Following the lead of Delta Sky Club and Admirals Club — which are the official airport lounges of Delta Air Lines and American Airlines respectively — access to United Club airport lounges will be more restrictive effective as of Friday, November 1, 2019, as same-day boarding passes on flights operated by United Airlines or partner airlines will be required for entry.
United Club Access Change Coming in 2019
The following announcement pertains to members of United Club and their guests:
Effective November 1, 2019, United Club customers, including members and their guests, and one-time pass holders will need to provide a same-day boarding pass for travel on United, Star Alliance or a contracted partner for entry into all United Club locations.
Nothing in the announcement indicates that the change in the policy of accessing United Club lounge locations will be any different for holders of any of the official affiliated credit cards of United Airlines.
Additionally, no indication has been given that the cost of membership will increase, as has been announced by American Airlines for its Admirals Clubs.
Summary
This news comes as absolutely no surprise after the changes in the policies of accessing of Delta Sky Club lounges and Admirals Club lounges were recently announced; but I have to admit that I must have been asleep while earning my Master of Business Administration degree during the class which apparently teaches that a company must exactly follow the lead of its competitors in order for it to be successful. After all, why bother taking the time to come up with anything original on your own?!?
Regardless, no longer will members be able to use a United Club lounge if they are at the airport and preparing to fly as passengers on different airlines which are not partners of United Airlines.
I offered my reasons in this article which I wrote on Monday, October 19, 2015 as to why I personally would not pay $59.00 for a one-time visit to a Delta Sky Club — the same applies to United Clubs, Admirals Clubs and other airport lounges — but that is just my opinion
Although these policies will adversely affect many people, some will welcome the aforementioned changes, as they see them euphemistically as ways of the reduction of crowds in Admirals Clubs. This comment which was written by Donald Osborne — who is a reader of The Gate — pertaining to the more restrictive change to access to Delta Sky Clubs is one example of that mindset: “I’m good with that. A dramatic reduction in the crowds in the Sky Club is much more important to me than the one or two times a year I might visit a Delta lounge when flying another airline. Delta is smart in this policy. They know that the most loyal flyers will like it and those who fly frequently fly non-Sky Team airlines but use the lounges anyway won’t. There’s no real incentive to make them happy so I get it.”
Is United Airlines similarly smart in the aforementioned forthcoming changes to its United Club policies?
Source: United Club.
