New multi-airline lounge at MCI?
 

Landed at MCI on Saturday and saw a banner hanging near the Delta baggage claim in Terminal B advertising a new lounge to be opened - I can't remember the name (maybe Regal Lounge or something?), but the branding made it look like a multi-airline lounge. Anyone have any info?

Yeah, I'm assuming there will be a lounge at the new terminal, but that's not scheduled to open until 2023, and it feels a bit odd that they'd advertise a lounge that won't open for another four years so my assumption is that it would be in the existing terminal. I could be wrong, though.

not likely to open on time
 

You are assuming the new airport will open on time. It is already a year late and double over the budget.

Updating myself, the banner I saw was an advertisement for a nearby mixed-use development that just looked a lot like an ad for a lounge. So, nevermind :p

So, it appears that dedicated space for the 'premium lounge' that was mentioned years ago is dead. If you look at slides 21-23 of this 2018 presentation they show the 4,500 square foot 'business lounge' that would have been located behind concessions in Concourse B near the Connector. If you look at slide 3 of this 2020 presentation, the space is reconfigured for concessions only.

The concessions contract is now being hotly contested in the City Council and local news media. A joint venture between Paradies Lagardere and SSP released information about their proposal, it included a Plaza Premium Lounge as one of their concessions to be located in Concourse A near the Connector. The information released about the selected plan from Vantage Airport Group does not appear to include a similar offering, they have restaurants in the area that the other team is proposing a lounge in.

Who is surprised by this? Typical corrupt KC politicians who think they know how to build an airport.

When I was at the new terminal a few weeks back, I stood in an elevated area and was told two lounges were planned. Can’t read the above docs now, so not sure if more recent than my visit.

Well, if I had dug more into what I posted I would have found the answer. They have moved the proposed lounge locations from being on the departures level to being on a third floor right by the Connector in B Concourse (see Slide 15 of the 2020 presentation and this picture the space is visible). Interesting that one of the concessionaires was proposing an additional lounge on top of the dedicated space.

The lounges (the KCDoA peeps are planning for two -- DL Skyclub and AA Admirals Club) are going to be adjacent and on the third floor of Concourse B (the "far" concourse). That is the current rumor, which could change as quickly as the proposed concessionaire dropped Chick-Fil-A.

I could definitely see a SC going in, though waffle on what the second would be. I’d love a UA lounge, but some sort of common/PP lounge would also be cool.

Typical airside food&beverage retail venues that are out in the open may encounter more visitors and generate more sales than a lounge. And given the airside retailers may be stuck with revenue/profit-sharing clauses in the concession agreement with the airport owner/operator, I would say that It may be more a sign of questionable shenanigans if the airport’s board were to try to side with a lower return business like a stand alone lounge than with the cluster benefits of say a small food court.

The most recent Kansas City MCI lounge to close (and the lounge of longest duration) was the Admirals Club (closed in terminal C in early 2013, opened sometime in the 1980s back in the terminal A days). The rumor is that BA wants to start MCI-LHR once business travel rebounds -- it's the largest US metro by GDP without London service (or maybe second largest after Hartford, depending on how you calculate it). However, BA requires a lounge, which in its smaller US spokes is usually an AA Admirals Club. For example: Tampa, Denver, Nashville.

We will see....

Actually, the MCI AC closed at the end of July, 2012. It was a nice lounge for a city which only had two AA destinations (towards the later years). In terms of BA, I am interested to see how the new terminal helps with an intl service. We had a brief amount of time where MCI-ORD-LHR was the same AA flight # with a change of gauge at ORD and some thought it was to determine how many customers they could get to LHR each day. After losing the FI service to KEF, anything (even on another alliance) would be great to see.