United failed to open a single Polaris business class lounge in 2017. As American opened four of its own business lounges between June and December, United was left only with its first Chicago outpost.
However they are opening the San Francisco lounge April 30, and will be opening Newark in the coming weeks with Houston later in the summer and Los Angeles in the fall. They could soon have 5 open Polaris lounges.
With San Francisco about to open United is sharing details of their new international business class lounge near gate G92.
The facility is 28,000 square feet – the same size as American’s Flagship lounge in Miami and one of the world’s larger lounges – and has 440 seats. They have more power outlets – 492 – than seats.
Credit: United
Credit: United
Credit: United
There are 8 shower rooms “featuring rainfall showers and Soho House & Co’s Cowshed Spa products,” 5 day beds with Saks Fifth Avenue bedding, and their concierge service will steam clothes.
Credit: United
United Polaris lounges feature both buffet and menu ordering. The San Francisco lounge menu was created by chef Tritia Gestuvo though doesn’t reflect a unified cuisine — there will be congee at breakfast, pappardelle pasta with mushroom ragout in the afternoon, and United’s Polaris Burger. The buffet has a ramen noodle bar in the afternoon.
Credit: United
Despite a very slow start retrofitting aircraft with new business class seats, they say they’re going to be introducing a new plane with Polaris seats every 10 days although they are clearly not about to hit that pace and this is an average, with the fastest pace of delivery clearly backloaded.
Thanks. It has been a long time coming
Can I use my United club passes to enter here even if I’m not on a United flight?
Access policy …???
The interesting thing now is that United calls all Biz Class ‘Polaris’, so consequently they would also have to admit domestic Biz class passengers to the Polaris lounge (if you read their access policy page).
But they won’t, because when it’s about access to the Polaris lounges, suddenly there’s a difference between ‘business class’ and ‘Polaris business class’.
This is fascinating, but most of all it’s extremely confusing.
United … Get ready for gazillions of questions … 😉