United club: same day arrival and no departure - can I still use

Question

As a customer of a certain credit card company, as part of the credit card fee, I have access to a few (2-4 a year) "United club passes". Very soon I will be flying into and arriving Chicago O'Hare at ~7.00am. I have a bus out of O'Hare shuttle center to Champaign at about 4.00pm for a scientific conference. This is quite a long layover/stop-over in O'Hare and I wish to avoid large crowds, to work on a presentation. I am flying entirely within the USA (domestic flights) and my entire trip is within the USA. I do not have to change between the domestic and the international terminals.

I was wondering if I will be able to-/allowed to- use the United club in O'Hare. The official policy on their webpage states:

Effective August 18, 2016, all United Club customers, including members, are eligible to access United Club locations only when they have a flight arriving or departing on any airline the same day, and must show a boarding pass for entry. Customers who are accessing United Club locations to use a conference room do not need a boarding pass for entry.

They also have a slightly different "official" policy on a different page:

• A valid mobile or paper United Club one-time pass and boarding pass for same-day travel OR
• A valid 15-digit one-time pass number and boarding pass for same-day travel

I will have a "boarding pass" from a concluded flight but not a boarding pass for a connecting flight on the same day.

So, do any seasoned flyers know if (from anecdotal evidence or hard data) that I will be able to use the United lounge? If not, are there other options?

I have two carry-on bags that are heavy enough to be uncomfortable to walk around Chicago with. Plus, I would rather work that sight-see on this layover. The gate-side electronic stations aren't the best as they have too many faulty electric power-points.

Answer 1

There's some good news and some bad news...

The Good news is that your inbound flight is considered a "same day" flight, so you would be able to enter the United Club based on that flight.

The Bad news is that the United Clubs in Chicago Terminal 1 are currently not accepting one-time passes due to one or more of the clubs being closed for construction. This is not expected to change until December 2016. There is a smaller lounge in Terminal 2 (which can be accessed from T1), but it has also been restricting one-time passes.

So presuming you're travelling before December, you will likely NOT be able to access any of the United Clubs using your one-time pass. You can try the one in Terminal 2 and you may be allowed in, but expect it to be very crowded - there is construction going on in multiple of the lounges which is the reason for the "no one-day passes" rule, but even with that the lounges are still far more crowded than normal.

There are a number of other lounges at Chicago O'Hare, but the only other one that would be accessible for you would be the Delta lounge in terminal 2, at a cost of $59.

Answer 2

While @Doc is correct, the cheapest paid lounge at ORD I am aware of is not the Delta one but the AF/KLM via Lounge pass. This is ~30USD (thanks Brexit for the low USD/GBP exchange rate, otherwise it's 35 USD).

Since this is in Terminal 5, there is no airside transfer, you need to take the shuttle and re-clear security! You need to buy a refundable ticket departing from T5, call the airline to uncheck yourself and refund it after clearing security. What a PITA!

Also, there is the insane trick where you buy a refundable first class ticket less than 24 hours before departure, go into the lounge and then get the ticket refunded... Here's a blog post doing this, the poster held a ticket for 30 minutes... I would not hesitate to pull this trick with United to gain access to the United Global First lounge in this situation. Tit for tat.