COVID), I don't think there's much impetus for United to reopen it. The C-3 pop-up lounge is gone, consumed by the construction of the new United Club. EWR is very peak-oriented right now: some times (mid-morning, afternoon/early evening) it is a zoo, as crowded as it ever was in the pre-COVID days, and some times of day, it's a ghost town. UA is still down about 40% of flights from normal operations, clustered at the highest-demand times.... and flights are FULL. Reportedly UA is running something like a 96% load factor at EWR, which is unreal.
By the end of the summer, UA will be returning to Terminal A, as it intends to grow back to a full schedule once runway construction is finished. I would expect the A-2 United Club to reopen at that time, for as long as the existing Terminal A remains in use before transition to the new building.