Xyzzy

IMH it's really not too much to ask. I hardly ever end up needing to enter when flying on another airline -- but when I am I don't think it's unreasonable for me to expect to be granted access. They've had my money for a while.

worldwidedreamer

From my perspective there are two different communities: people who paid for access after the restriction announcement, and people before. For the people who paid to be able to access the lounges whenever, not limited to legacy lifetime members, United should live up to its end of the bargain. For people who renewed, or signed-up, after the announcement United is not being classy but you fundamentally made the choice to renew.

While an interested party, I'm not the judge and jury. I think that this may take some time to play out, but that it will be hard for front line employees to turn club members away. I also think that the public relations optics to this are at play too...and that UA is more likely to budge than AA. After all most lifetime United Club members were acquired after its merger with Continental, and many CO LT members bought after the bankruptcies.

Remember: from an accounting perspective a lifetime membership is a deferred liability; I'm not a lawyer, but my understanding is that CH 11 can be used to reduce liabilities, so there might be different outcomes for pre-bankruptcy vs post UA customers and the same for CO. Also remember...everything we say here is discoverable and there is an unfortunately good chance this will all end up in court some day.

WineCountryUA

As UA gave a year's notice, all annual purchasers would be in the second group. So it is only the Lifetime folks that met your criteria.

It has been greater than 5 years since anything other than an annual subscription has been offered.

HNLbasedFlyer

It isn't going to be hard. When you scan your BP, if it isn't same day UA - the machine will beep and the agent will deny entry.

Mikey

As I have said before, and have also relayed to United, this is a self-correcting problem. They have not sold lifetime membership in years, so the number of us who hold lifetime memberships goes down every year. They don't have to do anything at all and eventually they will be no more lifetime members going to the clubs.

Mikey

All the lifetime members are terribly affected by this awful change. Corporate greed at its worst.

the club in my home airport is never incredibly crowded, so so why implement this change here? if overcrowding is the problem, stop giving out memberships with your credit card. if you sell more memberships than you have space for that's not the lifetime members problem. It's a management problem.

Xyzzy

The number of lifetime members entering the club with a non-UA boarding pass has got to be minimal. Fixing this really is a nn problem (ETA) for United. It is an issue of their own making. They could, and should, easily correct it.

Regarding CC memberships, UA makes a TON of money there. It's cheaper for customers and more beneficial to UA to combine credit card signup and membership.

Mikey

you say fixing this is a non problem. As a lifetime member who is being screwed over by this change I consider it a terrible thing that they're doing.

in my mind what they're doing is trying to fix a problem when they have no problem with lifetime members.

HNLbasedFlyer

It's not like they are losing any business from you if you are flying other airlines and accessing the club - I have a lifetime membership from 2MM when they had that benefit and it never occurred to me to use the club using another airline until I read this thread. They philosophically don't want people in the club who aren't flying United - I think that makes sense.

gmt4

I think what he meant by "non problem" was that it would be "no problem" for them to fix this and allow an exception for life members. At least that's how I read and understood it.

I'm betting that in the twelfth hour on 31 Oct UA will come out with an exception for life members.

Mikey

I may have misunderstood his intent.

Xyzzy

Sorry - I meant it is a nn problem for UNITED - they could easily wave their magic rule book and cover us (I, too, am a lifetime member). I will fix my post above to clarify this.

As someone who paid for a lifetime membership, use of the club whenever I wished to do so (whether flying United or nt) was most certainly a benefit that I both expected and enjoyed as part of my purchase.

Mikey

I can't imagine it would even make much difference at all in club crowds if they Grant these exceptions to lifetime members.

nsx

I'm betting not. They have been asked many times to reconsider. DOT complaints didn't budge them. By now most lifetime members have seen United's disdain for them. United does not have much more to lose unless a PR storm develops in November. Their lawyers must believe that they can crush our lawyers. Given the scams that airlines have gotten away with, I'd bet on their lawyers too.

Continental and United were very, very good to me over the years. I hate being betrayed by a friend.

nomad420

So not holding a LT membership I asked my ex business partner who does to get his take on all of this. While he wasn't happy about it but he said he is still pretty hooked to UA for his travel needs and only was rarely using when flying other carriers. Also as his hub is SFO he said it is VERY inconvenient to use the UCs there when flying really anything but UA. As a life long UC member myself (not LT) I use the UC only rarely as well. I was using the PHX club occasionally when I had a delay with other carriers often WN. But I agree it is still a further eroding of already minimal benefits.