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EWR Polaris lounge -- Reviews, Experiences, Q&A, ..

Old Jun 3, 2018, 2:29 pm
FlyerTalk Forums Expert How-Tos and Guides
Last edit by: SPN Lifer
Access to Polaris lounges (source):


update 29 Sept 2017, effective 1 Oct, 2017

Departure: The airport you are leaving on an international J/F flight* from, i.e. EWR-ORD-NRT
Connecting: The airport to or from which you have a short-haul flight to connect to a longer flight, i.e. EWR-ORD-NRT or NRT-ORD-EWR
Arrival: The airport you arrive at after your long-haul flight, i.e. EWR-ORD-NRT

Hours- 4:30a - 10:45p

*Currently it appears that any departing international flight on an *A partner qualifies (except AC operated transborder flights ), but only United flights with the premium cabin class listed as 'Polaris Business' or 'Polaris First' will qualify for entrance after arriving off a United Polaris flight.
UA premium cabin flights not marketed as Polaris, such as Domestic First or International Business (Canada, Mexico, Caribbean ... ) are not eligible for Polaris lounge access.

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EWR Polaris lounge -- Reviews, Experiences, Q&A, ..

Old Mar 5, 2020, 11:56 am
  #331  
 
Join Date: Jul 2005
Location: NYC
Programs: UA-1K MM, AA-Gold, DL-Silver, AS-MVP
Posts: 2,495
Originally Posted by DELee
How was the food? Better question: How was the service?

David
Food was alright, but I'm not really a breakfast person. Service was excellent, basically a 1:1 staff to passenger ratio..
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Old Mar 5, 2020, 1:16 pm
  #332  
 
Join Date: Apr 2009
Location: Houston
Programs: UA GS 2.6MM & Lifetime UC, Qantas Platinum, Hilton Lifetime Diamond, Bonvoy Platinum, HawaiianMiles
Posts: 8,627
Oooo I like the look of the brekky items! Also have never been there in the morning and unlikely to ever do so.
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Old Mar 5, 2020, 4:13 pm
  #333  
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Join Date: Mar 2008
Location: London
Programs: UA GS
Posts: 2,435
Im at EWR Polaris now. While not as full as it often is during the EU departure bank, its certainly not the ghost town I expected. One difference is only half the buffet is stocked (vs duplicates of everything as usual)
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Old Mar 6, 2020, 6:10 am
  #334  
 
Join Date: Apr 2009
Location: Houston
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Looks great, probably will never be there for breakfast
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Old Mar 6, 2020, 6:32 am
  #335  
 
Join Date: Apr 2009
Location: LAX
Programs: UA Plat MM, CM Plat, Amex Plat, Hertz CP, Hyatt Globalist, SPG Gold, Vons Club
Posts: 6,842
Originally Posted by DELee
How was the food? Better question: How was the service?

David
When I was there last month, in the late afternoon early evening. I thought the service was quite nice even though the club was fairly full. I was able to be seated in the restaurant with a nice window seat, service was cordial and efficient, and the food was very good

The buffet items seemed a little bit lacking in quality presentation. I was speaking with one of the servers near the buffet about the chicken Parmesan or that they had a while back. She goes oh you remember that she goes I loved it! It was probably one of the better renditions that I had in quite some time. Too bad I didn’t have a loaf of Italian bread, otherwise I would’ve made a sandwich and skipped dinner on the plane :-)

Last edited by WineCountryUA; Mar 6, 2020 at 8:45 am Reason: repaired quote
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Old Mar 6, 2020, 6:41 am
  #336  
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Originally Posted by hirohito888
Lounge is eerily quiet, only 12 passengers in the lounge on a Thursday morning. Kind of sad to see. Hope air travel can pick up soon.

Food - maple bacon beignets and sweet potato chickpea hashbrown and benedict

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Originally Posted by DELee
How was the food? Better question: How was the service?

David
I'd be happy to hear hirohito888's thoughts, but for now —

I made the same order earlier this year; found the beignets to be a bit leaden in texture, but with a decent flavour; and found the hash to be delicious. My server was very friendly, and food was brought promptly (10 minutes or under).

edit: Somehow the more recent posts did not load for me initially (thank you flyertalk interface). I see now I am late to the party!
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Old Mar 6, 2020, 6:43 am
  #337  
 
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Champagne was Piper Red Label as stated up thread
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Old Mar 10, 2020, 8:39 am
  #338  
 
Join Date: Feb 2017
Posts: 258
Pictured below:
Overnight Oats
Pork Belly BLT (double portion, extra pork belly, runny egg)
Honeycomb Crepes
Benedict Hash

We thought everything was delicious including service! Only critique would be that the pork belly should of been more rendered.






Waitress mentioned that the new menu was suppose to be rolled out yesterday and she was surprised to see the old one when she got to work. She said the salmon lox bagel and spinach quiche would be returning to the menu.

I am on the way to BKk via NRT. Currently booked 12 out of 60 in polaris. We are the only ones in the back cabin, but there are 6 non-revs on standby/upgrade list.

