andyh64000

Not true. At SEA they always have told me that they will hear from the gate when boarding is about to begin and make an announcement.

Ocn Vw 1K

Yesterday, delayed UC members at AUS (bound for EWR and SFO) were kept up-to-date by brief, updated announcements as to when the delayed a/c were expected to board. The LAX UC makes boarding announcements for some p.s. and Int'l. flights, esp. when a boarding delay.

andyh64000

As I sit and wait for my delayed SFO flight the Club agent apologetically told me as of Sunday she wasn't allowed to make any boarding announcements for delayed flights.

Stupid Policy...especially since the app and the board were both incorrect when I walked down to board the first time.

Bear96

The best / only place to be if you need live, minute-by-minute progress reports about every change during a delay is in person at the gate in question. I would never rely on all info getting from gate to Club during a critical, rapidly-changing situation. Especially if the Club is any place other than directly adjacent to the gate, in case you need to do a quick boarding with little notice.

If you don't need minute-by-minute accuracy but rather a bigger-picture view of what may be going on, the best bet is status updates on your mobile. That will often be updated more quickly and accurately than any info going through the "telephone" game to a Club.

Also, it is funny, when I pulled up the UA FT page and saw this, in the thread list just below this one was a thread complaining about too many announcements. Granted, it was about announcements on a plane instead of in the Clubs, but it was still funny because many of the annoyances about too many announcements are the same in either setting.

Anyway, my opinion on the issue: no Club IRROPS announcements other than maybe, "Delayed flight XXX to YYY is now boarding." No endless streaming status updates about every change to every delayed flight, please.

PIT_Flyer

I was flying the 8:50AM IAH - SAN yesterday. We boarded on time, but the flight was delayed because of a mechanical. After some time, they had all passengers deplane because the issue was rather major and would likely take time to fix. As soon as we deplaned, I asked the agent if I could wait in the nearby club. The agent promised to call the club with updates...

So, I entered the club (IAH, near gate C30) and explained our situation to the agent at the front desk (I was first off the plane and the first passenger from the plane to make it to the club, so the agent had no idea about the delay). I told the agent that the gate agent would call the club with updates and said that I would appreciate an announcement when the flight would br ready to board...Her response was "Sorry sir, but we are not allowed to make announcements about delayed flights. This is a new policy from last week".

Now, I don't expect announcements about flights under normal circumstances. However, I have always had agents in the club announce delayed flights - apparently this is no longer the case because of the new policy. The agent went on to explain that many club members had complained that there were too many flight announcements, so the club changed policies to ban all flight announcements

Anyway, rather than argue with someone who was quite clearly unwilling to make an announcement, I made myself comfortable in the club. I ended up getting a notification email from UA that my flight would depart from a new gate right next to the club (they had to change planes) at a later time, so I walked over to the gate about 30 minutes before the new boarding time. However, there was no plane at the gate (it was being towed from Terminal E), so I went back into the club. This time, the agent was extremely apologetic and said that she was emailing her supervisor about customer feedback to this new policy. No announcements though, so I ended up keeping an eye on the gate and walked back when I could see the plane being towed.

I've already significantly cut back on lounge access, thanks to a combination of Centurion clubs in SFO (my main travel destination this year) and my decision to fly AA for a few months because I didn't see any incentive to fly UA after hitting more than 130k PQM (I spent more than $35k on AA that I would have otherwise spent on UA, but that's a different story). One reason I value the United Club is flight announcements in event of delays (and rebooking, etc.). If United decides to stick to this asinine policy, add me to the list of members who won't renew next year...

milepig

Or, you could have stopped by the UC desk and asked before going to the gate. @:-)

IAH-OIL-TRASH

I'll have to be sure to drop United a note complimenting them on the "new" official policy. Bothering an entire club for a single traveler, or worse a entire club constantly for a couple of travelers, is un-needed.

I endure IRROPs and don't feel the need to have additional noise broadcast just to benefit myself and possibly one or two others in the Club. The best place for flight status is in the gate area if it can't be figured out by online means or asking the Club desk. IRROPs have the potential to become a non-stop drone of announcements. No thanks.

Thanks, UA!

LIH Prem

When you run an airline plagued by operational issues ...

-David

DBCme

Not a bad thing, IMHO.

During peak hours, some of the UA Clubs sound like you are in the middle of a shopping mall. Lots of chatting, kids running around, people talking on phones. One less distraction. If you can access a lounge you are probably in the demographics than has a smartphone and can sign up for flight notifications.

An optimistic outlook of this change is that maybe this is a first step for UA to personally walk over to each impacted passenger in the lounge and quietly inform them of the delay and proactively suggest potential reroutes/alternates

sanfran8080

One of my biggest fears is to go to the UA club during a delay and later find out that the plane left without me knowing it. It sounds funny but it has happened.