Flyer78

Nice to hear some lounges are allowing early access. Seems a simple way to show a little good-will, and in the grand scheme of things not a high-cost rule-bend.

Alphaguy

Any idea how long we'll have United lounge access?

I sense it was March 31st.

Only ask since I have a trip to SAN planned and there is a United lounge there.

lizs

March 30th is the last date for United club access.

Shareholder

JFK Admiral Clubs should now be open to US ticket holders with club membership or AmexPlat. BA should keep its own lounge at PHL though the international US lounge is very nice and quite large, though could be a swap with LH and other STAR international carriers since the UA lounge is pretty small and a ways from the international gates.

I certainly hope the Admiral Clubs get those bags of chips and containers of salsa...best part of the US clubs! (UA didn't keep CO's bagged Lays and Fritos, much to my dismay...though I suppose to the benefit of my waste line!)

I expect US to move from T1 to T3 at YYZ where AA flies and has an AC. Should be enough gate space since AA is moving E175 flights to regular gates leaving slots at the RJ "exposed" gates. US pretty much only flies RJs here since cancelling the LAS nonstop a couple of years ago.

gpmHSV

Agreed, since as I understood it, the combined AA/BA lounge at PHL was a temporary arrangement while a new AC was to be built to replace the tiny one they used to have outside of security. Those plans, I presume, have now been scrapped.

Duke787

Safe to say we'll see the higher AA cost structure for membership? As someone still new to AA (and who unfortunately got stuck with the UC membership cost after the downgrade when AMEX wouldn't do a chargeback) I haven't yet bought an Admiral's Club membership. Currently EXP is $400 (or $350 for renewal) while Chairman's is $375 (or $325 for renewal).

MAH4546

There's an AA lounge, too.

AlwaysAisle

I think the crucial point is that Admirals Club and US Airways Club have different operating cost structure. I think combined New AA will look at pros and cons of both cost structures and come up with the new operating cost structure for clubs. Because of that I will not be surprise to see some clubs will be destined to be closed.

shadesofgrey1x

TPA is US only And I would think likely to stay since US and AA are in the same terminal along with BA their OW partner. It is perfect as is any will nearly double the traffic when AA-US is operationally joined.

george 3

The clubs at LGA are in different terminals - AA in Concourse D and US in the US/DL terminal. Merging AA and US ops at LGA will be more challenging due to gate capacity issues in the main terminal, the inconvenience of transferring between terminals (unless they AA follows the LAX Eagles Nest model), and the coming redevelopment of the Main Terminal.

PHX does not have an AA lounge.

dtremit

How different can they be, really? They don't really provide anything much different between them.

AlwaysAisle

It can vary a lot depending on how they negotiated with vendors, length of contract, who and how items delivered, who is responsible for irregular situation and who will be financially responsible, leasing of the location, who and how maintenance is done on every day basis, salary and benefits of employees at the lounge. All those should be part of a contract at a large corporation like AA and US negotiated with airport authorities, vendors, union, etc. Often there is a part in contract stipulates that parties involved do not disclose detail to public. Because vendors do not want other customer who paying more for the same service to say “What the &%#$!?” These will end up with having different cost structures of a lounge operation. I am not in an airline industry but an industry I work in those things really add up and end up with very different cost structure for running same business. In my business when we get some inside information regarding competitor's cost structure on same products we have where we find out cost structure is lower and we say "How do they do that?" Situation is often like this, how they negotiated with vendors, etc.

AA used to have a lot higher operating cost then US, one of known part was Union contract. AA was paying a lot more than US to their employees although what AA and US were doing was pretty much same, fly same kind of airplanes to same kind of destinations.

One part which interest me is that until US exit *A, which I heard sometime March or April next year, AMR Corp will likely have access to *A business (such as what and how things were negotiated among *A airlines) through US. I think such insight is valuable business information for AMR Corp and OneWorld.

GTITAN

Having been both an AC and am now a US Club member. Both have their plusses. AC's are better for showering after long flights. US clubs have pretty good soup. Looking forward to getting access to both!

Safe Travels

Microwave

Just to clarify, as of a week ago AMR Corporation has been subsumed as a legal entity by American Airlines Group, Inc., and therefore no longer technically exists. Apologies for the pedantry...

FWAAA

Please accept my apologies for the extra dose of pedantry, but AMR still exists - it merely changed its name on Monday.