6 people in the dining room. 2 more at the bar. Couple more scattered throughout the lounge.
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Old Mar 12, 2020, 3:49 pm
  #339  
 
Join Date: Jan 2009
Location: IAH/EWR-LGA/MIA
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Posts: 2,477
11 March 630-830 am

Very quiet though I suppose that's to be expected even in a non-COVID 19 world. I was on the morning LHR flight and based on overheard languages, I'm guessing most of the others were inbound from GRU, BOM or DEL on connections.

I had the beignets and pork belly BLT from the restaurant and then tried the pumpkin pancake, the hash browns and the ham and cheddar biscuits from the buffet. All were good, as was service and the plentiful Piper champagne. No complaints.








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Old Mar 12, 2020, 7:02 pm
  #340  
 
Join Date: Jun 2015
Location: SFO
Programs: UA GS
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Was there this morning as well st530. On GRU flight that arrived right after 4, agreed on the food and it was very quite the entire time I was there (on 10:00am flight to SFO).

Was surprised that they didn't bring out the buffet hot food until 6:30, I could have sworn last time I flew in from Del we got in early and was in the lounge before 6 with food out already.
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Last edited by bslepko; Mar 12, 2020 at 7:40 pm
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Old Mar 13, 2020, 5:38 am
  #341  
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Originally Posted by st530
Very quiet though I suppose that's to be expected even in a non-COVID 19 world. I was on the morning LHR flight and based on overheard languages, I'm guessing most of the others were inbound from GRU, BOM or DEL on connections.

I had the beignets and pork belly BLT from the restaurant and then tried the pumpkin pancake, the hash browns and the ham and cheddar biscuits from the buffet. All were good, as was service and the plentiful Piper champagne. No complaints.

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Did they run out of the uncured pork belly and substitute bacon? Or maybe that was extra bacon (which, of course, is a type of pork belly). I can't tell what lurks beneath the leaves.
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Old Mar 13, 2020, 6:35 pm
  #342  
 
Join Date: Jan 2009
Location: IAH/EWR-LGA/MIA
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Posts: 2,477
Originally Posted by fumje
Did they run out of the uncured pork belly and substitute bacon? Or maybe that was extra bacon (which, of course, is a type of pork belly). I can't tell what lurks beneath the leaves.
Extra bacon because the maple beignets were late. Should have pointed that out.
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Old Apr 23, 2020, 7:38 am
  #343  
 
Join Date: Sep 2008
Location: New Orleans
Posts: 20
Very poor experience at the United Polaris Lounge EWR and at the Gate

​​​​​Very poor experience at the United Polaris Lounge EWR (Newark Airport) pre-COVID and at the Gate

Arrived around 2050 hrs on 26 Dec. Lounge did not seem that busy.
However, they were no longer serving a sit down dinner and maybe 3-4 folks left in this area.
Buffet was of poor quality with warm dry salmon and room temperature turkey.
Would be nice to let folks know food service hours in advance and to have proper buffet items when full service is not available. One solution, perhaps to make this very clear on the UA, Star Alliance, etc. websites that mention various lounges. If I would have known limited service hours and how poor the buffet was, I would have eaten at city of origin.

Bar tender lady was nice.
Half of the employees were too busy doing social media on their cell phones to work.
This was in the middle of the lounge.
The other half appeared to be doing their job.
Where I sat to eat the buffet food was mostly empty. Despite this, the person cleaning the tables cleared the dirty dishes from the other tables onto my table and left them there before loading the dirty dishes cart which was 1/2 blocking where I was sitting. Unsupervised and clueless.
Compared to my prior experience at the United Polaris Lounge in Chicago (ORD), this was very poor indeed.
Lounges at Turkish Airlines and Lufthansa are usually far superior. Yes, we do have a choice in airlines, and sometimes Lounges.

The signage for the gate was almost non-existent as the only entry to the gate was not clearly noted with a long walk from the opposite direction. The entry restrictions were due to Security (no issue about that). Almost missed my Duty Free pick up at gate never have seen a DF person trying to hide so well.

The flight out of EWR was pleasant. The crew staff that worked Polaris were great.

Goals of this 4 month belated posting:

When things improve post COVID, to improve the poor EWR Lounge experience and to hire supervisors and employees to do a proper job.

Improve signage directions for gates when means of entry will be limited.

From NOLA with love
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Old Apr 23, 2020, 7:54 am
  #344  
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Didn't you post recently about the quality of UA staff at FRA? You understand that you are unlikely to reach UA this way, and we do not have the power to improve your lounge experience. You should write to UA directly with your suggestions.
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Old Apr 23, 2020, 9:42 am
  #345  
 
Join Date: Sep 2008
Location: New Orleans
Posts: 20
Thank you folks. I have just contacted UA regarding EWR Polaris and FRA staff via separate messages via:
https://www.united.com/en/us/customercare


Comments from you are appreciated.
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