I have a trip coming up later this week with United from Newark and received an interesting message from the airline. They were writing to inform me that their lounges will likely be full and that I should consider alternative options including utilizing their OTG dining partner locations instead – United MP Credit Cardmembers enjoy a 20% discount and all!
Let’s add some perspective, United is currently upgrading their lounge experience at Newark and is handicapped with two “pop-up” locations while construction continues. They are planning for major enhancements.
In any case, I thought it was interesting and as a United Club member, I’m not sure what to make of it. Yes, I’m a member and they are recommending that I might want to avoid the club! Perhaps there should be a voucher program in place to use at some of those OTG partner locations. How about access to the Polaris Lounge 😉 What do you think?
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5 comments
If flying out of terminal C you should go to Classified instead. You have to be invited to make a reservation at Classified, but I have the ability to make reservations for others (as do others who have received an invite from United and OTG in the past). Your 20% off coupon should work there too.
So, the solution you came up with is to ignore the money you already paid for lounge access and give them more money? Wouldn’t this just encourage them to continue to oversell?
Um, he asked what his other options were given that the lounge is crowded. I let him know of another option. Is it ideal? Depends on one’s perspective and what they want to do while waiting for the flight. I can’t create a new lounge or a free solution out of thin air, bro.
I think it’s helpful that they gave you a heads up rather than just finding out when you get there. We all like to whine and moan when lounges become old and dated and in order to have new and modern there’s going to be a little pain along the way. We can’t have it both ways and no, opening up Polaris to everyone is a terrible idea.
I find this incredibly frustrating. So they sell you lounge access, but much like actual airline seats, they oversell and cannot accommodate everyone. Their solution is to have you spend more money in order to get what yuo already paid for.