I even have one of these bougie credit cards, which includes airport living room admission through Priority Pass, and I am usually puzzled about what the factor has become. 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 until I stumbled through a few Reddit feedback posts praising one lesser-known feature of these tour sanctuaries: the sellers. The customer support personnel there will help you with travel problems with that carrier. And they might even be more 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. 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 relax with all your tour factors tour. However, regardless of how properly your domestic dog-dog eyes are, they won’t bump you to a loose first magnificence seat.
They can, but possibly, help you with your reservation—changing or getting a new flight or maybe identifying your standby situation. If something went wrong during your travels, such as horrible wifi on your previous flight or a lunch meal that turned into something delicious, they could even be capable of a voucher to remedy the situation.
As this one Redditor described:
Lounges have open bars (yay), better Wwifi-F, and decent seats and bathrooms. However, the satisfactory gain, through a long way, is that airlines keep their Ninja customer service humans within the lounge. Although it’s more magnificent, these folks can get the ultimate seat on the final flight. These individuals can get you a motel for the night and a voucher for a first-rate meal.
My spouse continually puzzled my lounge club, saying we ought to’ve used those miles for the journey. Then we rode to California, and the whole lot went wrong. “To the Lounge!” And the whole lot was just fixed.
Not satisfied, but? Here’s another Redditor story of horrible travel that 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 resigned myself to not getting a seat throughout the Atlantic in time for Christmas and found me the closest possible seat to my vacation spot. (Significantly, transatlantic are fucking full right earlier than Christmas). I would have never gotten that service inside 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 it nearly as a non-public affront that a passenger with an enterprise-class booking hadn’t been upgraded and processed it immediately. They pressed me sincerely hard not to forget the check-in agent’s call; I glaringly desired to write her up, but I sure didn’t forget.
You might get 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 a flight three hours faster and bumped me to first magnificence plus a $30 Amex discount, and I began consuming loose liquids free of charge. I also turned into the threat to observe the huddled hundreds underneath do the ‘bird-little’ re-booking frantically, flailing wildly around until exhaustion values everyone in their ultimate wish. One with the aid of one, they slowed and fell into slouched strains, inching miserably toward the next piece of unhappiness ready at each price ticket counter. It made me surprised how far along I’d be in lifestyles if I weren’t constantly saddled with poverty’s burdens.
