warrenw

Is the dining room closed because they are switching from breakfast to lunch? I wasn't aware real restaurants did that.

BeanTownBoy

Fantastic lounge(s) . ^

UA_Flyer

I was at SFO Polaris Lounge for the first time on this past Friday morning from 9 to 10 am.

The lounge filled up quickly. Part of the lounge on the 2nd flor was closed (the section next to the customer service desks.

it is a nice lounge but needs more bathrooms. There were long lines waiting for the bathrooms on both floors.

Breakfast offerings were underwhelming, but I usually don’t eat in the lounge before the flight. For late night departures to SIN and SYD, I hope to eat before the flight and skip the inflight meals...hope better food offerings in the evening.

bluedemon211

That is exactly what I did Friday for the SIN flight. Arrived around 6 pm, had a nice meal, a couple glasses of good wine and slept once I got on the plane. Infinitely better than what was served on the plane.

slack455

Flying Copa SFO-PTY-LIM, I'm guessing this isn't "long-haul," and I wont have access to the Polaris lounge in SFO, does anyone know for sure? I couldn't find a real definition for what constitutes "long-haul."

Thanks

uastarflyer

Not enough lavs and no seat covers in them. Shower is about 5 degrees below perfection

As to the congee rant upthread, they offer it in the sit down menu. Complete with dry shrimp toppings etc. So I would rather they replace it with something else in the buffet.

The space is great. Just a few kinks and process flows to iron out. Espresso machine being job 1 (put it outside the bar)

and that bath towel!!

NoLaGent

You do not, but I agree with you that the Star Alliance notes are vague (actually, non-existent, I think) in this regard. UA defines southernmost South America in reference to UA Polaris, but it's not clearly defined for *A.

Regardless, even though Peru does qualify for the UA Polaris rule, I think the rule that would apply is departing on a qualifying *A long haul flight, not one to Panama.

cfischer

would try for sure. Chances are non-zero you'll get in.

Kacee

Probably not, but give it a try and report back.

1kBill

I was in yesterday (Friday, 5/11) from 8 to 10 AM and I was told that the closed section is opened up at 10 AM when the lounge really starts to get crowded. Only one data point, the lounge was not crowded at all at 8 AM, but by 9:30 had filled up quite a lot. Even the space downstairs was rather full.

The restroom situation is untenable. I guess the approach of separate rooms was intended to convey a sense of privacy and luxury, but this is not the LH First Class Terminal. There were lines for both sets of restrooms, upstairs and downstairs - and this was before the lounge got really crowded. There are simply too many people for this to work. BA does this in their LHR lounges and IMO, it doesn't work well there either.

Other than the "deconstructed" bagel and lox, I found the breakfast offerings to be lackluster. The coffee/tea situation definitely needs to be fixed.

However, all in all, this lounge is a significant step up for United and many of the deficiencies described in this thread are fixable without too much disruption. (Aside from the restroom situation.)

StuckinITH

How many separate rooms are there in total? I never had to wait in the ORD Polaris Lounge and never saw a line. I have only been there about 10 times but there were at different times of the day: mornings up to noon for the Asia departures, afternoon for the flight to MUC and coming back I usually have to stay up to the time of the late departure flights.

pigx5

I had a chance to visit the Polaris Lounge on Apr 27 and it was very beautiful.
Here is my review with photos.
https://goo.gl/iXRyMb

BE-58

Agreed! I was there on Wednesday for my first visit. The fundamental lack of understanding that this needs to be a full-service lounge was really surprising. All of the buffet items were also nonexistent or completely picked over.

Also the comments about coffee are spot-on.

It seems that United should have waited another month to get things right rather than rush

Makes me wonder if any of the management remember the old pmCO billboard ad that sat near EWR: "We're only as good as your last flight with us."

IAH-OIL-TRASH

UA isn't going to win. People complain it took too long to open, others now seem to propose UA should have waited. Personally, I can't believe anyone could possibly think the lounge situation that preceded the Polaris lounge opening should have continued for another month. The current lounge situation in the int'l terminal, warts and all, is 10x better than it was the day before the Polaris lounge opened.

Kacee

Agreed, but given how long it took them to open this lounge, you'd think they would have planned better. The coffee situation being one very obvious example. And a single, non-central buffet area in a bi-level 25,000 sq ft lounge is just crazy.