Originally Posted by
Athena53
I couldn't find the original quote (may have been another thread) but someone speculated that they may be trying to "thin the herd". This makes sense to me given what I've read about some Clubs having long waiting lines and having personally encountered two at SEA that had stopped issuing day passes (I had a long layover and wanted one).
I kind of doubt that will happen, especially if the food/beverage becomes much nicer. My guess, is that the AC loses a good deal of casual travelers that use the club real occasionally, while being more attractive to very frequent travellers who currently are using AMEX and other lounge systems. If you lose 100 people that use the AC 4 times a year as casual AUs, it only takes 5 frequent flyers that now use the AC 80 times a year due to the better food/drink to balance that back out.
Sure there are some cases of a few AUs heavy hitting the clubs, but if they are flying that much, they aren't going to balk at giving their friend via Zelle a $175 thank you note or just picking up their own card. At the end of the day, its about the $$ to AA and Citi, not the lounge crowding.