Originally Posted by
james dean
to me Domestic "F" is a misnomer, its should be called something different. Their "real F class for international operations is actually First Class. Then they have this other category for North American flights in the front cabin, they call that Business Class and in my experience they can access the United Club lounge..
There are different names for international and domestic premium cabin, to distinguish different benefits/services. The recent UA iterations are Polaris Business and Polaris First for international service (aside from closer destinations, essentially anywhere in North America, Central America, Carribean and the most northernly South America destinations (I think)), United Business for the front cabin of international locations that don't have Polaris (as well as for the business cabin on 3-class domestic flights) and United First (domestic premium cabin). Only the latter doesn't get lounge access. I think its dumb to have different names for the same cabin/service on domestic routes vs. international routes with domestic aircraft/service standards, but for the lounge access differentiation, it does make sense. Whether they call it First or Business doesn't really make a difference, though.