I wonder if they realized that other international carriers were increasingly on a par with their hard product and far ahead on their soft product, and needed not to get further behind. I recall a main motivation for Polaris lounge was that it was downright embarrassing to have paid J customers’ first interaction with United be the experience of the regular United lounges, compared to what the others had. It’s hard to charge a premium for an inferior product unless you have a lot of customers tied to you on business contracts