note about Newark airport

In hopes that maybe someone will be saved from the same unwelcome surprise we got on way back from Oslo.

Our layover in Newark was to be 3+ hours. Especially for my 88 year old husband, disembark Oslo, then that layover, and then the flight to Miami (and then the long drive over to the west coast of Florida) all make for a long day. We figured at least we could rest in a pleasant, quiet business class lounge, maybe even stretch out on some sort of bed, as we've sometimes seen in other such lounges.

Our flight from Oslo to Newark was SAS (nice flight), from Newark to Miami was AA. As luck would have it, our Miami flight was delayed almost 4 hours — so a very long layover indeed.

Here's what I wanted to say (which some people may know, but we sure didn't): American Airlines has no Business or First Class lounge in Newark. SAS has one, but it's only open when there are flights. It closed pretty soon after we arrived in Newark.

In short, we had 7+ hours of uncomfortable, noisy, dirty waiting. I learned after about 5 hours that one can buy a day pass to American's Admiral's Club, but not the same thing at all. And of course by that time it was too late even if we'd felt like paying for the greater comfort. I'll never book through Newark again, and I hope these details may save others from a similar not-very-fun experience.

Poss, et al.

Stand-by for a fusillade of "incoming" comments from fellow travelers sharing similar situations at Newark Airport. There will be nuances as to particular situations; but the theme will probably be consistent.

In this regard, please refer to a Thread started on June 8th under the title: "Navigator to Cancel ports in Guatemala and Nicaragua". This is on Page 2. I chimed-in, as my wife and I were on that cruise segment--LA to NYC. Prodded (encouraged) by other CC'ers, continued posting. My final entry was posted on July 6th. The last portion of that posting relates to our miserable June 24-25 (Yes, portions of two days) experience at Newark Airport trying to return via United Airlines to Seattle. I will not repeat that posting--

Just review it. Again, UA's Lounge was closed at the time of most-need.

To bring everyone up to date: I did write UA's "Customer Care" VP a detailed letter; copy sent to my TA (Regent paid for our tickets); AND, to the New Jersey Attorney General's Consumer Protection Division. It has now been three weeks since that situation.

I have received NO response from UA. My TA will now forward my letter to Regent. Also, no response from the AG's Office.

I will make a brief entry on that June 8th Thread--making reference to this Thread.

GO ARMY!

Allow me to ask....if lounge access is so important, why was this not researched and known before you bought your flights? For example, you could have flown BA from OSL to LHR and then non-stop to MIA. Or if you preferred a flight to the Gulf Coast, you could have gone OSL to FRA to TPA on Lufthansa. In both cases, a business class ticket would have given you lounge access at LHR or FRA.

The flights you took crossed alliances - your international business class on SAS had no bearing on AA.

Apparently, an Admiral's Club doesn't come up to your expectations of a "business class lounge". A few simple web searches would have told you the exact lounge situation at EWR. So, you made some assumptions and they proved incorrect.

Poss, et al.

 

Stand-by for a fusillade of "incoming" comments from fellow travelers sharing similar situations at Newark Airport. There will be nuances as to particular situations; but the theme will probably be consistent.

 

In this regard, please refer to a Thread started on June 8th under the title: "Navigator to Cancel ports in Guatemala and Nicaragua". This is on Page 2. I chimed-in, as my wife and I were on that cruise segment--LA to NYC. Prodded (encouraged) by other CC'ers, continued posting. My final entry was posted on July 6th. The last portion of that posting relates to our miserable June 24-25 (Yes, portions of two days) experience at Newark Airport trying to return via United Airlines to Seattle. I will not repeat that posting--

 

Just review it. Again, UA's Lounge was closed at the time of most-need.

 

To bring everyone up to date: I did write UA's "Customer Care" VP a detailed letter; copy sent to my TA (Regent paid for our tickets); AND, to the New Jersey Attorney General's Consumer Protection Division. It has now been three weeks since that situation.

 

I have received NO response from UA. My TA will now forward my letter to Regent. Also, no response from the AG's Office.

 

I will make a brief entry on that June 8th Thread--making reference to this Thread.

 

GO ARMY!

Hi GO ARMY - IMO, it is so typical of UA not to respond to you. While I am not sure that Regent can do anything, at least it will let them know how bad UA can be and can consider that fact when they come up for negotiations for their next contract with UA.

FlyerTalk - you seem to do more flight research than any other poster on the Regent board and sadly have not shared that information with us. Perhaps you will consider sharing this information before people book flights. After all, not everyone has the time to do the type of research that you do. It is the airline that should be blamed - not the passengers!!!!

poss: Thank you for the information that you provided. It will be helpful to many people that may be considering a flight that makes a stop in Newark. My advice regarding air has always been:

1. Deviate!!!

2. Request a non-U.S. based airline as most of them do not stop in the U.S. and therefore the entire journey will be Business Class (plus the service tends to be better).

