Okay I haven’t seen this reported elsewhere but one of my friends just told me that they got a Madras Cocktail (Premium Vodka) complimentary at the United Club EWR and insists that the entire bar was complimentary as well.
His exact words: “The receptionist on the front desk briefed us. She said its open bar, breakfast, etc”
It would be huge if this were an unannounced policy change since United Club is available to all Star Alliance Gold members, Chase United Club Credit Card holders, all international business/first and p.s. travellers, and Club pass holders. That is a fairly large demographic and United Clubs are notoriously crowded: one would imagine that the costs would be fairly prohibitive for such a policy change.
Now, I can’t confirm if this is just a one off incident of an employee not knowing United rules or a radical change in United Club’s policy but I am heavily leaning towards the former. In fact, I wasn’t going to post about this admittedly anecdotal incident but United is revamping their lounges and there is a tiny chance that this might in fact be a change in their policy.
Did anyone else have a similar experience at a United Club?
UPDATE:
FALSE ALARM FOLKS – Please accept my heartfelt apologies for having wasted your time. Just called the United Club at EWR to confirm. They have the regular full cabinet of complimentary non-premium house liquors including Vodka, Rum, Gin, etc. Cocktails made with these house spirits are complimentary. This isn’t big news and is fairly standard for most lounges (unfortunately, the house brands for United Clubs aren’t really listed anywhere online so who knows where that swill comes from).
Please note that Brand Name premium wine and liquors such as Bombay Sapphire Gin etc are not complimentary. The Points Guy has an older more complete post on the brands of booze offered in various lounges.
