jragosta

Well, there may be those things, but they're still far quieter than sitting at the gates. And, actually, I don't think those things are all that common, anway - other than the TV and you can move to a different area to avoid that.

ZakkW

I'm joining today... I got approval from my wife this morning. An extra selling point for her--the new kids play area coming to ORD.

ZakkW

JGR01

'Coming' may be during one of your renewals.

The ORD AC is due for major renovation with the addition of 5 (total of 7) showers and the mentioned kids play area.

It may take a while for this level of work to be accomplished...

anabolism

That was my point: the clubs are worth it in part because they are quieter and more comfortable than the gates, even if they are not as quiet as they should be.
I think it varies by club and time of year, actually. I've been in some clubs that were jammed with screaming babies and kids running wild. Some clubs you can't get away from the TV because the club isn't that big and the TV is on loud, but others are not bad. DFW has some areas designated for no cell phones, which is a nice start.

jragosta

Wow. Which clubs are those? (I'll try to avoid them). I've never found an AC which I considered to be even marginally noisy - and I probably use them 30-40 times a year at least.

Efrem

A big Amen!! to that. Saturday evening I booked, among other flights, AA 1466 DFW-BOS at 6:50 this morning. (That's not quite 36 hours before departure.) It was packed. The only seat I could get was a middle in back. (Upgrade? Fugghedaboutit.) Checked into the Terminal D AC as soon as my inbound red-eye from SEA arrived. Jose C. proceeded to check every few minutes until an aisle seat opened up, pounced on it, paged me and gave me the new boarding pass.

To me, especially since I no longer have access to the EXP desk, that sort of thing is worth a good chunk of the annual membership fee right there.

dayone

ORD?

JGR01

PARTS of ORD yes.

Near the big screen TV - Yes
Near the bar - Yes
Near the west corner (opposite side from bar) - No
In the 'quiet room' - no
In the back corridor by the current 2 showers where there are 4 desks for computers - No


For that matter I find BOS (main AC) very noisy tho I tend to find a quiet spot in the former FL lounge area (since I know about it).

I think every AC has a noisy area (bar especially) tho I seem to be able to find a quiet spot someplace 90% of the time. The other 10% of the time I head to the gate early and people watch and laugh at the infrequent travelers!

nixande

when i headed into lax recently i was surprised at how quit and empty it was.

It was my first trip to an AC other than BA lounge and I heard it is not as nice as the BA lounges with food and drinks but was a bit disappointed to just see water, lousy coffee and tee and pretzels.

I took the "wrong" turn at the entrance towards the restrooms and managed to get into the part of the AC which is having silent pcs as well as a lot of space which was empty and quit.

London AC in T3 was loud - at least the parts near that funny air condition (it was april. hello?) but there where less noisy spots as well.

anabolism

I think loud from kids was maybe LHR in the summer, NRT (old club) probably also in the summer, and maybe ORD or one of the DFW ones, probably also in the summer. Loud from TVs that were blaring so you couldn't get away from them was maybe DCA and SJC. Loud from being crowded with people conversing at high volume included LAX at some times and LAX FL at night before the QF flights, ORD and some DFW at times.

But I wasn't trying to say that any clubs are always noisy (except for the ones that are small and set the TV volume too high). I think some clubs get noisy when they are crowded with kids or a particular group of people, and that will vary a lot by time of year, time of day, and who happens to be in them at any particular moment. So, aside from a few that are too small to have a TV with the sound on, I can't see much point in trying to avoid certain ones. As for what the clubs could do to help, I think putting TVs on mute (with closed captioning) and designating more areas as quiet rooms would help a lot. I don't expect clubs to ban kids or loud people, after all.

Personally, I am baffled by the perceived need for blaring TVs in public areas. This includes ACs, gate areas, restaurants, etc. Why can't they be muted (with closed captioning of course)? That would give people the choice of paying attention to the TV or to a book or whatever.

LAX is usually pretty good, as is the LAX FL (away from the TV by the food). But IME it depends on who else happens to be there then.

jragosta

Yes, if you sit right in front of the TV, it's going to be noisy. There are plenty of quite spots within ORD's AC, though. Heck, they even have a cell-phone free zone.

jragosta

I'd go for that.

But, OTOH, shouldn't a loud TV be worth some miles in compensation?

moman

Thanks to everyone's opinions. I was in SJU at the end of May and bought a day pass to use the club in SJU and MIA (D) to see what it was all about. SJU was dead and very relaxing, and MIA was pretty nice too. The AAngels at SJU sold me quickly with their friendly attitude. I certainly liked the free (well not free, but) Diet cokes.

So I was back in SJU today and applied my $50 credit toward a years' membership. The flights in SJU were all screwed up to DFW, MCO, and MIA and my original flight wouldn't have been in MIA by the time I hoped to be in bed in Tampa. I switched my flight using the Plat line and then the AAngels got me an op-up because of the problems. The SJU club was really busy today and not very quiet but loads better than sitting in the gate area. Kinda bummed that I missed MIA, but I will be there next week to check it out.

I've routed my next couple trips to hit MIA, ORD, DFW, and STL to check out the clubs.

THANKS AGAIN!

abk

my membership expired in october. prior to expiration i called the club and asked if free wifi was in the works as i would renew if it was. they ran me around and finally said no. obviously they didn't know what was in the works. the question is whether anyone has tried to renew after they let their membership expire and had the new member fee waived?

JDiver

Generally, AFAIK the Admirals Club will not waive the new membership fee for those who have dropped out - but if it has been a short time, I would certainly call the main Admirals Club number and inquire - maybe even specifically state you did not renew because you were told that as far as they knew at the AC you inquired about, there was not going to be any members' free WiFi. The sooner, the better the chance they will say "yes.," IMO.