Originally Posted by
fumje
Curious happenings at B18 Club: posted hours says close at 10:00p, which works nicely for the LH flight going out from there. Polaris lounge closing at 9:00p, agents advise go over to B18 Club which will be open until 10:00p. At entrance to B18 Club, doors don't open. Three agents milling about inside, fastidiously ignoring guests outside. Finally one agent comes out and says "holiday hours, club closed", while standing immediately next to the "hours of operation 5:00a - 10:00p" sign.
The COVID hangover of lounge hours has lasted longer at UA than at AA (or other EU carriers that I'm on recently). I was at ORD Polaris a few weeks ago on the late ORD > LHR flight, the ~6PM prior LHR flight took off and turned around after 45 minutes and came back with some MX issue and then a crew time-out. Those pax started filing back into the Polaris lounge around 8PM. As soon as they started boarding our 9PM LHR flight the lounge agents come around and tell all those delayed pax to head to B18 if they want a lounge for the next ~90 minutes. That earlier flight ended up leaving around midnight and got in to LHR 5 hours late. Wonderful "premium cabin experience" for those pax.
I remember the days when the lounge would stay open "late" because of a delayed ORD > LGA flight or something equivalent. Now they're so excited to get to last call and doors closed/locked that its palpable.