Comment by spdustin | Hacker News Reader

Comment by spdustin | Hacker News Reader

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Um... All airports with United or American lounges? It's $50 a day, though. With American, they actively try to sell you a day pass on their in-airport check-in terminals.

Edit: please don't correct actual life experience with a quote from Wikipedia.

United Club is the name of their "first class" lounge, as people incorrectly refer to them. Those United Club Lounges have complimentary booze [1]. And no airline is going to allow a passenger to board who had obviously consumed the amount of alcohol you're referring to. I know: I practically lived at the T3 United Club lounge at O'Hare for many years, I was traveling so much. Not as much any more, but when I've been delayed significantly and I'm super-stressed because I'm speaking at a conference or something, I still occasionally get a day pass.

The United lounges you're referring to are considerably more elite, and most travelers don't even know they exist. Again, taken from actual experience and not a quick perusal of a Wikipedia article.

American's "Admiral's Club" [2] no longer offers complimentary liquor.

[1] http://www.united.com/web/en-US/content/travel/airport/loung...

[2] https://www.aa.com/i18n/travelInformation/airportAmenities/A...

That's United Club - that's not the first class lounge at all.

If you read the wikipedia page http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Club it says you can buy access to United Club, but doesn't say that about the first class lounge. In fact it says:

"the access rules are significantly more restrictive than for United Club. Access to Global First Lounges is generally restricted to United Global First passengers, Star Alliance First Class customers, and Global Services passengers confirmed in Business Class."

In the first class lounge you get free food and drink including alcohol. If you could really get in for $50 a day, you could easily eat and drink that much worth.

If you could really get in for $50 a day, you could easily eat and drink that much worth.

No need to pay $50 a day, just buy a fully-flexible first class ticket and keep re-scheduling it:

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/mad-mad-world/Chine...

> If you could really get in for $50 a day, you could easily eat and drink that much worth.

Or just get an American Express card (Platinum, ideally - no additional fees) and net access to the Centurion lounge and all Delta lounges (when flying Delta).

The Centurion lounge is second-to-none domestically, and the Delta lounges aren't half-bad when it comes to the free booze (some are self-serve - Jack Daniels, Grey Goose, etc.)

United's clubs are a joke comparatively.

That card is $400 a year.

And they haven't reduced the fee even while losing Continental lounges when it was bought by United.

For my money, the Citi AAdvantage Executive card is a better similar card, because it now gives you access to all AA and USAirways lounges. While you're right that in my experience the Delta lounges are better (the only amex lounge I've been to is at mccarran), what matters most to me is a lounge in the cities i connect thru.

The Citi card is the same AF as the Amex Plat but Plat has policy of never waiving first year AF and Citi often has a promotion doing just that (or a portion of).

But on the other hand, with that $400 you also get free Global Entry & PreCheck, $200 of airline incidentals per year (in-air food, baggage overages, upgrades, whatever), unlimited free companion tickets when you purchase tickets for yourself via their concierge service, free gold/elite status with most major car rental and hotel chains, and whatever other non-travel benefits there are. For frequent travelers it can pretty easily pay for itself.

That's because they're a huge international airline and they have to keep things kosher.

GS is a special invite status reserved for celebrities and high ranking politicians. My assumption is that they need that space so that they can load the person from the tarmac or have them check out of the airport. Thats speculation, but those individuals do have different needs from an airline. [Also onboarding needs as well as that they don't enter from the jetway]

Global Services is just a set of people who spend a ton of money on United. It's not only people who have interesting personal security requirements.

GS folks board normally, though sometimes will get called by name to board first. GS is invited essentially on revenue only (though perhaps special people have special handling). If your spend is above $50k, you probably have a fair chance of getting invited to GS.

Why has this been downvoted?

Some downvotes are accidental. They're usually corrected by other people.

United Clubs simply aren't first class lounges. Just because a true fact is on Wikipedia doesn't make it less true. Also the complimentary booze has been pretty cut back and they now charge bar-like prices for many items. In general their service level for first class passengers in their main region seems to be declining (particularly the in flight meals-I've had stuff I'd send back at a burger king).

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