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United Airlines announced sweeping changes to its lounge policies on Monday where it increased the cost of membership, altered guest policies, and altered the access time limits for many at its United Club℠ lounges. Part of these policy changes made the guest passes provided to certain credit cardholders much less valuable.
Starting on May 1st, the use of one-time passes will change as follows:
- Passengers can enter United Clubs℠ up to three hours prior to a United or Star Alliance partner flight’s scheduled departure time (there is no time limit on connecting flights).
- One-time passes will be valid only at standard United Clubs℠, and will no longer grant access to locations like United Club Fly℠.
- Guests who receive one-time passes as part of MileagePlus® co-branded credit card benefits can no longer gift these passes. They may only be redeemed by the primary cardmember, authorized users, or their accompanied guests. The primary cardmember or authorized user must be present.
The one-time passes used to be great to give to a friend or colleague, but that is no longer possible unless they are traveling with you. It’s not uncommon to see a sign in front of a United Club℠ that states that one-time passes are not currently being accepted. The lounges are crowded and I get implementing time limits will hopefully lessen the number of people packing these spaces. I’m not sure if taking the ability away to guest these passes will have the desired impact, however.
Anthony’s Take: I have several United co-branded credit cards and I’m considering cancelling them. Annual fees have increased and putting spend on these cards is not too rewarding. The benefits I once valued are largely offered through holding Premier 1K® status and not being able to gift my guest passes is another loss (I have a United Club℠ membership, so I don’t need them).
(Image Credit: United Airlines.)
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Advertiser & Editorial Disclosure: The Bulkhead Seat earns an affiliate commission for anyone approved through the links above This compensation may impact how and where links appear on this site. We work to provide the best publicly available offers to our readers. We frequently update them, but this site does not include all available offers. Opinions, reviews, analyses & recommendations are the author’s alone, and have not been reviewed, endorsed, or approved by any of these entities.
1 comment
Scott Kirby – one step forward, two steps back.