Originally Posted by
Hipplewm
Lets face it, he is better off playing tiddly winks in the side hallway than going to an overcrowded lounge in ORD.
His best option would be toi have the flight out of E (term 2) and then have the best UA club in ORD, but even that is meh.
Find a decent restaurant and have a nice meal and relax. US domestic flying isn't anything to write home about, even in F it is like the inter EU flights, except the seats are better and IME the service is far worse.
Agree with you that at least the UCs in the US at outstations like ORD aren't that good. The best part of those lounges is the breakfast which has a decent selection of food but after that everything goes downhill. I'm at the PHL lounge and have some veg, pita bread, hummus, soup, cheese and brownies. Unless you're a mouse you're not going to get a food fill.
That being said, per UA's website, OP
should have access to the UC at ORD:
So long as OP still has their ZRH > ORD J boarding pass on LX that should qualify since we're talking same-day travel here (he would need to present that to the Dragon).
LX should also
be an option:
It is true that lounges operated by the LH Group of companies tends to have stricter access policies than other partners. However, I doubt they'll bat an eye if OP has flown them in J, especially if the ticket was issued on LX stock. Again save your boarding passes since they should be the key to get into those lounges.
As for transfers between terminals. I found the landslide transfers to be quite quick (maybe 10 minutes by bus from T5 to T1) - they basically loop around the airport so T1 will be the first terminal they stop at anyway. That being said, it's good to see that they have T5 > T1 going airside which should provide OP all the incentive to re-clear security at T5 to enjoy the LX lounge. I haven't been to the LX lounge at ORD but suspect it'll be better than what UA has at their ORD outstation.
Safe Travels,
James