sexykitten7

And they'll discontinue the $50 initiation fee. Looks like the change was (un)announced sometime in the last week.

https://www.united.com/ual/en/us/fly...hip-rates.html

HNLbasedFlyer

Well - its about time, seems that is the best route to reduce the crowds. They don't show the new prices for elites though.

PsiFighter37

spin88

What a joke. I have an Amex PLT card, SO has one too, the AMEX lounges are far, far, far better than UA's lounges, are in most of the airports I frequently, and as long as I fly AS or DL, I can use my AMEX card to access the lounges on them (or internationally) as well. Costs me $550 x2, and I get a great credit card to boot. @:-)

The package UA is offering is just inferior, to go with an inferior lounge. These kinds of things just make UA non-competitive. Faced with flying AS the other day (lounge access) vs. UA (no lounge access) guess who I flew....

entropy

And new access restrictions (same day UA/partner only)

I have to think that the one time passes are a big pollutant (probably explorer is at least 10x the club card) but I'm sure the club members/card holders are far heavier users.

onthesam

Overcrowded clubs. Degraded food experiences (except LAX <3). This. Is crap.

PsiFighter37

The UA hot food choices at the ORD UCs are nice as well.

What UA really needs to is to cut down on the credit card passes, or raise the price of the 1-time passes a meaningful amount. I have got to imagine that most people in the club are not regular UC members, whether via the Club Card or direct membership.

milepig

onthesam

The chicken mush in May followed by this months beef mush?

The ORD food has fallen off a cliff. Well documented on FT (and in person).

ETA:

How is $59 not meaningful? I was at ORD earlier this year and an agent was trying to talk a gentleman out of purchasing a 1-time pass as he only had 20 minutes (and was jet lagged, in transit from SYD. I guested him in.). She insisted it wasn't worth the money.

freakflyer

So I am reading this as saying that everybody, no matter the status, is paying $650/year? 1K's now pay $450. And with the new rates the Chase UA Club card at $450/year will be seeing a huge spike in apps (subject to 5/24). " Effective August 13, 2019, we will no longer require a $50 United Club initiation fee. The new United Club annual membership price will be $650 or 85,000 miles. "

Gig103

Yeah but you're posting in a united forum and not all of their airports have Centurion lounges. And Amex entry dragons aren't going to (easily, if at all) help during IROPS. It isn't apples to apples, and nor is it confirmed the CC will go up. Maybe this United makes enough sharing revenue with Chase to keep that at the current annual fee - I'm pretty sure that happened with AA and Citi (or maybe it was that Citi allows multiple free cardholders vs. a family account).

Kacee

"Many other clubs" is something of an overstatement. Those who fly out of SFO know the UC food options at UA's so-called "crown jewel" are just pathetic. Was just at BOS, which was even worse. And of course the UC situation at EWR is a complete embarrassment.

Thanks UA, for making the renewal decision so easy for me.

JHake10

I guess they got what they wanted. I won't renew. I've been flying AS/DL more and more and its fantastic. With T-Mobile I get free GoGo Internet and when flying DL I get access to SkyClubs with the AMEX Plat. No brainer for me.

spin88

I am making a more fundamental point. For those who value a decent (and reasonably priced) lounge experience, United is more and more taking itself out of the running. Yes, if you are tied at the hip to United, then it really does not matter what they do to you, right. No need to worry if they are competitive.

But for a lot of fliers, and particularly people who have the AMEX PLT card, flying UA just gets to be less and less of an option.

The point of having lounges is to attract and retain customers. United is not a lounge provider, its an AIRLINE. It attracts passengers (or repels them) with its offerings, and jacking up the lounge price, while cutting their quality (a trend we know is going to get worse as more Polaris Lounges get rolled out) is going to have an impact.

I used to have a Club card, ditched it, and well, when I found that when I flew DL (and now AS) with my AMEX card I got lounge access in their lounges, while on UA I got bupkis, it started to steer yet more of my $$$ away from UA. I doubt I am the only one.

SFHokie

I've been looking for a reason to cancel my UC membership (that I have through the Chase United Club card) and this might just be the thing to do it. Living overseas I never really use United Clubs and when I do travel I'm *G anyway so I gain access to lounges on most of the legs.