If the noisy wait at the airport is getting to you, join the club

ONE likes it for the personal service, another because she can work and make phone calls and a third for the clean restrooms and comfortable chairs. And all love the peace and quiet afforded by the members-only airline clubs or VIP lounges.

Airline gate areas usually are frenetic places where noisy throngs of disembarking passengers raise the decibel level and where those waiting anxiously for their flights yak on cellphones, click on laptops, rustle through newspapers and deal with fussing children. The announcements blare, and CNN Airport News runs in the background. These waiting areas are great for people-watching, lousy for peace of mind.

You’ve walked by the clubs -- United’s Red Carpet, American’s Admirals Club, Delta’s Crown Room, Continental’s Presidents Club, Northwest’s WorldClub, the US Airways Club and Alaska Airlines’ Board Room -- and looked at them, enviously.

But the clubs are not as exclusive as you think. Although you can join them for an annual fee that can be as much as $500, you also can get a day pass for about $50 or get access through high-level credit cards. For many frequent fliers as well as first- and business-class customers, these airport enclaves are a haven in which to work, relax, snack and imbibe in relative quiet, until they are summoned for their flights.

Travis Mason-Bushman, a 22-year-old journalism student at Contra Costa College in California, plunked down his own money for memberships in the United ($500) and US Airways ($375) clubs to make his life easier. He has a weekend public relations job with the Gainsco/Blackhawk sports-car racing team.

“I’ve flown about 56,000 miles so far this year and will do another 20,000 miles,” he said. “My memberships are a small price to pay, considering all the time I spend in airline terminals. I cross the country about 15 times a year. The lounges are a lot more civilized place to work and to get help.

“I was flying through Dulles ... on my way to Daytona Beach [Fla.] for a race, when heavy rainstorms struck the Washington area. I went from a one-hour delay to a four-hour delay to canceled, within an hour and a half. Hundreds of people were lined up trying to re-book flights. I went into the Red Carpet Club and got great customer service. You pay for a lot better customer service, more personal service.”

Tonya Lewis, 32, an attorney in Las Vegas, has access to myriad clubs with her Priority Pass, which gets her into 500 lounges in 245 cities worldwide. Mainly, however, she uses the clubs in Las Vegas, Seattle, Salt Lake City, Dallas/Fort Worth and Detroit.

The standard Priority Pass (www.prioritypass.com) costs $99 a year, plus $24 a visit. But Lewis got hers as a perk through her Citigroup Chairman Card, which costs $395 a year and competes with the American Express Platinum Card, which also offers lounge access.

“I like the clubs because they are quieter than the gate areas,” she said. “I can spread out, work on my laptop, sit in a comfy chair. If I want to make phone calls for work, I don’t have loudspeakers booming or kids screaming in my ears. I can also watch TV, have a snack -- fruit, bagels, soda, juice.”

For Claire Ballard, 72, of Rosemead, the $300 annual fee for an Admirals Club membership “pays for itself in comfort, clean restrooms, nice chairs, that kind of thing.”

Ballard, an American Airlines platinum-level frequent flier, said she and her husband, Earl, 74, who has an air-conditioning business, travel about 50,000 miles a year, half domestic, half international.

“We recently had an 18-hour delay on a flight from LAX to Narita,” she said of a trip to Japan. “The club people were very helpful in doing an alternative booking for us so we could get out. I’m sure the club has many more advantages for business travelers.”

Randy Petersen, the oft-described ultimate frequent-flier expert and editor of Inside Flyer magazine, likes to use lounges when there’s an unexpected flight delay. “But just to run in there to get a soft drink and run back out again, sometimes it’s not worth it if you are trying to hustle to the gate,” he said, “especially when you’re at one end of the terminal and the lounge is at the other.”

Petersen said club memberships come in handy for travelers who live in small cities and have to connect through major airline hubs.

“I live in Colorado Springs, and no matter whether I’m going east or west, I have to go through Dallas, Chicago, Denver, Salt Lake City or Phoenix,” he said. “In those cases, I’m always on a connection, and sometimes the connection doesn’t make any sense and I have an hour-and-a-half layover. Then the lounges are a very good idea.”

Petersen advises travelers to review their own travel patterns to determine whether membership in an airline club is really necessary, when a day pass often will suffice. He also suggests that travelers look closely at their credit cards to see whether any include airline lounge passes as a perk.

Sometimes, he said, you can upgrade your credit card to a gold or platinum level for a nominal fee and get two free lounge passes a year. Another way to save on club membership is to see whether you can convert miles to pay for an annual membership or day passes.

The major airlines, Petersen added, allow passengers to buy day passes. “I would gladly pay $50 for a day pass three times,” he said.

The seven U.S. carriers listed above have about 180 clubs worldwide.

Members also can use the clubs of their partner airlines, including foreign ones. Annual fees can vary from a high of $500 (United) to a low of $250 (Continental and Northwest), often depending on the traveler’s frequent-flier level. American, United and Delta accept miles for membership in lieu of cash.

Although carriers won’t divulge the number of members they have, citing competitive reasons, they are quick to note improvements, which sometimes include Wi-Fi, depending on what airports allow.

American, which opened its first lounge at New York’s LaGuardia in 1939, said it had opened five new Admirals Club lounges in the last year, bringing its total to 43. Northwest WorldClub membership allows access to Continental, Delta and KLM lounges as well.

United says it is freshening up its clubs with new furniture and TVs, and offering more healthful food choices. Alaska Airlines, which has six Board Room clubs, says it has seen its membership grow by 10% a year since 2001 and adds that its members can use 50 clubs operated by partner airlines.

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