Category Archives for Lounges.
This is a really cool opportunity. The brand new San Francisco Polaris lounge will be opening April 30th. Before that happens there’s a preview day on Friday, April 27 where the lounge is fully operational. And any MileagePlus member can redeem for a visit.
Three weeks ago I cited Denver city documents that revealed an American Express Centurion lounge would be built at the Denver airport, and that a Plaza Premium Lounge was pending approval as well.
American Express is now sharing renderings of the lounge and some additional details.
The airline has said they expect the San Francisco, Newark, Houston and Los Angeles lounges to open this year — with the first three this summer.
And they’ve apparently learned their lesson with the Polaris debacle of overpromising and underdelivering seats and lounges, because it looks like they’re going to beat the summer opening projection for San Francisco — by a lot.
There are several oddball lounge relationships. There’s a lounge you can access with an American Admirals Club membership — or even a United Club or Delta Skyclub membership — that you won’t find listed on the website.
Reportedly there will be “an open ‘demonstration kitchen’ where chefs will whip up Malaysian and international gourmet dishes”
The highlight of The Private Room is the cooked to order menu, which you can take in the dining room or anywhere else in the lounge you wish. Servers come around to take orders and see if there’s anything they can get for you to drink as well. Service is a plus in the lounge.
United failed to open a single Polaris business class lounge in 2017. As American opened four of its own business lounges between June and December, United was left only with its first Chicago outpost.
At the end of the year the airline even removed the timetable for Polaris lounge openings.
Etihad has been on a crash course lately to stop the bleeding from unprofitable airline investments, cut costs, and monetize premium services where they can.
Now they’re selling Residence lounge access at New York JFK even though Etihad offers double-daily A380 service between New York and Abu Dhabi.
American Express is opening a Centurion lounge at New York JFK’s terminal 4 in early 2019. It will be the largest Centurion lounge yet and they promise “new amenities” on top of standard Centurion lounge offerings.
Over the summer I wrote about someone bringing 19 people in an airport lounge using the Priority Pass Select card that comes with the Chase Sapphire Reserve. You get unlimited airport lounge visits at participating lounges (over 1000 worldwide, here are the U.S. airport lounges). You also get unlimited guests at no additional charge.
It turns out the woman who brought in 19 guests was just a piker.
Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel -- a topic he has covered since 2002.
Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »
