MLLs in the time of COVID - re-openings, food, distancing, etc [READ WIKI FIRST]
 

Does anyone have any idea when MLL's may open up?

No word yet, but I suspect not until July when frequencies increase. I suspect that not all MLLs will reopen at once, but gradually over time as frequencies increase. International MLLs first; minor domestic ones MLLs last.

Further, in order to maintain physical distancing, I suspect they will at first be limited to paid J only, then gradually to SE, etc.

This makes sense to me. However, why would a paid J have a higher priority than SE? Both are equal. One provides significant revenue at once, the other provides more revenue over a longer period of time and remains loyal to AC.

I find it questionable that they'd open only to paid J first, but that aside, AC definitely doesn't agree with your statement as made evident by the SS entry policy.

Given how few people are on flights these days, I don't think they need to be concerned with limiting access.

The Saskatoon and Regina MLL may take quite some time before they open up again.

Likewise for the MLL in YYT. I get a little sad whenever I pop out to the airport and look up through the MLL windows when I am planespotting to see that it is totally void of people.

Not going to comment on whether paid J is more important than SE or not. That’s a “mine is bigger” type of argument. :p

I doubt AC MLL will be crowded any time soon. And if it’s crowded, it probably indicates social distancing is not as important any more.

I believe all lounges are closed through June 30. Any extension is TBD but I believe we could see some lounges stay closed for longer - especially international locations with almost no passengers.

The current COVID setup is planned to go through June 30 (including the seat spacing in Y). Beyond that, we will see.

Does it say that anywhere?

Blocking middle seats is free for AC as long as demand in Y is under 2/3, whereas keeping lounges closed can hurt their revenue.

I'm certainly looking at some trips where a guarantee of ground and onboard service will heavily influence my choice of airline, and I'm not booking Y. My opinion is service will not go down from current levels, only up, so I view it unlikely that, for example, the one open SFO UC would close. Whereas I have no idea when AC will have a single lounge open in their hubs.

I guess if an airline was stuck in some kind of either/or calculation (that is, they thought they could reasonably accommodate only one of Rev J or SE/E), they might go for Rev J since not allowing them lounge access might seem unfair, while a Y passenger got access.

Of course what we do not know is how depressed demand will be, even when people can move about more freely, so this could be moot.

I can't envision a situation where restricting the MLL to the Cafe's policy (*G or J plus one guest, no passes, no family, no E35K, no credit cards, etc.) wouldn't be good enough for social distancing for the next 6 months. Demand simply won't be there.

I think the question is what kind of rules they have with the CC providers?

Maybe not Regina, but generally I'd think there is enough room for paid J and organic status PAX (since everyone there is going to be in some metal petri tube soon enough) if they can keep out the CC lice.

Ah, I forgot about guests and credit card holders. I wonder in normal circumstances what percentage of the total they constitute.

I think the easiest and imo most likely thing for AC to do is open it up for everyone whom already has access covering any fights with changing rules, then cap it like all the grocery stores (at least around here in ON) are.

Once you hit n people, you aren’t getting in or have to wait for someone to leave. n will of course differ by location and lounge.

That would be drastically different from how they already handle capacity issues.

When a lounge is approaching the capacity, they stop allowing passes. I'm not sure if they stop anything else. But I've never been denied entry to full lounges, while people immediately ahead of or behind me have.

Whether or not it's fair, they do have some kind of internal priority for who is allowed in when they're full.