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Originally Posted by kbud
Are any new ones planned (Emirates, Qatar, or Etihad)?
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No new lounges are currently planned as far as I know, but part of the description of the expansion project did mention more space for things including lounges so maybe.
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Originally Posted by kbud
- Will the Delta lounge also act as a SkyTeam lounge, and will the Air France lounge now close?
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The lounge is branded as a Delta Sky Club just like in other airports. That being said, I believe that Skyteam members with certain status can access the Sky Clubs.
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Originally Posted by kbud
- Will Swiss or SAS expand theirs? The Swiss lounge is a shoebox. I know they’ll eventually move to T2, but that’ll be in 5+ years.
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Haven't herd anything about expansions to existing lounges (other than the new Sky Club that opened), but I would imagine that some lounges could expand with the extra space. Don't know about Swiss or SAS specifically.
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Originally Posted by kbud
- There was a plan to add a 2nd A380 gate with the T5 expansion, did this happen? Would that coincide with Emirates ever bringing the A380 here? With their partnership with United I’d think they’d have more demand at ORD now.
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Looking at the expansion on a satellite map, they have indeed added a space big enough to park a second A380 at Terminal 5 (I think it's Gates M29/M30). My assumption based on the numbering on the map is that M29 and M30 can either serve two narrowbodies or be used together for an A380 (one for lower deck boarding and the other for upper deck boarding).
As far as Emirates goes, Chicago was specifically mentioned as a key city for the partnership and given that United has one of their biggest hubs here, the possibilities for connections are definitely abundant. I did hear that Emirates recently announced that they were bringing back the A380 to Houston (which was another key city specifically mentioned for the partnership) and given that Emirates does carry more passengers out of ORD than IAH, I'd imagine that they are considering bringing the A380 to ORD but are waiting to see how the second A380 gate is coming along since British Airways has been using the other A380 gate. This is all speculation though so I could be wrong.