My wife and I are flying EWR - LAX - HKG end of the week. Originally this was booked on all same-day travel (6am to LAX, 10am to HKG). Under that circumstance I would imagine our bags would be checked all the way thru and we would have Polaris access in both EWR and LAX (albeit a very limited amount of time).

I recently changed this so that we are leaving the night prior to LAX just to avoid any IIROPS or delays given the govt shutdown. So now we are EWR - LAX (in F) Thursday evening, and LAX - HKG (in J) Friday morning. We only moved the first segment back to the evening prior and kept the ticketing intact as one trip. I doubt this would affect anything, but we are two separate itineraries as one is rev and one is award. I also hold UA Club access with my United Card, she holds 1K through 1MM companion - but don’t believe that would affect anything here.

Question- Given this change on the first segment and that this is still technically all on the one itineraries, will our bags be checked all the way thru (or upon request?) and would we be able to gain Polaris lounge access at EWR the evening prior?

Edit/Update: Called into 1k line - they said yes to Polaris at EWR, and no on baggage being checked through. I am always a little skeptical with them and didn’t want to HUCA and chase down a different answer so figured I’d come on here to the experts!