United Clubs at EWR about to be renovated and digital club passes coming

Two interesting updates from United Airlines on the club front at UnitedAirtime.com this week…

First, United has been gradually updating its clubs to a new, more modern format over the last couple of years.

New clubs in San Francisco, San Diego, Chicago, and London, among others have opened.

But we’ve yet to see a big gut renovation of an existing club at one of the big United domestic hubs. The biggest clubs at Houston, Chicago, Newark, Washington Dulles, San Francisco, and Denver are all pretty much as they were 10 or more years ago.

That’s about to change.

Starting in a month or two, the Newark Liberty airport United Clubs will begin renovations, and they’ll be completed sometime next year.

United says…

“We are excited to begin renovations of our United Clubs at New York/Newark this spring and expect to complete them in 2017. As we announced in February, we’re upgrading club locations in our U.S. hubs – including New York/Newark – and key international cities with our new design and comfortable seating, additional work stations and abundant power outlets. In many locations, including at New York/Newark, we will expand the clubs’ size to offer more space for visitors to work, recharge or take care of their travel needs.”

Newark is United’s key hub to Europe and beyond, and these clubs haven’t seen much change since around 2001, when the largest club near Terminal C security opened.

United is also hoping to roll out more food options at United Clubs, and these may be a showcase for that new concept.

Second, by the end of this year, United MileagePlus Explorer cardholders won’t need to fumble with paper club access passes anymore.

Instead, the two annual passes good for one visit given to you as an Explorer card holder will be available digitally, so you’ll always be able to access them.

“United Club members can access their United Club membership card via the United app and use that for entry into our club locations. For those using one-time passes, we plan to launch digital versions at the end of 2016. The digital passes will be available for both United Airlines-issued and Chase-issued passes.”

That may also mean they’ll be harder to share, but at least you’ll have them ready to use wherever you go.

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