Presidents Club in Denver Closing Hint Hint Frontier
May 4, 2010, 8:25 am
#17
Join Date: Aug 2005
Location: DFW
Programs: Marriott Life Titanium, Hilton Diamond, United Silver, DL, IHG Plat, etc.
Posts: 2,888
Either way - congrats to the Denver flyers. You're getting one of the best clubs out there!
May 4, 2010, 10:08 am
#18
Join Date: Jan 2007
Location: Chicago
Posts: 1,800
I believe Frontier will be using the former British Airways Terrace space for the Best Care Club.
May 4, 2010, 2:35 pm
#21
Join Date: Sep 2000
Location: Denver, Colorado
Programs: DEN: WN or UA, AA LT Gold, VIA Preference Preferred
Posts: 1,550
Irregular ops help on Frontier would be about it. BCC might cost less.
May 5, 2010, 9:28 am
#22
Join Date: Oct 2004
Posts: 2,653
The Best Care Club fees are notably less expensive than the big airlines with many more locations
BCC
$250 annual single / $400 annual with spouse
$600 three-year single / $900 three-year with spouse
I checked out AA and DL and both are pretty similar. This is AA
$450 annual single / $775 annual with spouse
I don't see a three-year option on AA, but here's DL
$1215 three-year single / $1815 three-year with spouse
Obviously the bigger programs should cost more because the opportunity to use the club is more plentiful. But on the other hand, a club is only useful if:
--The member is actually flying, and
--The member is departing or connecting in an airport with a club, and
--The amount of time spent at the departing or connecting airport is sufficient to visit the club
If I don’t fly much to Austin or Dulles or Toronto, it doesn’t help me that there are AA clubs there. By only having clubs in MKE and DEN, clearly the BCC program is of no real use for people who rarely are in MKE or DEN. But for people who are, the value of the membership could be significant.
Club membership is really most useful when there is a club in your departing airport. If you finish business early and arrive at the airport with time to kill, or security was 5 minutes instead of 55 minutes, that’s a great opportunity to use the club.
It can sometimes be useful at the connecting hub, but not necessarily as often as one might think. Connections for airlines which bank their hubs are often too short to get any reasonable value out of seeking out and trekking to a club. And in the case of delays caused by mechanical, weather or ATC reasons, it’s often dangerous to venture too far away from the gate. That’s especially at a connecting hub where there are more resources, and delays are often more unpredictable in duration.
So having a BCC is probably most useful for travelers based in DEN and MKE. Having it in the “other” main hub is somewhat helpful because DEN based F9 people are probably seeing more of Milwaukee now, and vice versa for MKE based people. I doubt there’s all that much value for the average person based in Phoenix or Philadelphia or Dallas unless they do a lot of travel to and through DEN and or MKE.
BCC
$250 annual single / $400 annual with spouse
$600 three-year single / $900 three-year with spouse
I checked out AA and DL and both are pretty similar. This is AA
$450 annual single / $775 annual with spouse
I don't see a three-year option on AA, but here's DL
$1215 three-year single / $1815 three-year with spouse
Obviously the bigger programs should cost more because the opportunity to use the club is more plentiful. But on the other hand, a club is only useful if:
--The member is actually flying, and
--The member is departing or connecting in an airport with a club, and
--The amount of time spent at the departing or connecting airport is sufficient to visit the club
If I don’t fly much to Austin or Dulles or Toronto, it doesn’t help me that there are AA clubs there. By only having clubs in MKE and DEN, clearly the BCC program is of no real use for people who rarely are in MKE or DEN. But for people who are, the value of the membership could be significant.
Club membership is really most useful when there is a club in your departing airport. If you finish business early and arrive at the airport with time to kill, or security was 5 minutes instead of 55 minutes, that’s a great opportunity to use the club.
It can sometimes be useful at the connecting hub, but not necessarily as often as one might think. Connections for airlines which bank their hubs are often too short to get any reasonable value out of seeking out and trekking to a club. And in the case of delays caused by mechanical, weather or ATC reasons, it’s often dangerous to venture too far away from the gate. That’s especially at a connecting hub where there are more resources, and delays are often more unpredictable in duration.
So having a BCC is probably most useful for travelers based in DEN and MKE. Having it in the “other” main hub is somewhat helpful because DEN based F9 people are probably seeing more of Milwaukee now, and vice versa for MKE based people. I doubt there’s all that much value for the average person based in Phoenix or Philadelphia or Dallas unless they do a lot of travel to and through DEN and or MKE.