The problem with cutting in-flight figuring that people will eat and drink in the Polaris lounge is that it only works one direction of the trip. I flew CDG-SFO-SEA-SFO-CDG a couple weeks back. The food was terrible ex-CDG. In the prior 6 months I’ve flown long haul in business class on Air Canada, Air France, Delta, Lufthansa, South African, and United, as well as in economy on Emirates. United ex-CDG easily had the worst meal of meal of all of them. And it wasn’t just that I ordered wrong. Was traveling with family and between us we had one of everything on the menu and the verdict was unanimous. Wine selection was also terrible compared to competitors.

The Polaris lounge in SFO was quite nice. On the return, I figured I wouldn’t take my chances, and ate a full meal in the lounge to avoid the crap onboard for the main meal service. Had the pre-arrival breakfast on approach to CDG and it was bad too.