Darlox

But you're sort of refuting your own thesis here... UA is entirely in control of the reasons WHY their lounges are frequently, consistently over-crowded. DL took measures to curtail that. US never took measures to make it a problem. Foreign airlines, by and large, keep their castles closed. (Ever tried to buy/bribe/beg your way into a flagship Asian carrier's lounge? Good luck.)

The fact that UA would have a known issue, and still advance policies of both cash-charges and liberal freebies as methods of exacerbating the problem for short-term gain, is the issue here. Don't shoot the messenger (Alton Brown).

Doc Savage

Glad he's making the overcrowding issue publicly visible. Another small nudge to UA.

halls120

Two years ago, when MIA Terminal D reconstruction was almost complete, AA pulled almost entirely out of the E terminal, and closed their club there. Almost immediately the remaining two ACs in D were swamped. What did they do? Quickly installed overflow seating outside one of the clubs complete with food and bar service. It wasn't perfect, but no one sat on the floor.

That's what a customer focused operation did, and it's not like UA doesn't know how to do it, because they did open the temporary club at SFO. Evidently LAX isn't important enough to warrant the same attention.

watchtower1k

I agree. I have a paid lounge membership, and I expect a place to sit.

channa

Well, they did turn the LAX IFL into a temporary UC when they closed the former CO Club in T6.

It appears from Mr. Brown's tweets, though, it was not open for whatever reason. If that's the case, they may have created their own overcrowding situation by not having the other club open.

Madone59

You can nickel and dime us in the sky....but having no place to sit and eat my carrot sticks is a bridge too far

Mr. Vker

I think Alton's point was they had no supply but were still taking people's $$$$. Jeff didn't really comment on that.

transportbiz

For sure another over entitled person demand value for something they paid for. How absolutely, insanely presumptive of him. So, what if every seat is not occupied, and I'm sure it wasn't, many times there are many seats with peoples coats, or bags in them, which again is mismanagement too. I just don't understand the degrees to which some feel it's necessary to defend United. What's the need here? It's a crappy, over filled club, and others are just torn and tattered. The ORD club I was at last week was so filthy it was just disgusting. Brown didn't say anything remotely elitist or improper, there was no DKWIA in this conversation at all, in fact he went overboard to keep it friendly with the "just sayin".

VickyKing

You just proved my point. There might be jackets and bags at seats, which means the club was NOT at capacity, and the lounge agents did nothing wrong by selling the $50 pass. But instead of learning to ask others to remove their jackets like a normal human being, he took to social media to make his case without proof.

And I don't get your point about mismanagement. If people place their jackets on the seats it's UA's job to police everyone ? Is UA supposed to allocate club space capacity based on 2 seats for every user ? Adults should take some responsibility for their own actions instead of blaming on the lack of a nanny state.

copaflyer

Its better that he does not have a seat then a united club member. The desk needs to do a better job of not overcrowding the club and collecting cash when it is close to or over capacity.

JBord

To be fair, Mr. Brown shouldn't have paid $50 to begin with. He probably should have talked to a UA rep and said "I don't want to be mobbed by fans at the gate, do you have a place I could wait in private?"

I watched a Bulls game with Vince Vaughn and his wife in the LGA club once waiting for a delayed flight to ORD. I'm fairly certain he didn't pay $100 to get in, and he had a UA rep checking in with him every 15 mins or so.

I'm pretty sure he also took my F seat as I was #1 on the upgrade list with 2 seats open at the original flight time .

Ber2dca

He's just too entitled a celeb to ask for special celeb treatment and instead acted like a normal person just to make United look bad..or something.

greg99

Which suggests that Mr. Brown is not a "celebrity" by LAX standards. If he were, he wouldn't have been sitting on the floor.

Not that my entire family doesn't love Cutthroat Kitchen and wasn't excited that I once saw Mr. Brown boarding a flight.

Plus, I go through LAX all the time, and I entirely believe that there was no practical place to sit in the club.

Greg

JBord

My point was that, more likely, he didn't ask to be treated like a celebrity. He bought a $50 pass like he was just some guy. He sat on the floor, like he was just some guy. He complained about it on social media, like he was just some guy.

For all those posts in this thread suggesting he's an over-entitled, whining celebrity, I would say looking at this logically he's not. This could have been any of us.

transportbiz

I didn't prove your point in the least.

I really don't know why you seem to insist he needs proof. What burden of proof would be acceptable? Would it help you that I have called a friend that works at the UC at LAX who was not on shift last night (when this occurred) but she has confirmed with a co-worker that the club was "very busy, like is most mornings and evenings of late". In my experience I have found most innately distrustful people, to not be very trustworthy themselves. It's usually this knowledge of themselves, that triggers their distrust of others. That you've not experienced overcrowding on the sporadic visits to LAX suggests what? He's lying? Making it up? Many here who are LAX based, including myself know how crowded it gets there. Many early morning flights, I don't even bother to go, because there's usually a long line of people checking in (there's always a crowd of people waiting in front of the door for the club to open) and then once your in, long lines at the coffee, or no place to sit...it's a disaster. I know its busy at night, but rarely use it then myself. United should have NEVER taken his money.

I find, no motivation for Brown to make this up, nor do I find him to have thrown his celebrity status around in the least, he has a VERY open and transparent social media presence, and by-and-large I suspect he behaves as though he is always being recorded and watched.

It's management, because if there's such a problem, which was obviously created by United in the first place, then one task the desk agents should do is walk the club, and politely ask people to store their belongs elsewhere. I've seen agents in European clubs do this (and also to ask uncultured people to remove their feet from the tables as well). If this is not the policy, it's poor management. At the VS Clubhouse you are greeted by an agent, if you have a roll-a-board, or a heavy coat it is checked with a claim check, and stored for you. Well, you know kind of like a club. The fact is United agents are there to enforce entrance policy.

It's nothing about a nanny state, it's facts, people are animals, who occasionally need a nudge in appropriate social behavior, (this thread is a prime example, just look at the edits needed to maintain civility). I would further contend that one reason people pay for a club experience is so they are not put into the socially awkward situation of having to ask people to clear their personal belongs from seats, etc. Also, it is a global society, there is a mix of habits from cultures from which people were raised, having expectations that everyone should behave in any certain way by nature or nurture is myopic at best.

The only real "blaming" I see here, is that which you seem to be placing on Brown. Who, so far as I can tell, is only guilty of the crime of having bought something and then expecting to have a relaxing place to sit. It's not his fault that he made a faulty assumption of what to expect from a United Club.