I'm a 1K with an Amex platinum card (which gives me priority pass and centurion lounge access). Now that the United Club card can give you PQP towards 1K, I'm wondering exactly how much the United Club membership might be worth it to me. In particular, between the Centurion lounge (which I prefer at SFO), priority pass (which works at a number of airports), and the fact that J on SFO-BOS/NYC gets access to the lounge anyway, my initial thought is that it isn't great.
The one obvious benefit is that when flying most domestic routes, you get access the United Club. For example, at LAX, there's a UC right in Terminal 7, while in contrast it's quite a hike to get to the star alliance or centurion lounge in TBIT, and I haven't had great luck lately getting into the closer priority pass lounge (I think it's Alaska). It also sounds like you can bring two guests instead of one into *A lounges.
Beyond that, it used to be that during irrops you could potentially get help at the (then) Red Carpet Club, while something like the centurion lounge would be useless. That hasn't happened to me in many years, so I'm wondering I just lucked out, or if it's now just as easy to get one's situation sorted by calling the 1K line, particularly since I almost always seem to use my phone as a boarding pass.
A final thing that could be a benefit, but is ambiguous, is using United or star alliance lounges on arrival, or when stopping over someplace when your onward leg is on a non *A carrier. The
rules read:
A valid United Club membership card or one-time pass, a same-day boarding pass and a government-issued photo ID (such as a driver's license, passport or military ID), or other credentials are required for admittance to United Club locations. Effective November 1, 2019, United Club customers, including members and their guests, and one-time pass holders will need to provide a same-day boarding pass for travel on United, Star AllianceTM or a contracted partner operated flight for entry into all United Club locations. Admittance to United Club locations is permitted only at the departure and arrival airports for United, Star Alliance or a contracted partner operated flights. At partner lounges, including participating Star Alliance-affiliated lounges, United Club members who are general MileagePlus members or MileagePlus Premier Silver members must present a valid physical membership card and any other required documentation. MileagePlus Premier Gold members and above only need a boarding pass.
So does "same day" include the arrival airport when you departed from a different airport? What about red-eye flights? What about red-eye flights back from Asia when you cross the international date line? The part about "departure and arrival airports" sounds like maybe you can use the *A lounge at airports on arrival. On the other hand, the part about "MileagePlus Premier Gold members and above only need a boarding pass" sounds like the club membership is not useful with a *G boarding pass.
I suppose another benefit of the club card is the theoretical ability to upgrade award flights, but as a mere 1K in the ocean of GS and 1K that is SFO, I rarely have even my paid flights upgraded, and probably wouldn't use miles for Y anyway. Most of the other benefits are duplicative or less good than 1K anyway (early boarding).
Am I missing anything that would make the club card more appealing to a 1K? Is it basically only of interest to 1K members who do a lot of domestic flying from airports without a convenient centurion or priority-pass lounge?
Relatedly, do people have theories on whether the club card earning PQP towards 1K is a temporary thing or will continue? Given that 1K requalification can now be as simple as flying a single one-way ticket to Singapore plus three puny domestic hops, I'm guessing the 1K PQP thresholds are set to rise quite a bit and it might be useful to earn a few thousand PQP from a credit card. But it seems hard to justify the cost of the club card given the meager benefits to 1K compared to similarly priced credit cards.