captaink

I have the Amex Plat, my partner has the CSR- He is constantly reminding me of the "better" perks of the CSR- bonuses when redeeming points through the portal, the bigger & less restrictive travel credit, and the "unlimited" PP lounge guesting. In reality, though, we've had issues actually redeeming anything in the UR Portal, and the non-PP lounges included with Amex are miles ahead of any PP lounge in the US. Our most likely endgame is to use the UR points by transferring to Hotels & Airlines to redeem in their respective sweet spots, rather than book a long hotel stay through UR only to find it was booked at a Priceline rate and any status perks don't apply.

Duke787

It's not that far...

it's easy to go to this lounge area as soon as you get through security and then just leave 5 minutes earlier to get to your gate (instead of spending 5 minutes up front to get to the SC)

pvn

It doesn't dictate what I do.

pvn

Yeah, looking for ways to get into aggressive confrontations seems like a great solution to this problem. Holy cow.

Visconti

Either I didn’t make myself clear, or you’ve intentionally, for the sake of melodrama, misunderstood my meaning to insinuate it to mean a physical confrontation (fist-a-cuffs). If the former, by “aggressive confrontation,” I meant the following: (1) telling someone to quiet down (assertively request, if you prefer a more euphemistic phrase); then, (2) “strongly encourage” staff to inform the guest refrain from disturbing others; and, (3) finally, address the decision makers (with whatever little influence I have) and voice my discontent (as distasteful as it is, these days, people must whine, complain, and be a royal pain the a** until they get their way).

However, if the latter, then it’s completely pointless and an utter waste of time (even for FT standards) for me to continue exchanging views with you.

pvn

And now you're blaming me for your word choice? Like, you verbatim said "confront them aggressively" but somehow I wasn't supposed to read either the word "confront" or the word "aggressively".

OK dude, good talk.

Visconti

From my initial post, "In the few cases where Adults aren't, at least they can be confronted it to tone it down, whereas it's not possible with children, because, well, they're so young and just don't know better."

If you've read this before replying, what does this mean to you?

jdrtravel

Do you know that Amex PP now allows 2 free guests per entry?

Visconti

Amex is 2 free.

captaink

Yes, but certain bloggers insist that the CSR's "unlimited" is infinitely better than Amex's 2, regardless of how often you actually *have* more than 2 guests.

More relevant is whether a lounge even will let you and 100 of your best friends in (unlikely), since the lounge can enforce whatever guest cap they want- Amex and Chase just pay the lounge per entry. It's a great marketing pitch, but doesn't mean much in the end.

Christefan

I wonder if DL is now considering restricting access for Amex card members to their SC, because Amex will have their own lounge. This would also take care of the over crowding of SC during peak hours.

pvn

I doubt DL has the contractual freedom to arbitrarily exclude platinum card holders.

Duke787

Also why would they? Outside of FT, the Plat card isn't sitting in every passenger's wallet so I doubt that kicking out AMEX Plat holders from the SC would make any measurable difference on the over crowding. Plus it would be a horrible move for AMEX - I know I would almost certainly drop the Plat card if SC access was restricted or limited, especially since I don't live near an airport with a Centurion Lounge and as a DL flyer I almost never get to use them because other than LAS / HKG / SEA, none of the existing ones are particularly well located for DL flights or connections

CKDGM

I feel like overcrowding will also be somewhat self-correcting when there's another lounge. As an Amex Platinum cardmember flying out of SEA, if the A1 Sky Club was full I'd go around the corner to the Centurion Lounge; depending on how far apart they are at JFK I might do the same, or use whichever is closer to my gate.