Allow me to ask....if lounge access is so important, why was this not researched and known before you bought your flights? For example, you could have flown BA from OSL to LHR and then non-stop to MIA. Or if you preferred a flight to the Gulf Coast, you could have gone OSL to FRA to TPA on Lufthansa. In both cases, a business class ticket would have given you lounge access at LHR or FRA.

 

The flights you took crossed alliances - your international business class on SAS had no bearing on AA.

 

Apparently, an Admiral's Club doesn't come up to your expectations of a "business class lounge". A few simple web searches would have told you the exact lounge situation at EWR. So, you made some assumptions and they proved incorrect.

FT is correct you should check out the lounges before you leave. If you have AMEX platinum you can access the Centurion Lounge, not sure if EWR has one but with the card you should be invited to the Priority Pass privileges as they have numerous lounges.

The Admirals Club is just so so compared to their international rivals. If you are flying on a Flagship flight you will have access to a special lounge as long as you are booked in first or business class but that is only from certain gateway cities.

Other credit cards also allow you access to their lounges. Google airport lounges access.

Let's not blame the posters. This is clearly something that should not have happened!

There is an Admirals club at Newark. It is just ok, but not accessible if you are on a code share ticket, such as poss.

No centurion lounge at Newark. There may be a priority pass lounge, but they are about the same as admirals club. Nogreat options in Newark.

There is an Admirals club at Newark. It is just ok, but not accessible if you are on a code share ticket, such as poss.

No centurion lounge at Newark. There may be a priority pass lounge, but they are about the same as admirals club. Nogreat options in Newark.

I agree. If going through JFK you have many options. Newark is the pits even LGA is better..it depends on your connections and where you are going.

FlyerTalk - you seem to do more flight research than any other poster on the Regent board and sadly have not shared that information with us. Perhaps you will consider sharing this information before people book flights. After all, not everyone has the time to do the type of research that you do. It is the airline that should be blamed - not the passengers!!!!

What do you expect me to do...post a comprehensive report on ALL airports, airlines, lounges and routings -- all on the expectation that someone maybe might just be interested in 1% of it??

Someone has a question - I'll answer. Someone wants to know about a specific airport, routing, equipment or the like - they can post that inquiry, preferably in the cruise air forum where many flight-knowledgable folks hang out. I only come to Regent every so often, unlike some posters.

Finally, your statement that the airline should be blamed, not the passenger is poppycock. It's not the airline's responsibility to mysteriously devine what info the passenger wants. If a passenger wants to be sure that they have lounge access at the middle of an itinerary, it's up to them to find out. Through a forum post, a call to the airline, a website search or maybe even putting their travel agent on the case.

And one sidebar -- who put together a routing using carriers in two different alliances? And why?

What do you expect me to do...post a comprehensive report on ALL airports, airlines, lounges and routings -- all on the expectation that someone maybe might just be interested in 1% of it??

 

Someone has a question - I'll answer. Someone wants to know about a specific airport, routing, equipment or the like - they can post that inquiry, preferably in the cruise air forum where many flight-knowledgable folks hang out. I only come to Regent every so often, unlike some posters.

 

Finally, your statement that the airline should be blamed, not the passenger is poppycock. It's not the airline's responsibility to mysteriously devine what info the passenger wants. If a passenger wants to be sure that they have lounge access at the middle of an itinerary, it's up to them to find out. Through a forum post, a call to the airline, a website search or maybe even putting their travel agent on the case.

 

And one sidebar -- who put together a routing using carriers in two different alliances? And why?

Thank you. Great response.

Have to agree with FlyerTalker----airlines like all business have a team of people looking and checking what customer want---with that in hand they pick the airports, the times open/close that service their customers. How would any one expect a lounge to be at every airport.

And don't forget you can go on line and check any airlines web site that will list everyone of their lounges with who gets in, and time of operation.

I always check on line before for airport lounges specially when I know a long wait or layover likely

but if they were regent flights then regent or TA should have warned poss

We used to love American, now it’s our least favorite airline. And, as for United, when it merged with Continental, Continental took the brand but kept the Continental culture.

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

Oh, my. I had an unfortunate experience (not blaming anyone) and decided to post in the hopes that I might be able to save someone else from having something similar happen. CC has been so helpful to me over the years, and I hoped I could be helpful in return. The barrage of blaming me, of all the criticism, surprises me quite a bit.

