Arrivals Lounge - What's the Point?
 

Unless you are connecting, who's going to hang around the airport to use the arrivals lounge. If I have meetings the same day and enough time to use the arrivals lounge, I'd just as soon check into my hotel early and use what are usually much nicer shower facilities than they have at the arrivals lounge. If I was UA, I'd lose the Arrivals Lounges and put in a few more IFLs with shower facilities that can be used by both arriving and departing passengers.

Does anyone think UA should maintain separate Arrivals Lounges outside of customs and security?

I really like having the Arrivals Lounges (and shower facilitates in the Senator Lounges). I am generally connecting and its nice to shower after a long overnight flight. Even when in London and not connecting it's generally a lot faster to shower and change at the airport rather than go to the hotel and meetings. Most of my trips to London are day long (come in early am leave next morning) so a few extra hours at the hotel is a waste.

Yes I think they are worth keeping. And further more I don't see why they are not open all day. I think a place to have a shower and eat are worth providing to premium customers regardless of the time they arrive. (currently closes in the early pm I think.)

These are an excellent perk where longish connections are involved. I used to do a lot of travel that involved five or six hour layovers at UA hubs throughout Europe and occasionally Asia and having that shower available was phenomenal. But I would agree that it wouldn't make sense in the case of termination of travel. I don't think that's the intent at all.

Because there is no guarantee that the hotel will be able to get you in to your room and a shower. Or that you have a hotel room in which you are staying (day trip). Or that you have time to get to the hotel and deal with that versus the 30 minutes to clean up and get out to the office from the airport.

I love arrivals lounge service.

Most hotels offer check-in at 4p, while it might be possible to get in, its not a guarantee, and if you can have a nice breakfast and shower at the airport it'll be fast and efficient. A lot of flights arrive before 10a, so people want to get showered, shaved and freshened up for a full day of work.

Here's an example where one is useful:

CX have an arrivals lounge at LHR. The flights usually arrive at around 0500, which is too early to head into London for work. A couple of hours rejuvenating on arrival before heading to the office could be really useful I imagine, rather than hanging around in the terminal or getting on the tube way early.

What if you are connecting from a trans-pac? I love taking a shower prior to the SFO-SEA leg of my ICN-SFO-SEA flights.

I say the same for me going into HKG especially on a red-eye from North America, the CX Arrival is such a blessing. I can peacefully get some food, a shower and check some emails without having my parents or whomever that's picking me up rush out to the airports at 5-7am

+1

A few years ago, my boss sent me on the following itinerary:

Monday - client visit in Texas
Monday evening - fly to London
Tuesday daytime - arrive in London, client visit in Greater London (Woking, IIRC)
Tuesday evening - fly to Oslo
Wednesday daytime - client visit

There's no way I would have wanted to go to the UK client without going to Arrivals first. And the tight scheduling didn't allow for a hotel visit, since I wasn't staying in the UK overnight.

Sometimes, the first thing I want to do after arriving from a 10+ hour flight is to refreshen up and this is where having an arrival lounge equipped with showers becomes advantageous. VS's Revival Lounge at LHR is the one I've taken advantage most often after arriving from SQ322.

Not only do arrivals lounges offer the opportunity for grabbing a bite to eat and cleaning up, they also offer the chance to dress comfortably for a flight and change clothes before heading on to a day's worth of business. And, as others have noted, it is not always possible to get into one's hotel room immediately when you have an early morning arrival.

I've used the LHR arrivals lounge in order to shower, blow dry my hair and have breakfast before going straight to the office (not in central London) to conduct meetings. I would feel really icky without a shower, and as the hotel I stayed at was further from the office than the airport it made no sense (timewise as much as anything else) to go there, try and get an early check in, shower, and drive back to the office. Arrivals lounge = godsend for things like that!

I go straight to the office from LHR. The arrivals lounge lets me

* Breakfast on the ground giving more time for sleep in the air
* Have a shower and a shave
* Get my clothes pressed

...and at weekends means I can arrive home at a calm and civilised time rather than 545am.

I agree with what others have said. In certain airports like AUK, LHR, and FRA to name but a few the trans-ocean flights will arrive quite early in the morning, sometimes too early to be able to get into a hotel room. Other times the layover is too long to hang around airside but too short to tour the city..5 hours or so, and the lounge is handy.

I have also used it when arriving at 5 but not getting picked up by a colleague until 830.