An influencer decided to get an Amex Platinum card because she’d heard that airport lounges were a place she could “network with rich people” — but she walked into a lounge where everyone was just eating, scrolling, and sleeping. She declares “0 connections were made.”
$895 isn’t really a screen for wealthy entrepreneurs and executives, especially when it comes with statement credits several times that size. And while the median traveler is better off than the average American, and the median lounge passenger is better off than the average person in the terminal,
- most lounges are hardly exclusive
- lounges accessible with a credit card aren’t exclusive
- most people in the lounge are trying to mind their own business and not looking to connect
@nikkipindor 0 connections were made #amexplatinum #amex #centurion #blackcard #airport ♬ original sound – DilJot
It’s another twist on the failed social media life hack, the the data coach who offers advice on “how to meet rich men” by going to the airport with plenty of time to kill, and instead of buying snacks buying a day pass for the United Club. The bet is that (1) the cost of the access can be amortized across free food and drink, and (2) it’s a target-rich environment.
Of course United Clubs, when full, often don’t sell day passes (or accept the passes issued by Chase for credit card customers).
I’ve been married for more than 20 years, so I missed an entire generation of swiping left and right. My best advice is that marriage is a 50-year conversation, so choose the person you’ll never want to stop talking to. And since you may share 50,000 meals together this is really the most important thing.
If your criteria is income-based, you can do worse than meeting someone while traveling. They or their employer spend discretionary funds, plus they’ve managed to clear a TSA checkpoint as a personal safety screen (even better if they have PreCheck).
Still, airline lounges aren’t the exclusive domain that those without access seem tothink they are. And United Clubs don’t afford the level of exclusivity you might find even in their Polaris lounge, or in the Qantas First lounge at LAX (which at least requires oneworld emerald status, if not an actual first class ticket).
Ironically, perhaps, I’ve actually seen more proposals and weddings involving Southwest Airlines than other domestic U.S. carriers. So maybe it’s all about LUV, and the serendipity of whom you’re sitting next to (or, more likely, that someone who finds you attractive purposely sits down next to you – a side effect of their open seating). I wonder if that’ll be an unintended victim of the carrier’s move to assigned seating later this month.