I am not a frequent flyer. I do not have Amex platinum or other such credit cards. I don't know much about the way lounges work — just that in my years of traveling Business (through Regent), this is the first time there wasn't a business class lounge. In other words, I assumed they were standard in airports. My error, but surely it's an understandable one. Btw, the AA ticket was also on Business, so presumably I'd've had access to the B lounge — if there'd been one. Also, a supervisor when I telephoned SAS from Newark told me that I could use their lounge (since I'd flown in on SAS), but the SAS lounge (as I said) was closed. So it would seem that the international business class on SAS did have some bearing. (Or perhaps the supervisor didn't know what he was talking about.)

When I went to the ticket counter in Newark to check in for the American flight, I asked where the Business lounge was, and was told how to find it. In other words, even the AA ticket agents in that airport didn't seem to know that there was no such lounge. I went to the room they'd indicated and was told, no, you can't use this lounge, it's Admiral's Club. I didn't learn until way too late that one could pay a day fee. Odd that the Admiral's Club desk didn't mention that; instead, they were kind of dismissive of us.

Our TA and Regent air booked the AA flight for us when a previously booked flight (I think on UA?) changed times to make the layover really really long (though not, of course, longer than the one it turned out we experienced). I usually do deviate — in fact we did going over because we wanted to spend three days pre-cruise in Copenhagen. I didn't think to deviate on the way back since we were going straight from ship to airport, and the Regent flights at first didn't seem so bad.

So, yes, a more experienced and more able traveler would have researched more. That's why I wasn't blaming anyone, just providing information. It boggles the mind why some responders want only to blame, in unkind and impatient voices. Especially given the fact that you knew we were elderly.

Poss sorry to read of the delay at the airport and how you were treated. It was a good gesture to post your experiences to warn other travelers to be aware.

Hope the delay didn’t detract from the lovely cruise you and your husband enjoyed on Explorer.

It was so nice to read your positive experiences you had on Explorer. Like you I was initially not keen last year to book Explorer due to the hype but we really liked th ship and had our second cruise on board this year.

Thanks for posting your experience. Jean.

This link may be useful to those of you that believe that Regent knows and cares what lounges are available to you when you fly. I'm with the camp, that you need to research this stuff, before you write that big check.

https://www.loungebuddy.com

Legal Seafood is one of our favorite restaurants. Too bad they closed a few on the east coast. My first visit was in Boston which is the original.

Just to add, don't believe any domestic carriers have a "Business Class Lounge". Only Business Class International flights gets people into the airlines lounge, whatever it is called. Believe AA has international flights from and to EWR so people on those flights have access to the AA Admirals Club. The agent at the AA desk appears to have responded properly. Don't believe Poss was Business Class on AA as most, if not all domestic flights are First Class and not Business.

Neigher First Class or Coach Class gets anyone into a Domestic Lounge no matter the name. Confused over what should not have happened. The situation was handled properly and occurred due to the flights on different Alliances where there is not Lounge reciprocity. A real shame about the delay and know there are enough people on this board who are familiar with lounge access and reciprocity that a simple question would have had a quick response.

No way for FT or anyone else for that matter could cover all situations like this as usually flights using different carriers are on the same Alliance. Also anything posted is likely to get lost and not be easily found. Yes, was a shame Poss and DH didn't get free lounge access and, if there is blame, it is on the booker of the ticket and not the airline.

Oh, my. I had an unfortunate experience (not blaming anyone) and decided to post in the hopes that I might be able to save someone else from having something similar happen. CC has been so helpful to me over the years, and I hoped I could be helpful in return. The barrage of blaming me, of all the criticism, surprises me quite a bit.

 

I am not a frequent flyer. I do not have Amex platinum or other such credit cards. I don't know much about the way lounges work — just that in my years of traveling Business (through Regent), this is the first time there wasn't a business class lounge. In other words, I assumed they were standard in airports. My error, but surely it's an understandable one. Btw, the AA ticket was also on Business, so presumably I'd've had access to the B lounge — if there'd been one. Also, a supervisor when I telephoned SAS from Newark told me that I could use their lounge (since I'd flown in on SAS), but the SAS lounge (as I said) was closed. So it would seem that the international business class on SAS did have some bearing. (Or perhaps the supervisor didn't know what he was talking about.)

 

When I went to the ticket counter in Newark to check in for the American flight, I asked where the Business lounge was, and was told how to find it. In other words, even the AA ticket agents in that airport didn't seem to know that there was no such lounge. I went to the room they'd indicated and was told, no, you can't use this lounge, it's Admiral's Club. I didn't learn until way too late that one could pay a day fee. Odd that the Admiral's Club desk didn't mention that; instead, they were kind of dismissive of us.

