Over the Pacific on Cathay
The
Club at DFW and Admiral’s Club DFW Terminal D
After working long hours for the past two and a half
days, I was finally able to take a week long break from the daily grind at my
day job. I was looking forward to this
trip as it has been about 10 weeks since I have been in the US. While the weekly trips within the US has kept
me busy and appeased my travel bug, but an actual vacation on a 5 star carrier
such as Cathay Pacific and going overseas is what I miss the most.
The traffic was not too terrible on the way to the
airport but it took my mom about an hour to go home since she wanted to take
her usual route (even though there was a lot of congestion on that
highway). I arrived at DFW a few minutes
before 6PM and had to wait for a few minutes to get checked in at the Priority
AAccess line in Terminal D even though there were 2 agents working. The agent was nice and had a little trouble
finding my Chinese Visa but I was able to show it her when I thought she was
looking for it as she flipped through my passport. She printed all of my boarding passes and
verified that my bag was tagged all the way to Guangzhou. Since she could not pronounce the name of my
final destination, she just pointed to the name on the baggage tag.
The security line at D30 was really long and the
Priority AAccess line was about 15 people deep. One of the TSA people told us
that the line at D20 was wide open. I
made a beeline to there and the Priority AAccess line only had 2 people ahead
of me. I did inquire to see if the
Pre-Check line was available and was told that I had to wait for about 2 more
weeks before they set that up. I ended
up behind a lady that took forever to get her belongings. She was one of those people that stand there
and puts back her shoes, jacket and grabs her bags one by one… very
slowly. That caused a big back up on the
X-ray belt and the agents started yelling at her. I grabbed my bags as fast as I could and took
it to a table to sort through it.
Essentially, they are all the same in regards to the furniture, snack and drink choices. There were several Coca-Cola brand soft drinks in cans, several beers, wines, and liquors along with bottle water, teas, and coffee. Snack included Walker’scookies biscuits, assorted Lay’s chips,
Stacy’s chips, raisins, apples, pretzels, and popcorn. The only thing that was different was a
business center that contained 4 cubicles and a library room which consisted of
2 chairs, some magazines, and a TV. I
stayed until it was closing time and spoke with 2 of the attendants working
there. They both asked me (separately)
where I was headed off to and we chatted about traveling in general.
I decided to head off to Gate 21, the contract
lounge complex, that I had access via the Priority Pass (courtesy of my
American Express Platinum card). The
agent swiped my card and told me I could stay in Room 2 until 7:30PM. There are 5 rooms available and they are
shared by: British Airways, Lufthansa, Korean Air, KLM, Qantas, Emirates, and a
generic contract lounge called “The Club.”
Essentially, they are all the same in regards to the furniture, snack and drink choices. There were several Coca-Cola brand soft drinks in cans, several beers, wines, and liquors along with bottle water, teas, and coffee. Snack included Walker’s
At 7:30PM, I left and headed off to the Admiral’s
Club by D24 and got checked in by an agent (Cindy) that recognized me from
before. I made sure she swiped my
American Express Platinum card so that American Airlines got paid $25 for my
visit. Since I was traveling on an
international itinerary and also Executive Platinum (OneWorld Emerald), I had access to the lounge anyways. She thanked
me for being thoughtful and told me that she recognized me. She was really nice and gave me 2 drink chits
to use. When a bunch of people showed up
for check-in, I then took the elevator up to the main club area so she could
help the other passengers.
The lounge was packed as there were probably several
people heading to Europe and South America.
I traded one of my chits for a bottle of water and returned the other
one back Cindy on my way out. I did chat
with her for a bit and she helped me remember that she used to be at the St.
Louis club but relocated with her husband to the DFW area. That club was subjected to a staff downsizing
and since she was able to transfer to a club at DFW, one of her colleagues was
able to keep their job. She said that
she remembered me because for a period of time in the Fall of 2010 during the
STL double elite miles and triple redeemable miles (quadruple with my Elite
Bonus) promotion. She probably saw me
about every other week for a few months as I took full advantage of that offer. I ended up with 125,000 Elite Qualifying
Miles (with no Elite Rewards bonus that year unfortunately) and a whole bunch
of Redeemable Miles that year. I had
always made sure to stop by that lounge location so that they got credit for my
visit and to print my boarding passes for my continuing flight. She also told me that she always remembers
the nice/polite people that she encounters.
While in the lounge, I found out that American is
closing 4 Admiral’s Club Locations: Kansas City (MCI), Washington-Dulles (IAD),
Panama City (PTY), and Santa Domingo (SDQ).
Also, the Tucson call center will be closed effective August 24th
as well but agents would be given a home-based position or transfer to the DFW
call center (with pay and benefits reduction).
My favorite agents to talk to are the Tucson-based and I am very
disappointed/saddened to hear that they will be closed in a few months.
No comments:
Post a Comment