bocastephen

Does anyone know the current status of the G concourse regular UA Club that was closed due to a water leak - has it re-opened, or specific to this Polaris thread, are Air Canada *G and business class passengers departing from the G concourse permitted to use the Polaris Lounge by the special agreement between AC/UA for G concourse lounge access?

For those unaware, before you answer, Air Canada negotiated an agreement with United that granted their *G/Business customers access to the interim international UC on G while Polaris was under construction, which at that time was an issue due to overcrowding in that lounge. After the Polaris Lounge opened, all non-Polaris eligible customers were directed to that former interim lounge - however when it closed due to a water leak, everyone except Air Canada customers were sent to the domestic terminal UCs and AC customers were to be admitted to Polaris due to that agreement about having an available lounge on the G concourse.

greg99

Showing my age, back in the day when the GFL was catered by Max's Cafe, that food was better than the Polaris buffet. I think the food in the Polaris dining room is better than the GFL ever was.

Service really is a problem, though - I'm guessing it's because (a) the average person dining in the Polaris dining room @ SFO has an expectation of excellent service when they eat at a restaurant, and (b) Sodexo isn't paying servers enough (especially without tips) to get people who have experience providing that level of service.

WineCountryUA

Was just closed for a few days, it is presently open
No, *A partner passengers will be directed to the G98 UC.

Unless their SFO departing flight is

narvik

Have a question on 'tips': how many here are actually tipping at the Polaris lounges? I do, but not so sure that is generally the case.
Is it not expected?

nomad420

I typically will tip the bar tender at SFO provided the service is good. Nothing huge but I always throw them a few bucks.

Kacee

Third visit yesterday, arriving around 4:30 p.m. Really like the space downstairs and upstairs opposite direction from the food. Very serene, great tarmac views, and the cubes are luxurious and convenient. Interestingly, the most popular/crowded area (around the bar) is IMO the least appealing, by a fairly large margin.

Food remains consistently disappointing in my view. Same weak buffet as my first visit in April. Four months in, you'd hope they change it up a little bit. There is literally nothing in this buffet that I want to eat (except for the desserts).

I had a burger in the private dining area. The service was excellent, the burger itself a little disappointing . . . not much flavor.

Still, it was a pleasant place to kill a couple hours and catch up on work calls. I do wonder how long before they figure out a way to start monetizing all the empty space.

cesco.g

Completely share your experience, Kacee, re food, esp the buffet.
Have not been lately to ORD nor EWR, but reports on food from those PL lounges sound much more appealing.

narvik

Yeah, was thinking the same thing.
Pretty sure this won't last too long. On my visit from a few days ago (~7pm) I was surprised how empty it was.
Can imagine they will offer a new premium CHASE CC with added Polaris entry for an annual fee of USD900 sometime in the near future.

BTW, also had the burger, and thought it was pretty decent. At least better than expected. Could have benefited from a slice of beetroot, or something vinegary, but not bad at all, IMO.

kilo

cesco.g

Entering this week the SFO PL agent asked for ID beside BP. Thinking it might be travel related I ask: PP ?
No any ID, she goes. "Hmm, new policy?" I go. She says yes, because there have been folks bringing in additional "family members"
by switching BPs.
Wondering, if this is SFO only or new PL-wide policy ?

UAflyer93

Got asked for my ID upon entering the lounge today. Was a bit taken aback.

Kacee

I wish I could say I'm surprised people are trying to pull that kind of bs. I wonder if they've actually caught anyone.

StuckinITH

FWIW, at the ORD PL, whenever I'm flying out on an international flight I'm asked for my passport so that they can put the DOCs OK stamp on my boarding pass. On the return, when I go to the PL waiting for my flight home, I have been asked for my ID about 30% of the time. I thought it was depending on who was working the desk at the time. This happened too in 2017.

BullishGS

I've been asked for ID at the PL lounge as well, and it was the first one where I entered using that particular ticket. I wonder if they could see if the same BP was been scanned before as I assume some pax with longer layovers may be re-entering the lounge more than once, could raise some unnecessary red flags.

trust77

i say this is unique to SFO because I have experienced request for ID too before entering. never experienced this request at EWR or IAH Polaris Lounges.