Well, pretty urgent , anyway.

I am in the process of booking a flight on CO website, and am debating whether to fly in to CLE on an early morning flight and wait longer for a connection, or fly in to CLE closer to my next flight. Both tickets cost the same but I am tempted to use one of my comp PC coupons and was wondering what to expect from the Presidents Club there. Is it worth getting into CLE at 10 am just to try out the PC for the next two hours (till 12.35 actually) or would it not be worth my while? A good breakfast would be enough to tempt me. More importantly, is it even open that early?

The urgency, of course, is because I don't want to lose the current fare.

thanks again!


[This message has been edited by knit-in (edited 07-23-2001).]

I am not an expert and I've not been to that particular PC, but, in my experience no domestic PC serves what can reasonably be described as a "nice breakfast."

A bagel (maybe,) good selection of fruit (usually,) and of course coffee-- sometimes espresso, cereal, juices, etc. But in my limited experience, never a cooked breakfast.

Undoubtedly someone knows that PC better and will correct, but in general the PC is a nice place to kill some time-- but I'd never intentionally "build-in" a visit to one on a trip.

Oh, and yes, I'm sure it's open at that time.



[This message has been edited by JonNYC (edited 07-23-2001).]

I have been to the PC lounges in all CO hubs at least 2-3 times this year (not much by most FT standards). It's fun the first time (good for the ego) but would never schedule a longer stop just for this. Amenities:
1. Open bar
2. Bagels/donughts/cheeses/fruits and other trinkets
3. Many local newspapers/magazines
4. Phones, Laptop hookups, etc.
5. Several TV's
6. Overall quiet and relaxing.
7. Shower in EWR (great for pre/post int'l flights!!)

Basically, a nice place to kill time if you have to, but not a place to schedule because you want to... You can justify it to yourself if you are planning to do some work).

And yes, they are normally open 30 minutes prior to first flight and until the last flight of the day (normally 6:00 am - midnight or longer)

Thanks JonNYC, LV2FLY,
sound advice indeed. seems like a great place to spend time during delays. not much of a morning place I imagine. The open bar might entice me in the late afternoon sometime.

In general you will receive a nicer breakfast on the plane (F or Y) than you will receive in a P-Club. Of course one can always stop in a P-Club and grab whatever to go. I often do it for the nice bagels and cream-cheese and munch it with my airplane breakfast. Far better than the weird bread or biscuits in F/C.

MisterNice

The PC in CLE is located in terminal C, so it is a little inconvenient if you are taking CO Express out of Terminal D. It is well-located though - no gate is really that far a hike.

The PC itself is nice. It has a very nice view of the gates, so if you are into plane watching, it is a nice place.

I don't book to get PC time unless I have the opportunity to meet with a FT'er somewhere, especially Catman in EWR.

------------------
"I will not be pushed, filed, stamped, indexed, briefed, debriefed or numbered. My life is my own."

CLE PC does dougnuts... unlike the OTHER hubs. Enough said.

IAH has donuts now as well, or at least they did this morning while I was there. That was my first morning visit in a long time. In addition to the donuts, they had a nice selection of bagels (four kinds) and muffins.

I guess it all depends on what your definition of a good breakfast is. If you're an eggs and bacon type, you won't find it there. If you're more into a Continental-type breakfast, the President's Club is fine.

Pun intended?

Last time I was at a PC early in the day was at the one in EWR acroass from 109 and they had doughnuts (actually long crullers) sliced in half so you needed to take two in order to do the whoe thing. There actually was a pretty good selection of pastry there that day.
As far as the CLE club is concerned, my last three or four times thru CLE, even tho (as Jon Toner said ) it is fairly well located, the connections have been so tight that I have not even had time to stop there for a drink.
In CLE, I always seem to be connecting to or from the commuters and the new terminal for them is just far enough away to eliminate the PC stop most of the time. When they first started this CLE business, the commuters were right next to the Club.

UPDATE: Took the good advice (again!) and booked the later flight. This will be a 50 minute connection instead of 2 and a half hours.

A question though. Form one of the posts I gathered that CO Express comes in on a different terminal than CO. My flight into CLE (from LGA) is CO Exp, and 50 minutes later the flight to TPA is Continental. Is 50 minutes enough time to make the connection?

It should be, but you know how LaGuardia is. If the flight is first thing in the morning out of LGA, you should be fine.

Well... its saturday morning 9.45 am out of LGA. Not the first flight of the day, I'm sure.

(feel an attack of paranoia creep up.... )

You should have no problem with the connection. By the way, some CO Express jets use gates at the end of C concourse. Just keep in mind, it can be quite a hike from the D Concourse through the tunnel to the C Concourse.At any rate, it shouldn't take you more than 10 min. to get from one end to the other of either concourse.