Today, I’m flying US Airways from Atlanta to Raleigh with a connection in Charlotte. Yes, that’s a tiny bit out of my way, but there is a method to my madness. First, I need to fly to Raleigh. Delta was pricing about $80 higher than US Airways when I shopped flights. I value my time so $80 would not have been enough for me to book away from Delta for this trip under normal circumstances. However, these are not normal times. I once said that I could consider a 30 minute flight to Charlotte a cost of doing business. I’m not there yet, but when this opportunity presented itself, I thought why not? So…I booked a US Airways roundtrip from Atlanta with a connection in Charlotte.
The Plan
I’ve purposely booked excessive Charlotte layovers in both directions so I’ll have time to check out the lounge situation and general airport environment. Charlotte has always been a favorite airport of mine, but it’s been years since I’ve flown through there. I’m going to check out both the flight experience as an AA Gold flying on US Airways, and the Admirals Clubs at Atlanta, Charlotte, and Raleigh. I’ll post about my flights, the lounges, and some concluding thoughts. Back when I was flying US Airways more regularly, I referred to them as the most underrated airline in America. I caught much grief from my buddy The Weekly Flyer about that comment. 🙂 We’ll see if things have changed since the merger with American.
-MJ, November 15, 2014
The giant club between C and D is pretty nice… As a former United Club member I have to say I was pretty impressed. Catering was a cut above the baby carrot packs, micro-muffins, and stale cookies that I am accustomed to with options for paid meals (which I did not sample.) On the other hand, I popped in to a PHX club in September which wasn’t that exciting — although the staff seemed more hospitable than most of the United Club staff I have encountered.
Thankfully you are not flying delta to CLT. Terminal A, the delta terminal at CLT truly bites. It would change your opinion of CLT pronto. No skyclub there, and it sorely needs one. AA flights into CLT are still relegated to terminal A hell.
I’m interested to hear your report on the Admirals Club at RDU. I’ve been in the Sky Club next door many times, but the Admirals Club just looked more inviting. Bravo on your experiment with US Airways. I’m a Delta guy, too, but I like to dabble in United and US just for fun and variety. I’m currently planespotting at YVR. I got here from Ohio on 2 United regional jets!
Interesting to see how you make out using aadvantage on USAir. The last two times I used Dividend Miles on aa I had to submit missing miles requests to USAir to get miles. Took about 1 1/2 months.
@ttrains,
I’m curious too. First snag has been that they are not picking up my AA Gold/Oneworld status on the US side. Agent just manually upgraded me, but seeing me as AAdvantage basic in the computer.
Hi I was wondering if you used your AA frequent flyer number or USAir frequent flyer number to ensure that your flights are credited to Advantage account promptly?
@Fred, i used my AA number.