ibrandsguest

Are the US Airways Clubs profitable?

Given the following facts:

*the slew of Club closings a few years ago (meaning reductions of excessive costs by US),
*all sorts of opportunities to pay to access them (meaning plenty of revenue opportunities for US), and
*continued investment in new Clubs (meaning that the rate of return on the investment must be decent),

I'd guess that they must at least lose acceptably low amounts of money to be considered a bearable cost of business to lure profitable customers.

I'm just curious!

Thanks.

Mr. Vker

They are one of (if not the only) clubs that allow access via Amex Plat even if you are not flying US that day. Most airlines require you be flying with them as well. US charges Amex a fee for each access. I think that has to be a great revenue stream for the clubs.

Granitebox

I don't believe there are intended to be profitable. Its a cost of doing business with the business/frequent traveler and thus has to be considered in the whole scheme of operations. As a stand alone business, not a good model for sure.

ericcheung

My guess is that they are desinged to be profit centers. the phl a west club mostly supports envoy passengers.however, all the other clubs likely need to cover their costs from swipe fees to other carriers, Amex, priority pass, day pass and memberships. the actual costs of the club are mostly fixed (rent) and some minor variable costs like cheap beer and packaged snacks.

The closing of some clubs and investment in others is probably more a ratio of traffic to costs.

Biggie Fries

My sense of the clubs is that there is some sort of balancing act, especially for US, where you want/need to have them but try to keep costs down to the point where each additional user is near pure profit. The PHX clubs lately strike me as over-subscribed and shabby; I found myself thinking I would be more comfortable in the exterior, especially given that you can find wifi airport-wide.

Speaking of which, at PHL B/C the wifi is slow; at PHL A (the now defunct Envoy Club, which was a feather in the cap), the wifi is essentially nonexistent. The ill-humored staff gives a collective shrug ("There are too many people on it right now" [where "now" is "always"]), as though this were something over which US has no control and should be borne stolidly by the rest of us.

My big indicator, however, is the snack mix. It is degenerating, with the "shiny bits" (arare) representing a new low. A few raisins, please. An M&M from time to time? In contrast, this month I have been in a UA club with yogurt-covered raisins and a brighter mix next to that; and DL had about five choices, including twisted-honey pretzels.

Not that I'm paying close attention to this unimportant stuff ....

jfinsocal

Many pay $7+ for premium beer/wine/cocktails - I find it hard to believe they don't make some money here.

masonuc

There is no answer to this question because it all depends on your accounting. There's a million different ways to calculate the rent, discounts to premiers, value in terms of goodwill to fliers, etc.

thphilly

I think they definitely need to make changes to the wifi in them. It's very poor and I thought it was supposed to be one of the main selling points.

NovaEngr

Interesting. I've never had a wifi problem at either B-C or A-west. Usually midday, so maybe not enough usage to really bog things down, but it has always been fine for me.

m44

Have you seen the LH lounges in FRA or MUC. They have multiple clubs in the airport. And they do have arrival clubs too. They have first class and "chairman's" (Senator) lounges and the business crowd longues too.
They give real food, real fruit, real booze in good selection FOR FREE.
How do they do that?

SFTNYC

Non-US carriers lounge philosophies are different. It's not a profit center, it's a customer retention tool and competitive necessity.

Try buying a membership or one-day pass to an LH, BA, AF etc. lounge. You can't. Entry is by class of service or status only. Generally status is harder to obtain (no 100% accrual on the lowest economy fares), and business class (shorthaul especially) is all paid passengers (no unlimited shorthaul upgrades).

SaveDelta

I have found the WiFi in PHL clubs to be lackluster recently. Maybe just that location? It was fine at LGA today.

coastalguy

I've had trouble with the PHL B-C location wifi for the last two trips. On my last trip through (2 weeks ago) I spent ~1/2 hour on the phone with technical support. Apparently there was a bad router that was discovered and will be replaced. They stated I was the first one to report the issue, which I found hard to believe but who knows.

phlwookie

It's been that way for a while, but I figured it was just saturated as I was in there only when busy. I suppose most just did what I did - move to a MiFi, use a smartphone as a hotspot or just put up with it.

Good to hear there's a potential resolution here, thanks for following through with it.

Biggie Fries

Wow, that's interesting and potentially good news.

Does not clear up the problem in A which is worse and which gets reported to them on a routine basis. Or have things improved there lately?