Shall US lounges stick to the 3 hour rule?
My whole family and I were flying from LAX earlier today. I was flying to YYZ with a confirmed upgrade, and they were flying to YVR on reward J 4 hours after my flight. I planned to guest them into the LAX MLL, but was not able to do so since my flight was imminent.
Not surprisingly, they were denied entry to the MLL for the 3 hour rule. I just told them to use the United Club in the next terminal, where they were admitted.
This makes me think about whether it is advisable for AC to stick to the 3 hour rule for US lounges. Many AC flyers affected by this rule can just go to the United Club a few minutes’ walk away. IIRC, paying United Club to accommodate AC passengers is a lot more expensive than just lettering them in, where the marginal cost for AC to accommodate an additional passenger is close to zero, and they may get in anyway after visiting the United Club.
I might not have visited the US MLLs frequent enough to gauge whether there are overcrowding issues, but for the 20+ times I visit LAX/SFO/LGA in the last 12 months, they appear to be mostly fine.