rittenhousesq

Do you really think LH would operate its own lounge in PHL? My guess is that at least for the short term, they will contract with US to continue using the A terminal lounge, similar to UA's arrangement with the Skyteam lounge at LHR.

MatthewLAX

Exactly. LH won't open a lounge for a 5x weekly flight to Frankfurt (compared to MUC + FRA twice a day during peak season at IAD, plus other Star carriers nearby).

Then again, see ATL...

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Back on topic--how are the new bathrooms? Can someone post pictures? Please tell me the ashtrays are gone!

LAX

Doesn't this happen already at few US airports served by LH where it doesn't operate its own lounge? It would be worse if the UC remains in D while the LH flight continues to depart out of A-West. It's probably not even worth the effort & walk to visit the UC before the flight.

LAX

njcommodore

Pics of the bathroom? No thanks, and I wouldn't want some dude snapping a pic while I'm in there. I'll just wait with baited breath until my next visit (end of the month). It is after all, an airline club bathroom.

nova08

The bathrooms are quite nice. Nothing spectacular but a big improvement over the old bathrooms. Though certainly nothing that should have taken 6 months or whatever it was.


Who know's the future of LH at PHL. PHL doesn't seem to be a stellar performer for LH. I know US flies 2x day PHL-FRA for a good chunk of the year but LH can't seem to even keep a 1x daily flt year round. With the loss of the US feed they may just drop PHL.

jfinsocal

UC at most locations are serviceable but that PHL club is one of the worst of any airline anywhere - you're probably better off at some generic airport bar/restaurant. US "A club" is also decent other that there's only one bar and it's way at one end.

rittenhousesq

A lot of the PHL United club "regulars" would disagree with you on this. Sure it's a rather small space, but the staff working there have a good reputation.

MatthewLAX

Obviously when no one else is inside...

Hopefully an improvement to this:



More picts.

1kBill

It is possible that LH could do better by picking up the PHL-area folks who want to remain with *A after US departure.

Flyer78

SAP has a large presence (HQ, in fact) which may help maintain LH post merger.

In the old days, Air France used to depart from E terminal with the Delta folk, after arriving in A(-East once AW opened(and was supposed to be "International Terminal 1")). I believe the current Delta-metal flight pulls the same journey...

Will be very interesting to see what happens to UA after the merger, they seemed to entrench in D-Concourse after the rebranding, taking more gates than it would seem they need; but it may be more to play keep-away than anything else...

Critic

I don't think the case is that they've taken more gates than they need, but rather that the combined airline now has more gates than frequency; a number of the low-number gates appear to be deactivated in favor of additional food court seating/charging stations.

I'd love to see some improvements to the D concourse, but I'd hate to see UA move anywhere else in PHL - the D/E connector is the only adequately-sized security checkpoint in the whole airport (except possibly A-West, although I've never departed from A-West), and you've got multiple options for decent coffee (Peets in the D/E connector, Dunkin in D, ABP in E). I am surprised UA and DL haven't arranged some kind of gate swap to move DL into the lower-number gates and closer to their other gates and club in E - but maybe that's coming too.

JeepGuyDE

They switched the bathrooms. Men's on the right now, and Women's on the left. Not sure why.

I almost entered the new Women's bathroom - was so used to walking down the hall and turning left automatically.

aacharya

That is funny. I like the new placement away from the crowd and food. Small bathroom though.

Flyer78

I guess that is what I meant.. though CO only had two gates (I believe) pre-merger. Now the "left side" of D is all branded D gates (D1 for Air Canada) out through the hammerhead.

D overall is nice; I am glad they didn't fully box in the waiting areas like B and C (I do wonder if that layout, ramp and stairs; was praised on initial opening...) and it does let their passengers spread out a little more. I think the B and C concourses would appear less congested if the room taken by the meandering ramps could be truncated, the jet bridges raised; and .... well; anyway...

I was surprised Spirit went into A-West gates (I guess it sort-of replaced Frontier)

RNE

This week, TSMRSRNE and I will be connecting at PHL with a 3-hour layover. I am a United Club member so we can access both UA and US's clubs. Any recommendations on which we should use?