Team-BHP - Airport lounges have gone from bad to worse

Quote:

Originally Posted by shankar.balan (Post 5669003)

The eternal search for that ‘elusive sense of exclusivity’ from the common man’s perspective. Does nothing except feed the ego. And causes immense unnecessary frustration.

I would like to share my recent observation.

Two weeks ago, I was at lounge 080 in Bangalore T2 terminal. An elderly gentleman walked in; he found some acquaintance already seated. He asked the staff if it is okay to pull the chair from another table, and the staff waved his hand from a distance confirming his consent. This group continued to chat. Staff did not offer any special treatment. The gentleman who walked in is - Mr. Noel Tata
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noel_Tata)

A few minutes later, a famous cricketer from GJ who was not part of WC 2023 team walked in with his entourage. Entire lounge noticed his presence, staff begin rushing to treat him well. Managers began to scramble and block tables, the celebrity in question didn't even acknowledge the presence of anyone around!

Never thought I would come across such an elitist thread on this forum. Have we become what we fought (Dogs and Indians are not allowed)?
I am currently out of the country and travelled for more than 30 hours and I know how excruciating these journeys can be and at the same time understand the pain my fellow traveller go through. They also deserve the same as I do. Blaming only the greedy bankers for issuing CC with free lounge access is one of the simplest form of capitalism. Those people must have done something right in the life to get that card.
We are a country of humongous population, growing phenomenally. Just look at the number of cars coming up on road each year, made possible through car loans. Would we deny them the road access or would some of the folks here deny driving on the same road as they do or would they demand higher toll so that only they get to drive?
Look at the people holding iPhones these year, also made possible because of lure of “NoCost EMIs” or on EMIs. Would you stop buying an iPhone because it is no more a status symbol or would you buy caviar versions now?
Also, calling out people for their behaviour speaks so much of our own upbringing. Behavioural change comes with generation. People becoming economically better will give good education to their kids, who will then learn better etiquette and manners. We need to keep an open mind.
Finally, the crowd is our strength. Our whole economy is consumption based. People hating the lounges because of the queue there don’t have the guts to only serve the elites in their own businesses.
Get well soon.

Quote:

Originally Posted by shankar.balan (Post 5669003)

...A few bonuses from casually wandering open-eyed, about an airport and not choosing the so-called, over-rated ‘lounge cocoon’, are shown below; from some travel that I undertook last week.

The Porsche is still in Doha I see.

This year took me around GCC/MENA namely Oman, Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain, Egypt & Turkey. Whenever I was missing home, the hustle-bustle, chaos, entry queues, buffet table queues, parallel and horizontal queues, loudspeakers on mobile phones, kids crying and running behind each other, lay down flat on a 3 seater sofa, etc etc.....

....I just enter the Lounge. ;)

I personally don't see this being elitist. I think its just about lounges supposed to being more quiet and relaxing spaces without too much hustle and bustle. And for whatever reason they are the absolute opposite of that, in fact the gates are more quiet many a time. But as rightly put, we are in the transition where the purchasing power of our population is going up, along with various other factors which is leading to this. I think its not just lounges, but in many other places considered exclusive earlier.

I forsee that there will be new infra made, which will cater to those who want a more exclusive experience and are willing to pay for it.

But this isn't just in India, its happening in a lot more places to. Its happened in the US too, and now a lot of lounge access has been cut down. Heck, I was flying Delta business out of SFO (domestic) and I was denied access to a certain Delta lounge which was apparently only for their top tier of frequent fliers, and also needed certain cards in combination with the ticket to gain access. If I wanted access to a lounge I would have to go to the main lounge further away.

While the debate about being elitists goes on, there is a point that's overlooked. Is this free lounge access for every card a sustainable deal in the long run?

Banks pay about Rs 800 when someone visits a domestic lounge & around Rs 1,500 for international lounge. In last financial year, Dreamfolks saw a jump of around 175% in revenue. They are the largest lounge provider in India.

Many major banks recently revised their lounge policy. I'm in a few regional Facebook communities related to credit cards and many folks are collecting cards for free just for getting access to lounge. On the other side, probably only a small percentage of card holders are using lounge access benefit.

There are many videos on Youtube with millions of views on the topic - "get food for Rs 2 at airport". Obviously it is great but eventually becomes unsustainable for banks.

I think banks still will close this leakage of money soon. Number of times you can access a lounge will probably be based on the spends.

Conclusion is that nothing is free in this world. Nobody will give free food and nice seats at an airport for Rs 2 without expecting anything in return - especially the banks. If exclusivity is going to get them more rich customers, they will definitely do that.

Quote:

Originally Posted by navaneeth (Post 5669558)

Many major banks recently revised their lounge policy.

I have multiple debit/credit cards with airport lounge access benefit and at least three of those revised lounge access policy, either reduced number of complimentary lounge access per quarter or requiring certain minimum spending per month/quarter to retain complimentary lounge access.

Guwahati airport lounge is very small. When we visited in May 2023, it was very crowded. During my last visit in July 2023, I found the same lounge almost empty, only 5 people + me at around 8:00 pm. It seems they have severely restricted cards and only specified cards from Banks are accepted. Similar crowd control measures may be implemented in other lounges.

Going through the posts in this thread made me realise how we have changed over the years. Aditya wrote the thread and shared his experiences regarding the lounges of the airports and each and every word of it is true. The quality of the lounges have indeed come down from the glory days.

Domestic terminals don’t really entail the use of the lounges for obvious reasons since long haul flights in the domestic sector are now a rarity. One doesn’t really need to use the lounge for killing time anymore if not for some cancellation or any unknown delay. Of course, the business class passengers have needs of their own to use the lounges.

Keeping that aside, there was a time when the lounges provided premium experiences and predictably, with the increase in volume of traffic over the years, the lounges have not kept themselves up with the changing times.

Besides, one most important thing which everybody perhaps has missed is the premiumness of the airlines itself. This is the age of low cost airlines where everything is supposedly low cost !! But, in the name of low cost, almost most of the premium service has been withdrawn while the prices are anything but low cost. Worse, one needs to pay for even selecting the seats !!

Same with the lounges, with the demography of passengers altering bigtime, the changes are inevitable. I see some folks think of the thread as elitist but the ones who are used to exclusivity are bound to feel short changed by the changes. It’s a sad truth that the entry point to the lounge feels very crowded these days. I am no user of the domestic lounges much but the queues are certainly a dampener even for the ones who are not really keen on entering the lounge. The crowd is often unruly and noisy.

Airports these days have come up a long way. Most of the airports have been augmented with capacity additions for passenger handling but nothing much has changed with the lounges though. The operators or the concierge running the show are to be blamed too.

Credit card companies have their product to sell but they have no control over the user behaviour at the lounges. I have seen passengers at the lounge hogging the entire row of seats just to keep their luggages beside while people were found standing. There are many such examples I can mention here. Human behaviour is to be blamed here and being an elite/ non elite doesn’t have anything to do with it.

Lounges have deteriorated immensely and that’s the naked truth whether someone likes it or not !

Afterthought- Around a decade back, I was asked to vacate the lounge at Guwahati airport since some Z class protectee was to arrive at the lounge. I moved out quietly but I wonder what would someone from the present generation would feel about the same !!