After losing Campanile last month, Priority Pass will soon lose a second restaurant at Los Angeles International Airport.
Language has been added to the Barney’s Beanery Priority Pass page that the restaurant will leave the program on November 30, 2018.
Please note effective 30NOV18 Barney’s Beanery will no longer be part of the program.
> Read More: Restaurant Dumps Priority Pass At LAX
Considering how poor the food and slow the service was, that is not a huge loss. I found the “Mexican food” (quesadillas and enchiladas) to be atrocious. Even so, it was a decent alternative to the Virgin Atlantic Clubhouse in Terminal 2.
While I am just speculating, I think the problems many Priority Pass restaurants are experiencing include:
- Customers walking away without fully settling their bill
- Customers failing to tip
- Priority Pass paying restaurants more slowly than credit card merchants, hindering cashflow
At least those were some of the issues that led to Campanile breaking off its relationship with Priority Pass just a week after it started.
CONCLUSION
I hate to see the loss of a newly-added Priority Pass restaurant, especially in the same airport that just lost another one. But I predict we will see more subtractions as the weeks and months go by.
> Review: Campanile LAX (Priority Pass Restaurant)
> Review: Barney’s Beanery LAX (Priority Pass Restaurant)
image: Jeff Turner / Wikimedia Commons
H/T: Stvr (reader)
These places are going to DROP like flies. It’s a huge cost and I heard yesterday from my waitress and Air Margaritaville that no one tips. That’s horrible. How can you take a free meal and not tip. I leave 5-7$ per person. Absolutly ridiculous. People are probably taking advantage as well.
Most unfortunate. My son and I enjoyed a nice meal at barneys this summer. food was good, service was friendly if a bit slow, and we left a nice tip. Will be sorely missed by travelers who fly Southwest as it is the closest PP option.
My guess is that the restaurants were overwhelmed with PP passengers and PP doesn’t pay 100 cents on the dollar for each bill.
I’m not entirely surprised. I would expect more limiting to off-peak times as well. But as to the complaints, I also think some of these restaurants aren’t very good at handling PP. I suspect that “walking off without settling the bill” is largely due to having to leave to catch your flight with no waiter in sight, and not tipping because many PP holders do not realize it is not included. (Or that the restaurant did not make $28 on their $20 meal.) They should take the PP card and run the tab when the food is delivered and tell people tip is not included if they want to fix all that.
But most of the time I don’t use these PP restaurants because they are too slow for the time I have.
Seriously no hat tip? ?
Seriously did you not see my comment on your post?
Too bad. Used Barney’s once. Liked the food. Service was slow, but I left a decent tip. The server state very clearly tips are not included with Priority Pass credit. That makes it more sad that some people don’t leave tips.
Although I hold an AMEX Platinum, I won’t be able to use any lounge/restaurant in T2 on my next Virgin flight sitting in Premium Economy (the Virgin lounge is only open to PP members in the morning hours). Bummer.
I think the restaurant concept worked better when I used it at MEL and SYD, where you order at a counter and pay there, get a number/pager, and someone brings over your food once it’s ready. Way better system that ended up being quicker and easier to manage when catching a flight.
I used it at SFO and found it to be difficult to grab the server’s attention and make sure that my tab was completely settled before leaving to catch my flight, as I knew it would probably be pretty close. It also doesn’t help that I usually forget to carry cash with me to tip, and can’t leave it on a credit card either most times unless I spend over $28.