PushingTin

Just got back from a DEN-HNL-DEN vacation where I had the family in the UCs. It's pretty bad when a 7 and 9 year old can see that 'it's just not right'. My wife, who flew a lot as a kid, couldn't believe how crappy the lounges were. I think her comment was "This is it?". The robot coffee/latte/espresso machine didn't endear her to the clubs.

Put the Centurion operation this way, I'm thinking about getting a new credit card, and I wasn't considering AMEX until I saw this thread...

mre5765

Somehow, my family manages to put several thousand dollars each month on our Amexes, and only several hundred dollars each month on our master cards.

Amex acceptability is good enough that my employer mandated expense card moved from MasterCard to Amex.

The DFW Centurion is about 70% full every time I'm there. the SFO Centurion is about 95% full every time I'm there. There is a constant line from the kitchen to the buffet to swap out food trays. Messes are left in the eating area all over the place. Servers come by throughout the club to service drinks and take empties.

50K members at $400 is $20M in revenue. And 50K members across say 50 clubs, say each open ten hours, is 100 members per club per hour assuming a member stays one hour per visit. All 50K members are flying every day? I think not. More like 4 travel days per month, and assuming an hour per visit, accounting for on average 8 members in each club each hour. But the clubs are full all the time. Let's say average capacity is 75 per club. Where are the other 68 visitors coming from.

UC guests from four sources: UC memberships, UA Golds flying long haul coach, premium pax flying long haul, *Gs flying UA domestic, UA explorer card passes, Priority Select and day passes.

Let's say United Airlines, Chase, and other *A airlines pay UC $10 visit by a non UC member.

Let's say there are 200 *A long haul flights per day that impact UC, and on each there are combined 100 *Gs, BF, GF, and guests thereof per flight. That adds up to $72M.

But that is still just an additional 12 visitors per club per hour, even if we assume such visitors average 2 hours per stay.

Let's say half the time a UC member brings a guest who contribute no revenue. So we are up to 24 visitors per club per hour. But say average capacity is 50. Where are the remaining 26 or so visitors coming from?

It is a combination of non-UA *Gs flying domestic, Chase Explorer passes, one time passes, Priority Pass, etc. Let's say on average, there are 30 such people in each club per hour. Let's say such people stay for an average of four hours. That is $11.7M.

And I haven't even included the revenue for premium liquor offerings. Say three drinks sold per hour per club. That is $2.7M.

It totals up to over $108M, and that's based on the figure of $10 per visit from non UC members and an average capacity of 50 per club.

Even when I reduce the number of clubs to 40, I get total revenue of $103M, with the result being 60 visitors per club per hour.

Loss leader indeed.

TA

Hmm... I wonder why they might have had to stop doing that!

See point above about lowering quality of amenities when customer traffic increases...

robbgrn

It's actually almost flawless on UA. The last delay of any kind I can remember was in 2012 and it was randomly on a Jet Blue flight I was forced to take which was cancelled due to a huge storm.

But now I'm getting worried my streak may end lol.

SFHokie

...which explains why the company is investing money in renovating existing clubs and adding new ones to the tune of $100M over the next few years.

You are indeed lucky! 75% of my flights since September have arrived 15 minutes or more late. But its not the delays that really both me, it's the connection times/waits to where I'm going most of the time (small regional airports or non-focus cities) where my time in the clubs add up.

mre5765

Cool. The Centruions need more competition. Squeeze Amex, UA. squeeze 'em!

Always Flyin

At least in the U.S., it has been a long time since I encountered a business that did not accept AmEx. There are some, however. There are also places that only accept AmEx. Again, small number.

Internationally, AmEx is accepted at major hotels and restaurants.

I don't think lack of acceptance is a significant reason to avoid AmEx.

miasmal

Amex Plat also has the chip on CC, which is useful in places like Europe.

Regarding the Centurion lounge - I've been to the DFW one, it's a quick airtrain ride (inside security) to another terminal so not a big detour. As others have mentioned, the food is good - if only you can find a place to sit down and eat ... it can get quite packed.

Billiken

Two different Centurion Lounge managers have told me that AX is looking for lounge space at ORD.

SFHokie

Hopefully in the UA terminals and not AA! ... or if needed, somewhere between the two that is accessible post-security.

gengar

I understood your suggestion. The LAS Centurion club is always quite crowded these days, IME - yet the offerings are the same. (Maybe too much the same - or maybe I just fly too much.)

787fan

I'm not going there if they place it in T2

A better solution is instead of 1 single super sized Centurion Lounge, do 2 studio concept ones, one at T1 for UA and one at T3 for AA

SFHokie

The food offerings should be rotated on a quarterly basis according to the desk agent I spoke with in early December at SFO. Now that it's January, the changes should be taking affect. Not sure if this also includes a rotating drink menu for the "inspired cocktails" the bartenders can concoct.

mduell

That would cover less than half of UA's departing passengers.

jp12687

the biggest benefit of the UC is during IROPS when the UA staff agents can re-book you and get you onto different flights. I have always had better luck than the gate agent, customer service desk, or the 1800 numbers. the UA club has saved me many times and the AMEX staff just don't have that type of access to do what they can do-- they would have to call over to UA.