Review: The Club At ATL

Trying to hold up their CVG lounge as the example of a good lounge of theirs is a tough pill to swallow.

For years "The Club at CVG" offered ***literally nothing but packaged dry carbs from Costco***, Campbells soup and a veg tray from Costco. You could sometimes see the Costco receipts near the food! And the furniture was very much Ikea-ish.

I havent been to their CVG lounge in maybe 18 months, but I have to guess it's improved and been completely overhauled given that Escape just opened at CVG too?

In my experience "The Club" brand is by-and-large the worst-of-the-worst because they combine (1) the least equipped lounges with (2) the most traffic via Priority Pass ---> and that's a recipe for disaster.

At my home airport at BWI, The Club took over Airpsace a couple years ago and promptly made it far worse; adding partitioned seats which made it feel much smaller, downgrading the food and beverage (the coffee is now syrup + hot water, while it used bullet-strong fresh brewed actual coffee from Peet's), and then topping it off by crowding the lounge with throngs of Priority Pass people.

Airspace may not have been the best lounge in the world at BWI, but it was very pleasant (Airspace at CLE and SAN are nice too; JFK wasnt very good as it was window-less and small). And at least Airspace doesnt accept Priority Pass.

Bottomline: The Club can be counted on to be downright bad no matter where you go.

I wish The Club wouldnt bother building any more lounges.

Instead let airports build more Escape Lounges. The BDL Escape Lounge is everything that a smaller airport lounge should be; a true shining-star.

”I guess there’s a lack of available space, and/or it’s too costly“

Atlanta airport is owned by the city and has an incredibly ’close’ relationship with Delta. The Club at ATL is crap because Delta want it to be crap. There were several lounges in the old International terminal (E) including quiet and exclusive First class areas in the quiet and refined LH and BA lounges. Delta hates competition and the absence of decent service for premium passengers for the opposition is just another example of unfair business practice.

Those of us hubtied in Atlanta also have to pay around 60% higher for premium transatlantic tickets those flying from JFK, ORD or MIA. It’s no surprise Delta is so profitable.

A lot of people are very defensive here about ATL. I think ATL is an impressive operation. It's remarkably efficient and reliable. But, the facilities don't rival the world's best. Go visit ICN, MUC, HND, HKG, SIN, ZRH, etc.

I remember once walking off a jet bridge into one the domestic terminals. I overheard two individuals who seemed like family discussing the airport. One of the two individuals had never been to ATL.

Person A: "I've been to this airport before."
Person B: "It's the largest and most busy airport in the world."
Person A: "Wow. Really?"
Person B: "Yeah, it's a huge connection point."
Person A: "I didn't know that. It must be really nice. Is it nice?"
Person B: "It's okay."

I thought about this conversation and I too would eventually concede "it's okay". This is especially true if I were there with someone who has experience traveling within Asia or Middle East.

The hubs in the middle east are probably the most opulent. They're usually in nations with autocratic governments, little foreign investment/ownership, and armies of low wage migrant workers (indentured servants). These airports are not as constrained by P&L and regulations. We can set these aside. There are plenty of great airports in "free" countries.

I don't think I could say "Isn't ATL great?" to my family accustomed to flying out of T2 at Munich Airport. Likewise, I'm certain my girlfriend's family in South Korea would not be impressed arriving at ATL from Incheon Airport's Terminal 2. They would say the airport is crowded and the restrooms are filthy.

I want to root for ATL, but it's not as good as some people think.

Hey, overall I don't mind ATL. Immigration these days is fast, the F terminal is nice, that SkyDeck is always a stop for me to get some natural light after coming from Europe, and you can walk the length of the terminals underground, with art exhibits.
But yeah, some of those concourses aren't particularly nice; they're like a giant food court with luggage.

I appreciate the sacrifice of the SkyClub in the name of science. That said, sometimes even that place can be overcrowded with screaming kids running around.

I used this lounge a couple of months ago for the shower facilities after an international arrival. The shower room was well equipped but didn’t seem very clean, mostly because the shower curtain was disgusting. I spent a short time in the lounge afterward, finding the only open seat in the business center, exactly where you were. I escaped to the peace of the terminal shortly after, since ATL has some decent places to eat that are much better than the lounge offerings.

Lucky, I'm guessing you haven't been through the rest of the Atlanta airport in quite some time. Respectfully, if you have, I think your calling the airport not nice is a little unfounded. The airport just finished a multi million dollar remodel of all the concourses that took years. The North/South terminals have already been redone. The airport did an awesome job creating well lit, well signed spaces with even more food options. The bathrooms are always a struggle to keep nice because of the volume of passengers but you almost always see an attendant on site cleaning. The Atlanta airport is once of the nicest domestic airports in terms of updated looks and uniformity across the entire facility. Contrast that to O'Hare, BWI, DFW, etc. O'Hare possibly being the worst offender- it's trapped in the early 90's in most of the domestic terminals and the layout is terrible for connections if different terminals. Atlanta is capable of moving more people than any other airport globally because of it's infrastructure. Tons of runways, taxiways, consistent underground walkways and tram system in a uniform scaled layout that allow for passenger connections in the most prompt timing possible. That's an achievement at scale that most airports struggle to meet.

Its more than a little harsh to call ATL "exceedingly not nice." Exceedingly? I think that at worse, ATL is unremarkable and at best is a decent place to spend a layover. Sure its crowded, but it sounded like your comment was more directed at the building itself so I'm just not sure where you're coming from there.

I killed a couple of hours in the Club at ATL a few years ago. Looks like the food has improved - back then it was some packaged sandwiches and a messy soup and salad bar. The staff were great, though my experience (on a Sunday afternoon) was in a rather empty lounge.