The question is: who's actually flying to MCI? What's driving the demand? If MCI-ers aren't supporting the costs of lounges then the economics don't sound promising.

David

Not sure if they’ve resumed corporate travel, but Cerner was always a huge filler of flights to/from MCI. Other large corporations include Hallmark, Burns and McDonnell, among many others.

Do they generally pay for club/lounge memberships?

David

I’ve got no idea. One might think the folks from those various corporations who are being sent out week after week would have some sort of contract or conditions in place allowing them to expense it.

It's totally dependent on the company. I've seen some support airline club memberships and I've seen some (probably more) not support them.

I’ve seen a lot of company expense reporting systems for reimbursement include an option for supporting airline club memberships, but even then it’s often a case of not being generally authorized despite being a supported item for entry into the expense reporting systems for reimbursement. I don’t know if it’s a majority or minority of big companies that at times allow for expensing of airline lounge membership; but most people whom I know to travel a lot for work too don’t seem to have to have employer-paid airline lounge membership.

My understanding is that airline club memberships are not a deductible expense for companies when they do income taxes, so many companies do not pay for them directly. A simple work around is to pay for a credit card fee, which is a deductible expense, that includes access to the airline clubs. My company implemented a policy a few years ago where we reimburse $300/year for a credit card annual fee for our employees who travel a lot. I recommended this number because I didn't want the company to pay 100% or people would get it just because, this way the employee has some skin in the game too if they really want the credit card (of course it's pretty trivial to justify an AMEX Platinum Card if you start off with $300 cash back from your employer).

As for local MCI demand, Kansas City is a pretty large metro area, we have large companies as mentioned, but even beyond that, TINA for anyone living in any proximity to the KC metro area, the next closest airports with regularly scheduled commercial air service are a two or more hour drive from MCI (Joplin, MO; Springfield, MO; Columbia, MO; Des Moines, IA; Omaha, NE; Lincoln, NE; Salina, KS; and Wichita, KS). Like many areas, much of that corporate demand has not resumed (I know a few Cerner employees and travel has not resumed to anywhere near pre-pandemic levels for them, they were probably the largest source of traffic pre-pandemic), and of course conventions are still a shell of their former self.

I'm cautiously optimistic the reports are accurate, but still unsure American would bring back a club. I looked at the cities with Admirals Clubs and the only one close in terms of AA passengers was Orange County it looked like, and I suspect that one may be somewhat of a special case due to location/premium traffic. Delta does have clubs at other cities similar in traffic/size to MCI (e.g., IND and MKE), but they didn't really need to close their club in the first place (I'm not sure American closed their club because of it, but ultimately the closure of their club allowed the much needed expansion of their gate area at the current terminal). The story I heard when I moved here almost twenty years ago is that both American and Delta had clubs here because of their corporate contracts with Sprint, I never necessarily bought that, but Sprint (now T-mobile) is a shell of its former self here in the KC area anyway, so it's possible.

From a new video uploaded by Build KCI to Youtube, a picture of the area the lounge(s) will be in. Seems a little small to fit two lounges with associated bars, kitchens, offices, storage, etc., but I'll be happy for anything.

https://i.ibb.co/GHH4Pk6/New-MCI-Lounge.jpg

Delta has submitted a request to lease 11,000 square feet for a Sky Club in the new terminal; it's going before the City Council today.

Well, I'd venture an estimate that 11,000 square feet is that entire upper level space shown in that picture in the previous post, and not space for two lounges as has been speculated. My main challenge will be admittance for my kids until they get old enough to have an AMEX card on my account (about 2 years after the new terminal opens). I may just have to blow 84,500 miles (or whatever the cost is in two years) each year for an Executive Membership. Exciting news, I thought it seemed too small to squeeze two lounges in.

Edited to add: I just posted over on the Delta forum, I measured on Google Maps and the upper concourse area is about 11,000 square feet, so Delta took the whole space. I Google searched to find the sizes of some other clubs, one Sky Club I'm familiar with is MKE, and it is only 5,000 square feet and even DCA is only 9,000 square feet, so it is a good sized Sky Club.

And it has hit the Business Journal..! Fingers crossed for a UA lounge or something like the new CapitalOne lounge which allows multiple options for access.

https://www.bizjournals.com/kansasci...vfc9AMwyeu5gqd

This post in a new thread on the DL Forum has two slides from yesterday's City Council committee meeting. The lease is for 11,500 square feet including 1,000 square feet of outdoor patio space, MCI is not just getting a SkyClub, but a SkyDeck too!

While it might not be ideal during the hot and humid summer weather we get, I am all for some sort of outdoor lounge experience! If we don’t end up with another lounge popping out of somewhere, this has me disappointed the access rules changed to only allow access to the SC when flying DL. I’d sign up for a membership in an instant if I could access it when on UAL. There’s something nice about starting a trip at your home airport with a lounge visit..

Makes me wish I had the foresight (and disposable income at the time) to buy a Lifetime Northwest World Club membership when they were still a thing, I believe they allow guests and access without a same-day ticket.

The new terminal is also getting a lounge in Concourse A; plans were filed with the city yesterday (which at this time, have basically no information other than what's in the first part of this sentence).

CRBC-2022-40150
CRBC-2022-40152