NZ_Flyer

With the closure of the SQ lounge at SFO, it appears there are now two different options:

Business Premier™: United International Departure lounge, T3 Concourse G between gates 98-100 (no guests)
Elite and Gold: United Club lounges, T3 Concourses E & F
Singapore Airlines SilverKris lounge is now closed

Is there a big difference between the two lounges?

sbiddle

The top United lounge is their old 1st lounge and it is a better lounge. I haven't personally visited this but I know a few people who have who have said it's not bad. There are plenty of reviews and photos online.

The 2 United Club locations are your stock standard US United Club. Nothing amazing and easily forgotten.

swgsword

The "business departure lounge" is the old Global First lounge. It has been densified given the current construction of the Polaris lounge (the old international terminal United Club + EVA and Singapore lounges), but relative to the other three United Club options in terminal 3, I'd opt for the first option.

You can also make the ~15 minute trek to the rotunda lounge in terminal 3 (gates 76-90), which is more spacious.

minhaoxue

I was on NZ 7 last month in J and used the UA Business Premier lounge in the G-Terminal. It is a little better than the traditional UA lounge but was very crowded. Besides NZ, you have UA, LH. Food options were minimal and they had an assortment of beverages. Only plus was it was a 5 minute walk to the gate compared to a 15 minute walk from the domestic terminal.

NZ_Flyer

Cool. Thanks for that. I'll just stick with the old First lounge then and not bother going to the other ones.

r2edline

Rolling through SFO soon, thanks all for the tips

SeaProf

Same here. Good to know the other lounges are closed.

mad_atta

The lounge situation in SFO at the UA/international terminals really is desperately poor... unless you have access to the Amex Centurion lounge. Thanks to that, SFO has just moved up from a "I'll reluctantly transfer through there inbound due to better immigration processing, but god help me if I'm stuck there for hours outbound awaiting an international *A departure" to "bring it on, baby - I'll be sampling the wine tasting in the Amex lounge!". It really is LEAGUES above anything else in that part of the terminal. It continues to amaze me just how poor the other available lounges are in a relatively major *A hub.

sbiddle

The new UA lounge should at least be a big improvement though.

Does anybody know what happened to the concept of *A lounges? LAX was probably the last to be built before everybody went their own ways again with at LHR in T2. It'll be interesting to see what happens at LAX with the TBIT expansion and whether you end up with another *A lounge or individual lounges again.

JayKiwi

Access to the new Polaris lounge will be extremely limited [based on how Polaris lounge access has been rolled out elsewhere]. For example, Elites are unlikely to have access unless flying BP, and I am not even sure they would 100% have access then. To be in the position [yet again] where Elites [regardless of cabin flown] have nothing but a dated United Club lounge when departing on Air NZ out of the US will be very disappointing. IMHO Air NZ should work harder for it's Elites here; e.g., SFO Virgin Clubhouse, and/or Polaris lounge, and/or invest in a lounge in some manner - either a new Air NZ lounge, or Star Alliance ala LAX.

I was confidently informed not long ago that an Air NZ lounge was going in at SFO [anytime soon by now]. Air NZ needs to think on that - I have been happy to avoid SFO for a while, not least based on the lousy lounge side of things - the SIA lounge was never an award winner anyway - talk about bad to worse! Air NZ needs to communicate with it's HVCs on the SFO situation/plans, and simply sliding in [yet another] stealth website update that you now have mostly lousy lounge options at SFO is not what I have in mind. Yes, first world problems etc, but this is a lounge discussion thread :-) :-)......

sbiddle

I'm pretty sure a notification went out about the SFO lounge changes last year.

My understanding is NZ customers flying BP will have access to the Polaris lounge as part of the UA/NZ alliance on the route.

Not giving Elite pax access is in line with other destinations so I don't see that changing any time soon. EP1 are the only NZ pax to get access to the *A 1st lounge at LAX since NZ don't have a 1st class.

nzkarit

Also comes in that *A only has two levels while Oneworld has three. This allows them to open the first lounges etc to that set of people. I haven't heard of any plans of *A offering a third tier. Suspect you won't see NZ seeking out anything special for lounge for its elites until that happens/if that happens.

ajnz

I suggested the VS lounge to NZ some years ago - I don't know why they don't do it, but I assume cost. As a Bay Area based flyer, I avoid SFO as much as possible (unpredictable traffic means I leave early for SFO, but there is no worthwhile lounge aside from Centurion, which can be very crowded).

Star Business/First Class offers access to the Polaris lounge. Doesn't have anything to do with the UA/NZ alliance.

kyanar

I wouldn't be surprised if VS' parent AS isn't keen on giving access to an "out of alliance" airline.

ajnz

VS' parent is DL. NZ/VS have had an on/off relationship for years, but they are still listed as a "co-operation partner"...specifically in the context of SFO, these days.