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Old Aug 10, 2023 | 2:05 pm
  #1  
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When UC CLT?

The title says it all. CLT is a heavy business destination yet no UC. The CLT club is always waitlisted. And Centaurion the same assuming you have access. UA needs a club here.
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Old Aug 10, 2023 | 2:30 pm
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Same for TPA, or BWI, or MIA, or MCI, or STL, or PIT, or CVG. Can't have them everywhere, I suppose.

At least there is a credible rumor that one is coming to SLC.
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Old Aug 10, 2023 | 2:46 pm
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EWR764 is pretty spot on, you can legitimately make the case for 5-10 more UC's including the places cited.

I think it would be better to reform your question to "why" instead of when.
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Old Aug 10, 2023 | 2:52 pm
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Everyone wants a club in their favourite airport. For the majority of non-hub airports, it makes no business sense and it ain't gonna happen. United's traffic is simply not substantial enough.
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Old Aug 10, 2023 | 4:41 pm
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Originally Posted by elitefreak
The title says it all. CLT is a heavy business destination yet no UC. The CLT club is always waitlisted. And Centaurion the same assuming you have access. UA needs a club here.
I'm curious what the population of UA elites is local in CLT... Even back when I was a Silver, I was hitting the upgrade better than 50% of the time. Frequently on early morning flights non-revs make it up front. I don't think in a year of flying UA weekly out of CLT I've sat aft of the wing's leading edge. Last night coming from Dulles, as of 6 hours to departure, First was only booked to 5 and maybe 10% of Econ+ were booked. Plane went out full after standby and basic econ.

The flight schedule tends to be banked, feeding to the UA hubs. It isn't quite like DL who has frequent other flights like to LGA/BOS that carry a fair bit of local traffic. Perhaps why a Sky Club is coming in the new concourse that's back by I-85.

I agree on The Club being on a wait most of the time.... at 0500 there's usually 15 or so people in line. I generally avoid flying AA (UA and NK are my weeklies) so I'm never on the east side of the terminal except when I fly Contour so I don't try the Amex lounge, but it's been horribly crowded the few times I did.

A UC would be great but I just don't see it happening. Are there any UA stations completely outsourced like CLT is that have a UC?
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Old Aug 10, 2023 | 5:36 pm
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Similar discussion in How to get UA to open a UC at an airport (TPA) where they don't have one?

Questions to be answered
Would having a UC at CLT increase UA's CLT traffic?

But other similar airports have UCs. that is not a valid metric, those are sunken costs. A new CLT UC would require new capital costs and then ongoing operating expenses? What new money would fund it?

CLT is an O/D airport. Arriving passengers don't use UC so it would be based on departing passenger. What is departure profile look like? What hours of operations be needed?

Does the space even exist?

Would the AA dominated airport support a UA UC?

Does UA plan to expand its CLT operations?

Profile of UA's existing customer?
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Old Aug 10, 2023 | 11:54 pm
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Originally Posted by WineCountryUA
Similar discussion in How to get UA to open a UC at an airport (TPA) where they don't have one?

Questions to be answered
Would having a UC at CLT increase UA's CLT traffic?

But other similar airports have UCs. that is not a valid metric, those are sunken costs. A new CLT UC would require new capital costs and then ongoing operating expenses? What new money would fund it?

CLT is an O/D airport. Arriving passengers don't use UC so it would be based on departing passenger. What is departure profile look like? What hours of operations be needed?

Does the space even exist?

Would the AA dominated airport support a UA UC?

Does UA plan to expand its CLT operations?

Profile of UA's existing customer?
Doubtful that a UA club would increase traffic in an American fortress hub, who flies all markets UA flies more times a day with larger aircraft. DL adding a Sky Club in the next year wouldn't do any favors. For year ended March 2023:
American 69.91% (just shy of 31 million pax... includes enplaned and deplaned, cut in half for departing pax roughly)
Delta 2.3% (1 million)
Southwest 1.57% (693,000)
United 1.23% (546,000)
Spirit 1.21% (534,000)
Additionally Lufthansa operates between 5 and 7 flights per week to Munich (currently uses The Club at CLT as its Business Class lounge - which is about as far as one can get from the LH gate area in the terminal, presumably would use a UA facility if available)

No expansion of UA operations known, and unlikely other than shuffling frequencies on current markets and slight up/downgauges of equipment. Station is currently fully outsourced to G2 Services above/below wing. UA does not have a dedicated local General Manager - it is run by another station (used to be the manager in PHL, since she retired I'm not sure if it still resides there... she had family in NC).

Existing customer is largely making onward connections on UA. I don't know local elite population, but anecdotally, Silver/Gold upgrade percentage is pretty good. Non-revs commonly make First Class to EWR/IAD. 1K/GS pre-boarding can vary but it's nothing like other field stations like an Omaha or Raleigh.

United is in a newly built concourse. There is possible lounge space on a mezzanine level but would require complete build-out.

UA's CLT flight schedule for this coming Monday, 14th August is below that I ran from OAG just now... Departures run from 6am to almost 9pm.

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