I even have one of these bougie credit cards that include airport living room get admission to—through Priority Pass—and I usually puzzled what the factor turned into. Sure, you may get some loose snacks and a respectable place to sit down, but it’s no longer like the front room is passing out free Cinnabons and rum-and-cokes to all attendees.
I had nearly written off airport lounges as an “eh if I even have an extra hour to kill” comfort till I stumbled throughout a few Reddit feedback praising one lesser-known feature of these tour sanctuaries: the sellers. As in, the very customer support personnel who’s there that will help you out with any travel problems you’re having with that carrier. And they might even be greater beneficial and accommodating than the other “for the hundreds” agents you’ll find at your service’s price tag counter or gate.
First, let me be clear: I have no longer tried this technique myself, however I’m inclined to bet there are limits to even a lounge agent’s electricity. They are there to check you in and help you be relaxed with all factors of your tour, however, they’re not going to bump you up to a loose first magnificence seat regardless of how properly your domestic dog-dog eyes are.
They can, but, possibly help you together with your reservation—changing or getting a new flight, or maybe identifying your standby situation. If something went wrong in the course of your travels, which includes horrible wifi in your previous flight or a lunch meal that turned into something however delicious, they could even be capable of a voucher you up to remedy the state of affairs.
As this one Redditor described:
Lounges have open bars (yay), higher wifi, and respectable seats & bathrooms. But the satisfactory gain, through a long way, is that airlines preserve their Ninja customer service humans within the lounge. These are the folks who are you able to the ultimate seat on the final flight, although it’s in a higher magnificence. These are the individuals who can get you a motel for the night time and a voucher for a first-rate meal.
My spouse continually puzzled my lounge club, saying that we ought to’ve used those miles for the journey. Then we took a ride to California and the whole lot went incorrect. “To the Lounge!” And the whole lot was just fixed.
Not satisfied but? Here’s another Redditor story of horrible travel grew to become wonderful:
Just the ultimate week I had the whole lot pass pear-formed for a connecting flight to Madrid. The AA agent within the DCA Admirals Club critically kept working once I had resigned myself to now not getting a seat throughout the Atlantic in time for Christmas and basically found me the closing possible seat to my vacation spot. (significantly, transatlantic are fucking full right earlier than Christmas). I would have never gotten that type of service inside the relaxation of the terminal or over the smartphone.
If you’re already flying fancy, an airport front room’s customer service group might be even extra interested in helping you out when you come upon travel issues:
I had a commercial enterprise-class reserving on BA from SFO to LHR a few years ago, but it has been ticketed as an economic system because I’d had to trade my flight. The take a look at-in assistant wouldn’t even provide me the time of day after I asked about upgrading, however, after I went up to the front room they regarded to take it nearly as a non-public affront that a passenger with an enterprise-class booking hadn’t been upgraded and processed it immediately. They definitely pressed me sincerely hard to don’t forget the call of the check-in agent; glaringly desired to write her up, but I sure didn’t don’t forget.
You might even success out, opposite to me in advance cynicism:
[Spent] 60 bucks in Atlanta during an unplanned 6-hour layover to get into the SkyLounge, the rep discovered me a flight three hours faster and bumped me to first magnificence plus $30 Amex discount and I became consuming loose liquids free of charge.
Also, I turned into afforded the threat to observe the huddled hundreds underneath do the ‘bird-little’ re-booking frantically, flailing wildly around until exhaustion value absolutely everyone all in their ultimate wish. One with the aid of one they slowed and fell into slouched strains, inching miserably in the direction of the next piece of unhappiness ready at each price ticket counter. It made me surprise how ways along I’d be in lifestyles if I wasn’t constantly saddled with poverty’s burdens.
