United Club access - only departure/arrival cities (no connections)?
 

Asking for a friend...

They're traveling in coach on an award ticket, USA-DEN-LHR-BKK. They have one-time United Club passes (they both hold a United card that comes with 2 passes annually). Other than holding United cards, they have no status.

They were hoping to use their one-time free passes to the United Club at their connecting airports (DEN and LHR), but looking over the United Club T&Cs on united dot com, it says this (emphasis mine):
That sounds pretty clear: United Club access is only available at their departure point or arrival airport - and there's no access to the United Club during connecting cities. Am I reading that right?

Thanks.

No -- the United Club would be pretty useless if you couldn't access it during a connection. :) A connecting city along a *A/UA itinerary is also an arrival and departure city for those flights. The verbiage you quoted only really applies to mixed-carrier itineraries. It's probably intended to keep people from buying a cheap refundable ticket to access the club when not flying UA. How well it works in practice, who can say? But both DEN and LHR will allow access if they happen to be accepting one-time passes that day. (LHR, I suspect they will; DEN, YMMV).

Thank you - and I certainly agree with that bit quoted above - that seemed so odd it was hard to believe, but the way it reads, it sure looked crazy to me.

They will probably not bother with the lounge in DEN, their layover in LHR is longer and they will want to refresh themselves a bit between the two long flights in coach. I was surprised to see that the United Club in LHR has showers (I assumed those were only in Polaris lounges). Hopefully they'll be able to refresh themselves a bit there.

Thanks as always for your helpful insights.

Your friends have an arrival point at LHR to depart to BKK. In-air plane-to-plane commercial passenger transfers are not a thing yet :).The language pertains to an airport like Honolulu, which is not on their itinerary.

Just to clarify their meaning: you must be departing or arriving that airport on a Star Alliance (or contracted partner) flight. It doesn't need to be the beginning or end of your journey, but you can't access the United Club when flying Delta or to take a meeting when you aren't even flying that day, even if you are a member or otherwise have access (you used to be able to do this, and some people did it often).

Question- is there any way to find out if a particular location is imposing capacity restrictions (specifically "no credit card one time passes") ahead of actually getting there? I'll be flying NH SEA-HND in a couple of weeks with some acquaintances and while I know I can bring one guest into the UC there with my OZ*G for sure, the other two of us will be using credit card passes, and I'd prefer to avoid an awkward situation happening in advance if possible.

No, because during the day, the UC OneTimePass may be imposed just at peak hours and not at off peak. I think in general SEA should not be a problem most of the day. Your *G + 1 would not not be refused.

Can I Still Use One-Time Passes After Downgrading United Explorer Card?
 

When I upgraded to the Quest card my two unused passes disappeared from the app

There is still no concrete proof whether they are valid/invalid if you cancel/product change the card. If you still have the e-mail, please be a guinea pig for us. :)

In theory, from what I understand, a Premium Services agent (e.g. an agent working in a club among others) should be able to get pass info from Customer360 -- including issued/unused, issued/used, and presumably issued/withdrawn/revoked.

So you mean I can call to check if the pass is valid? Or do I have to go to the United Club?

Okay, maybe I can go and try it out.

If it is visible in your account, it is most likely valid.

I am flying from Philadelphia to London Heathrow on AA and connecting to Europe on BA. My layover is all day-can I use the United Club lounge using my passes
from the Mileage Plus credit card? Thank you!