 

Our TA and Regent air booked the AA flight for us when a previously booked flight (I think on UA?) changed times to make the layover really really long (though not, of course, longer than the one it turned out we experienced). I usually do deviate — in fact we did going over because we wanted to spend three days pre-cruise in Copenhagen. I didn't think to deviate on the way back since we were going straight from ship to airport, and the Regent flights at first didn't seem so bad.

 

So, yes, a more experienced and more able traveler would have researched more. That's why I wasn't blaming anyone, just providing information. It boggles the mind why some responders want only to blame, in unkind and impatient voices. Especially given the fact that you knew we were elderly.

There are many people like yourself that don't research lounges just as there are many people that do not research the cruise lines they will be sailing on (as evidenced by the many questions asked on CC that could be answered by researching the rssc.com website.). Lounges are just not something that everyone thinks about.

We do try to avoid U.S. based airlines due to the fact that most airlines do not have a lounge for domestic business/first class customers . An exception to this is Alaska Airlines. We have been to their lounges many times on domestic First Class flights.

One thing for people to check is whether or not your credit card gives you access to a lounge. As has been mentioned, AMEX Platinum branded cards give you access to the Centurion Lounges (maybe more -- we cancelled our card last year). The card we use now gives access to Premium Plus Lounge. They are in many, many airports. While not as good as some lounges, they are better than not having a lounge at all.

An interesting new fact is that some Priority Plus Lounges now give you free access and a dollar amount that you can spend in their lounge. In Minneapolis, for instance, you get $15/person to spend. If I recall correctly, a glass of wine is $8 so the credit goes quickly. While we aren't happy about this trend, we have plenty of food and drinks on the plane and if we had a long layover would not mind paying for food in a lounge.

Poss thanks so much for posting your experience. It is helpful when people post their experiences so others are forewarned to avoid similar situations.

I am not sure why people feel the need to criticize the poster when all she was doing was posting her experience not 'blaming' anyone for what happened.

Helpful suggestions are always useful, criticism not so much.

Many credit cards now offer Priority Pass lounge access in most airports which can be very useful when the airlines themselves don't have a lounge. And many times these loan are superior. Amex Platinum, Chase Sapphire Preferred and Reserve cars are some of the cards.

Note that Admirals Club for American Airlines DOES give lounge access for transcon only between JFK- LAX and JFK -SFO. The Flagship lounges have recently been redone and they are GREAT. They include a sit down meal. Regular Admirals Clubs have also been redone at many domestic airports and are a great improvement.

Also I know people have had bad experiences with American in the past, but their new aircrafts are great. Especially their long haul Dreamliner. I travel frequently to Asia, and despite the great service on Cathay, the AA product now is better (not my words, but others that fly even more than me). At least until Cathay fully updates their planes. I know Cathay's new Airbus 350 is great, but the older planes can't compete with AA's product.

Back to Regent discussions.

Note that Admirals Club for American Airlines DOES give lounge access for transcon only between JFK- LAX and JFK -SFO. The Flagship lounges have recently been redone and they are GREAT. They include a sit down meal. Regular Admirals Clubs have also been redone at many domestic airports and are a great improvement.

 

Also I know people have had bad experiences with American in the past, but their new aircrafts are great. Especially their long haul Dreamliner. I travel frequently to Asia, and despite the great service on Cathay, the AA product now is better (not my words, but others that fly even more than me). At least until Cathay fully updates their planes. I know Cathay's new Airbus 350 is great, but the older planes can't compete with AA's product.

 

Back to Regent discussions.

Thank you for the update. We will be flying American Airlines to Santiago next year on the Dreamliner and are really looking forward to it!

Thank you for the update. We will be flying American Airlines to Santiago next year on the Dreamliner and are really looking forward to it!

I'm guessing it's the flight through DFW? Since you are normally out of YVR? The AA 789 equipment is great. Just flew this from DFW - ICN a few weeks ago, and was thoroughly impressed. I'd rather fly this to Asia than the Cathay (777-300ER) direct from JFK to HKG currently.

I'm guessing it's the flight through DFW? Since you are normally out of YVR? The AA 789 equipment is great. Just flew this from DFW - ICN a few weeks ago, and was thoroughly impressed. I'd rather fly this to Asia than the Cathay (777-300ER) direct from JFK to HKG currently.

Yes - going through DFW. We really like Cathay Pacific but were a bit disappointed in our last flights (to Bali and back from HKG). We were fortunate enough to get Business Class from YVR to DFW and to get on the Dreamliner. When our TA asked Regent for the flight on the Dreamliner, they were told no but changed their minds a couple of days later.