NcSchu

Now why would anyone, in their right mind, want to do that?

johnep1

No. I inquired about this at the main DTW NW club last Friday. The (very nice) agent would have been happy to sell me the membership and commented that it would make sense for NW to want to sell me a discounted membership based on my CO status, but after she made a phone call to a higher up she told me it couldn't be done. So I had to walk to the side, sit in a chair there in the entry way, and use my laptop to join the CO club.

It would have been nice to have saved a little cash ($75 I think) and gotten the benefit of the NW membership in Europe, but $700 for a 3-year CO membership is still a good value in my book.

J.Edward

...and CO can roll this out in the hub cities in conjunction whenever they re-launch BF.

While I can see one arguing how the ex. IAH-Europe flights have enough time for the meal + sleep, the ex. EWR ones do not. At the very least CO could let BF customers have the option of eating in the lounge vis a vis the jet.

Weatherboy

With word of a new lounge opening in Las Vegas, perhaps the hike in membership dues will help subsidize that construction.

If that's the case, I think paying a few dollars more for a new club in a great location would be worth it ^

primedude

Yeah, for sure. I'm just saying, most people that can afford the annual fee on the Amex Plat card would probably not be too adverse to buying a standalone PC membership if that aspect were altered. As to the "throngs" crowding the clubs, I don't think there's an easy way of reducing them except for substantially increasing the price of entry. And even the new PC rates, given that they're well below the fee of an Amex Plat, probably aren't going to do it.

I have no idea what kind of revenue CO realizes from this arrangement, but I wouldn't be surprised if a decent chunk of the fee goes straight to the airlines. It's not cheap to maintain those clubs, and the card doesn't offer that many other benefits commensurate with what it costs.

wldtrvlr

I just spoke to a lady at one of the clubs and they stated the information they had was that it was going up $25 a year, and they were encouraging you to renew in September at the current rate even if you have 6,8,11 months left and it would just add on to the current membership.

wldtrvlr

That is a kicker. You may have also noticed that CO charges EVERYONE a $50 initiation fee, NW waives that fee for all their Elite members.

It makes sense to only sell your elites your club membership at elite prices since before codeshares (and probably to a large extent now) you had to earn your status on that airline. Since CO only gives NW members 50% eqm on low fares it is highly probable that most NW elites earned their status on NW metal and CO elites on CO metal. So if you earned your status on CO metal then CO reaps the revenue from your earning status. Therefore they should be the one to give you the discounted club membership. Either way, if you have a PC membership and you use a WC NW is going to get some revenue out of it.

MilesDavis

Yeah, I don't understand why CO doesn't waive the fee for Elites like NW.

MisterNice

Its probably the same reason the DL CRC dont give the PC and WC members free wi-fi.

MisterNice

Renard

I totally understand the concern about crowding as of late in the PCs. I was in the IAH Term E PC a couple of weeks ago for the first time in several years (I let my membership lapse after EFD was dropped a couple of years ago--which resulted in no iah layovers as well as much less flying on CO.) I was pretty shocked at how busy it was relative to what I remember it being a few years ago. I couldn't find a place to sit anywhere except in the TV room. It was a major disappointment, overall. I was pretty pleased with it a few years ago. Next time I pass the PCs at IAH I won't sigh longing to sign up again. I can fight the crowds outside the PCs for free. Or better yet just head to Pappadeaux.

carpboy

May I ask why Amex and not a CO/NW/DL card? The Amex is far more in cost than a year of the individual clubs.

Unless you use it for other clubs, say internationally.

I had Amex before but when CO/NW became recip it no longer made sense, plus no access hassles when not flying the carrier of the club that day.

ContinentalFan

I bet that the only reason with Platinum Amex thing came about is related to tax treatment! For the most part, you can't take a deduction on a PC membership, but you can write off the AMEX fee. Some companies won't reimburse the PC membership--if they do it, they might try to impute income to the employee; an Amex annual fee, that's fine.

SunLover

Buy a Lifetime Presidents Club Membership and CO will wave the initiation fee.

SunLover

primedude

Excellent question, and something I belatedly realized I should have clarified in my original post. I signed up for it because of a bonus point offer I received, which was worth a year or two of fees alone, and will probably continue to keep it because of the various travel benefits and the recent changes to the membership rewards program (restricting point transfers to airlines with "lower-tier" cards).

Honestly, it's probably a slightly worse value than a standalone club membership, but it's close enough that it's pretty much a wash, and the flexibility makes up the rest. Although I didn't realize you can write off the Amex fee. That would help, if I'm eligible for that deduction. It's just a personal card with only incidental business use.

Edit: Bottom line, if Amex Plat access ended tomorrow, I probably wouldn't continue to carry the card. But since there are a few hundred bucks worth of value based on that, there are enough additional incidental benefits to make the card a more attractive option compared to a standalone membership. So I was imprecise in saying that lounge access is the sole reason for paying the fee; it is, however, a prerequisite for me.

carpboy

The restriction of flying the airline on the club you visit is an absolute app killer. Unless the other bennies are so overwhelmingly positive I wouldn't want anything to do with this since the recip agreements came in.

There is nothing worse then seeing a partner club right next to your gate and not being worthy enough to enter. Been through that too many times.