eng3

I was there at 11am and did not see any break

ermintrude

I love this lounge - Polaris it's difficult to keep the calories low but I recently had the Cioppino entre at the restaurant here and thought it was excellent; Crab cake was OK. love the quiet rooms
General note.. I think it's crazy to have such a disparity between UA Club and Polaris lounge products. but that's a different story.

restlessinRNO

SFO-NRT return is ~ $1000 in coach and ~ $7000 in business class. That's really the disparity.

warrenw

Meanwhile I can find ICN-NRT-SFO and back all day long for $2,800

milepig

Shhh. Everyone will want one.

But not as loud as the voice as one of the bartenders in the 80's UC. Oh, that laugh, sort of like fingernails on the chalkboard.

CMK10

I had a 50 minute connection from RDU-SFO-PEK last week and I had to get from gate 83 to G100. I decided to squeeze in 15 minutes in the lounge and I'm really, really glad I did. With the possible exception of American's Flagship Dining (not lounge) at JFK this is easily the best lounge in the US and better than some international First Class lounges I've been to. United did an amazing job with this and it's hard to believe because the rest of my Polaris experience was fairly mediocre.







I didn't have time to eat anything (though I walked around with a glass of Piper Champagne, naturally) but the food selections looked impressive the restaurant even more so



I also like the private bathroom stalls. Wish I'd had more time for the lounge. I might add the bartender was incredibly friendly and I spent a third of my time chatting with him.

24left

I was in this lounge in June and posted these photos and comments.

https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/29891763-post327.html


I was also recently in the ORD Polaris lounge and my photos are here. I would say that ORD was significantly better in 2 areas: service and food.

https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/30301976-post825.html


31 October 2018

Here are photos and comments.











I like some of the art.




























I also like this seating area in the back. Nice and quiet.

















Down to the lower level seating area. I also like it because it's quiet and you're not getting all the walk-through traffic like upstairs.




To the shower rooms.
















A Quiet Room/ Nap Room




Amenities







Now for the food........

On this visit, there was a waitlist to get in. Staff person was taking names and said 15-20 minutes. A couple of guys in line were not amused.




Yup, my day is looking better...with some bubbles.













I ordered this salad, dressing on the side. It was not as good as in June ands some of the edges of the lettuce were brown.







I ordered it without the egg.




Thankfully, others seated nearby let me take photos of their order items.
















This was very cool to see.




The buffet food stations.




Salads and sandwiches.
















Desserts




These were tasty but a bit hard and dry. The ORD ones were much better.




These were awesome.




Downstairs, on the lower level, there is a coffee/tea/water/juice station







On tops of the fridges with cold drinks, there are these













Later in the afternoon, servers were walking around offering some tuna hors d'oeuvres. She said this was a new feature.

I've had this in the NZ lounge in AKL during "cocktail hour". Nice touch.

physioprof

Thanks for the great photoessay! Haven't been to SFO polaris lounge yet, but LOVE the one in EWR. I honestly feel like the polaris lounges have really upped UA's intl game, despite the relative weakness of the food on board.

24left

@physioprof
Thanks!

I've only been to SFO twice and ORD once and it was great to have the recent ORD and SFO visits close together. Just my opinion but as I wrote, I found ORD to have better food and service. Even the UA desk agents near reception in ORD were more dynamic and enthusiastic to deal with. While the overall Polaris staff were very gracious in SFO, I found the servers in the Dining Room in ORD were more experienced/professional and creative.

I agree with you about the Polaris lounges being a great decision by UA. Given the current and possible future decline in the meals onboard, I wonder if some pax will choose to have their meal in the Polaris lounges (should they have the time) and then sleep onboard. I've noticed this with 2 other airlines I fly (international F and J).

shuuy

milepig

Kacee

That would not be even close to accurate. The dining room closes at approx 9 pm, whereas the lounge is open until midnight.

MatthewLAX

I've now been to all four lounges and I think SFO comes in a distant last for food. That's a shame because the SFO facility is the nicest, IMO, of the four. Looking forward to LAX opening up soon.

transportprof

I wonder whether SFO Polaris's bottom of barrel dining experience has any connection to SFO's living wage policy? Every airside employee at SFO has a "living wage" plus health benefits that are an order of magnitude beyond what is paid at other airports. The labor costs at SFO Polaris are easily > 33% of the other Polaris lounges. Could this be partly offset by scrimping on other budget lines?

24left

As I wrote upthread, SFO Polaris is beautiful and a fantastic space. Food offerings have declined a lot since my June visit. ORD is much, much better in both service and food.

Also, not sure about all of the Polaris lounges (but I assume there is a contract). The servers work for Sodexo. Same thing with the Amex Centurion at HKG and the *A at LAX TBIT. Some airlines, like AC, switched from Sodexo to Compass to run their lounges.