wrp96

My mom still talks about the business man who, 40+ years ago, offered to hold me (3 weeks old) while she settled my 3 year old brother into his seat, and then offered to hold me for a little while longer. She woke up on landing to realize that he had held me the entire flight. And he thanked her for the privilege because he was missing his kids.

LordHamster

While in line for the United Club entrance, I often see people getting rejected for various reasons. I've toyed with the idea of guesting these random strangers in, but wasn't sure if this is frowned upon by the United Club folks. What are your experiences? Especially when the person in front of you already got the denial, then you swoop in and try to "save" them?

rankourabu

They can frown all they want, but ultimately its your decision on who you guest in. There is no rule they have to be on the same flight, or you have to know them.

I probably wouldnt do it to a fresh rejectee unless I overheard the reason for the rejection. Its more fun to do it to people who have never been inside a lounge.

stimpy

Back in the day of paper upgrade certs, I used to have loads of these and would often look around the gate around for someone worthy of an upgrade. No, it was not to pick up chicks. There was no guarantee they'd be sitting next to me anyways. And I I would select men as much as women to be upgraded. It was just up to my mood and my mood was generally altered after a drink or two in the club. But still I could at least make someone's day. And yes, back in the 1990's there was often space in FC for an upgrade. Such a thing would not be possible today even if we still had paper certs.

Regarding meals, I'm UA Gold (1MM), DL Plat and AA OWE and in general I get what I want for meals. Meals are the least of my concerns when flying domestic in the US.

rittenhousesq

This may seem like such a minor thing, but I was recently on a 2 hour flight in F in the window seat. The person in the aisle seat was either GS or 1K since he was already settled into his seat when I boarded with group 1. It turned out I needed to use the restroom a few more times than average during the flight, and each time when I got up and apologized profusely, he merely look at me, smiled and said he was always glad for a chance to get up and stretch his legs. Such consideration is always appreciated.

SS255

Smiley90

That's definitely not the rule. You can guest anyone. Have done many times.

tapeguy

Many times I have guested people in to the United Club during a layover. Usually it's the person sitting next to me on the previous flight that was friendly. It's really fun to see them in the lounge for the first time when they see the free snacks and booze (even if it's not the best booze). I just gave out a few drink chits on my flight last week since I'm a 1K and get a free drink. I always end up with unused chits at the end of the year.

rittenhousesq

I've heard of this happening many times before, and it's always in a situation as you describe where a club member offers to sponsor someone who has just been turned away. In these cases the agent "makes up this rule" out of annoyance for being overruled by someone that can sponsor a person who may have just spent several minutes pleading entry.

wrp96

Hi, I'm John. What are your names? <turns back to agent> These are my good friends the Smiths.

augs

What is the best way to express this to the crew? I usually state "I would prefer x, but I'm happy to eat anything if you have someone picky.". About 1 in 10 times the FA comes back to ask if I mind substituting y for z. But every once in a while I overhear someone grumble about not getting their first choice which is what I'm eating. I genuinely don't care which $10 meal I get to tide me over till I eat real food and wish to make that clear with as little fuss as possible.

PDXRoy

I like this thread. I've always tried to empathize as an elite. I earned most of my lifetime miles flying transpac in coach since the company I worked for would not pay for Biz without a medical (about 800K miles mostly in E+). I never forget where I'm from and love to give away drink tickets or guest someone into the lounge. In fact, one of most fun interactions I had was to guest an active military passenger into the lounge when he was being turned away and used a RPU to upgrade his transcon...I hope it made his day better, it certainly made my day better.

jsloan

"Whatever you have left over" is generally fine. "Let somebody else have their first choice," which is what started the thread, works too.

Personally, I rarely care for the food served on UA. I've used the "let somebody else.." line a couple of times when turning down food entirely when the flight attendant seemed worried that I didn't like the choices. To be clear -- I didn't, but that's hardly her fault and there was no reason to embarrass her when she was offering me what she had.

StuckinITH

My wife did it once in a USAirways Club in PHL. We entered the Club and I just showed my membership card to let both of us in. Next to us there was a man and his teenage daughter and the Club agent told them that the father could get in but not the daughter. As I left the desk, my wife got her membership card** out and told the club agent that the daughter would be her guest. The agent gave my wife a nasty look but let the daughter in. My wife did chat with them for a few minutes. The father was traveling in Business Class and the daughter in Economy.

**There was a period of 5 years when I was USAirways Chairman's Preferred where they were giving my wife a free membership with my paid one.

Bear4Asian