United Club stats - membership up 4%
 

Interesting stats from UA about the clubs in this article and the accompanying video

http://www.chicagotribune.com/busine...014-story.html

• Memberships up 4% this year
• They don't think they have club pricing right yet - looking at tiered pricing or a price change
• 1.7 million ORD club visits per year (4500 - 5000 per day)
• Typical visit is one hour
• That new ORD lounge is 2x the size of the old one

I wonder how are they able to measure the average stay? FWIW, I don't think they have pricing right either - making Chase club passes good for a 50% off discount visit ought to be just about right :)

They scan each guest's boarding pass, so that should be able to identify the next flight on each itinerary. Of course, one could always leave early, but probably doesn't change these stats.

The could also scan for bluetooth devices, to determine how long each device is in a club (which should be a reasonable subset of guests).

BTW, are one-day passes that have expired (less than 1yr) still worth 50% off? Or did that change when the price went up to $59?

Incredible, everyone I know is dumping their UC memberships.

They could just ask a select group of visitors how long they stayed when they exit the club. Exit polling.

Are they switching club memberships or dropping them entirely?

Wonder how much of that is Chase Club card memberships.

Hard to believe more people are ponying up $500+ just for the membership.

OPM... my guess is 100% of folks flying frequently enough to be GS and some meaningful minority of 1Ks have terms of travel that grant reimbursement for a lounge membership each year. Probably a good chunk coming via club card memberships.

Hint, next time you agree to the T&Cs on the click wrap agreement every time you update/download your United app, read what you're agreeing too.

They're not only tracking length of stay, but where you're sitting in the lounge, where you go in the terminals, and where you eat.

This is true for all apps of nearly every company BTW. Welcome to the world of "big data"

From my experience I believe those stats 100% !

Android's Settings app reports that UA's app has access to your calendar, camera, contacts, location, phone and storage. But you'd need Bluetooth permission to be traced personally inside a UC from seat to seat.

Note that if your phone runs Android 6.0 Marshmallow or newer, you can revoke any of those permissions. The phone will send null data to the app; because the app hasn't been updated for last year's Android release, it won't know to ask you to reverse that veto.

On my device at least it's asking for :
* Bluetooth connection information
Allows the app to control Bluetooth, including broadcasting to or getting information about nearby Bluetooth devices.

It might not be by bluetooth. If you leave your wifi 'on' then I (or others) can easily track your device's movements very accurately. You don't even need to connect to a wifi hotspot for this to happen. How devices communicate with wifi hotspots might be how this is done.

As a 1K, i've been considering buying a UC membership, especially with the food offerings improving. With so much meh-ness about TSA, I'd rather arrive early and sit in a UC instead of taking the chance that TSA pre check lines will be so long I'll miss my flight.

I doubt that UA (or its market research companies) cares about any given individual's situation. This is all a matter of statistical averages, e.g., "the typical visit is about an hour."

As to "everybody is dumping" FT is an insignificant slice of a flea on the back... Same thing as all the people who swear that "everybody is jumping ship". They never are.

Good old-fashioned market research suggests otherwise. Whether it's good value as a paid membership or through a card fee is another question. But, that is subjective. If your employer reimburses, why is it an issue?