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LAX Polaris Lounge -- Reviews, Experiences, Q&A, ...

LAX Polaris Lounge -- Reviews, Experiences, Q&A, ...

Old Jan 12, 2019, 8:56 am
  #76  
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Originally Posted by rodjune
CONS: ... most of the seating is on the sunny west side.
I think most people would consider natural light a pro.
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Old Jan 12, 2019, 11:20 am
  #77  
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Well, I would complement United as well as the Flyertalkers who came - y'all are cool. The missus and I thoroughly enjoyed the preview session we were at, glitches and all.

As I add and post pictures, here's a few answers for questions posted upthread.

Hours (as of now): 6:45 am - 10:15 pm

There's both an elevator and stairs for entrance and egress.

Here's the card/brochure describing the lounge (that others have shared some parts of) in its entirety:







Location/Orientation of the Lounge:

If you know where the former Global First Lounge was in Terminal 7 or are aware of the rotunda/round upper level as you walk toward Gates 74/77, you'll find the entrance there. Others have already posted a photo of the elevator entrance.

Here's are two crops from the card/brochure with a bit more annotation:





Here's watching folks go by underneath you through the rotunda windows looking slightly NNW back toward Gates 70-73:



Dining:

After we were seated, Flying Machine, his guest and HkCaGu and introduced themselves.

Tried to order the Fish and Chips (~4:45 PM) but was told that it was no longer available. Whether this was their decision to limit toward the end of the Preview or that they'll be short on supplies this week remains to be told.

Here's the burger, arancini appetizer and the 3 tacos' set:



Not a ua_flyer quality shot...ah well

Here's my deconstructionist shot of the burger - ordered with fried egg (plus the other dishes). Note that the fries were of the sweet potato variety - not my favorite to go with a burger.



Ordered the pavlova for dessert:





Didn't get a chance to try out any of the food at the buffet.

Ordered the paper plane drink when we were seated in the Dining Room. The drink showed up with no plane:



Given that the clip was on the glass, I inquired where my plane was....Another plane was located and I attached it:



Other Features:

Small fridges under the servery bar for grab and go drinks:





In the bank of restrooms, the far left restroom has a urinal as well as the toilet. Didn't get a chance to test if any of the others have urinals as well.

The phone room to the left has a column that takes up much of the space in that room.

A view to the west at nightfall:



As others have noted, this is the sunny side in the afternoon and may get a bit uncomfortable in the summer, even with the shades lowered.

Tipping in the Lounge:



David
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Old Jan 12, 2019, 12:30 pm
  #78  
 
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I spent most of yesterday in the Polaris lounge; came in at 8a for opening and lingered 'till 3:30'ish ahead of a departing flight. Prior to the 8am opening, I hung out in the United Club and helped myself to scrambled eggs, sausage, and other goodies; they've really upped their game with food here. I told a UA agent working the club that I was headed to Polaris and they said they weren't impressed, which I found a bit startling.

But when I got to the lounge, I knew that UA'er was wrong: as with the other Polaris lounges, the LAX one is beautiful.

And while they did add substantial space to the previous F lounge that was there, it is far too small to be a Business Class lounge. The dining room alone is shockingly tiny and staff struggled to keep up with dining room guests. I had no problem at breakfast time getting a seat (only 1 table free) but as more people came in around lunchtime, I was told there'd be a 15 minute wait for a table. 40 minutes later, they told me the only way I could dine is if I joined a stranger at a table (which I ended up enjoying.) But from ordering to eating was an hour!

I asked them if they'd serve dinner at the tables just outside the dining room, and they said they wouldn't since those are for the buffet. There's no way this lounge can accommodate a single Polaris flight cabin eating a meal, let alone multiple flights at around the same time. Based on learnings in Chicago and elsewhere, I'm surprised the LAX team didn't factor in the size of the dining room into their plans...or at least consider doing something different: like serving dinner at any table or at the bar to alleviate their space issue.

The Polaris staff (from Sudoxo) were all extremely warm, friendly, and outgoing. They all remembered first names and used them frequently throughout the lounge. The "mixologists" at the bar were also very friendly and are good at whipping up drinks not even on the menu (i.e.: they have plenty of fresh mint, so you can have a mohito whipped up.)

Food and drink offerings were good and typical of the offering elsewhere.

I had a chance to speak to the Sudoxo person responsible for the Polaris lounges and had a chance to chat with the UA employee getting ready for the new IAD lounge project. I asked about two common points discussed here on FT: food quality at different locations and tipping.

First, I mentioned there's an idea that food quality at SFO is subpar while ORD may have the best....and some have hypothesized here it's due to higher labor costs. They told me that United does give them a per traveler budget to work with and it factors in both perishables and labor, but the budget doesn't sacrifice food to cover labor in more expensive markets. I was also told UA does have different budgets to work with in different cities, so while SFO may have higher labor costs, they also have a higher budget on a per passenger basis to work with. While they didn't tell me which city has the largest food budget, I was told ORD isn't it.

As far as tipping, they have no policy or procedure. I was told that employees are told not to expect tipping, especially in west coast locations where the idea of tipping may be foreign to Asian travelers. There is nothing in writing for guests about gratuities and staff are to never solicit for them. That said, guests are always welcome to tip for good service. I mentioned my experience has been different than that --that at other lounges, staff have requested/reminded me that I should tip them. And in the ORD lounge in the past, I've been given materials that suggest a gratuity should be made. Sudoxo was going to look into that and I suppose do more training around it. I said they should accept credit cards for tips, but because the lounge doesn't sell anything, there's no real interest to put in POS terminals to accept cards.

I also asked the bartending staff at LAX about tipping; what have they been told and what do they expect. They said they were told not to expect any tips but be appreciative of what they do get and quickly pocket them; they don't want loose bills or a tip jar in sight to give the idea that tipping is expected. Two of the bartenders I spoke to bartend elsewhere and said that Sudoxo pays them a higher wage to make up for the difference of being in a non-tipping environment. I asked what they thought of that and they said they liked the job + the pay; the workload is lighter and with a more sophisticated crowd, they thought their pay was more than fair and had no issues with no tipping. I thanked them for the time and the drinks and dropped $10 tips
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Old Jan 12, 2019, 12:55 pm
  #79  
 
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Perhaps there wasn't enough space structurally to increase the dining size? It is interesting, though, because I have to imagine there are a lot of folks flying LAX-other hub-INTL destination, meaning there will be plenty of folks who could use the club.

That said, it will be interesting to see who is actually aware of the dining room availability / functionality. My wife and I ran into one of her colleagues in the EWR Polaris lounge a few weeks back, and they had no idea they could order a whole meal until we told them. Same thing with my relatives - they were completely unaware and didn't even bother checking it out (I wasn't there to point it out ).
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Old Jan 12, 2019, 1:33 pm
  #80  
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From reading the reports, some of the crowding may have been due to longer than normal stays?? making a day of this since many did not have travel plans or came much earlier than normal?

Probably better to wait a week or two to see what the normal loading is gone to be. But in reality, UA was pretty space constrained. Look at the massive reconstruction that had to be done to get the larger UC at LAX.
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Old Jan 12, 2019, 2:47 pm
  #81  
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Originally Posted by jm0933
I would probably chalk that up to the preview, though. When the lounge is half full under normal conditions, everybody's flight is leaving at slightly different times so the rush will be more spread out for dining. Also, since many people still like to eat on the plane, not every passenger is going to be taking advantage of the a la carte dining. I'm sure everybody wanted to try it during the preview, which would not be normal. I think we'll need to see reports from people using the lounge during normal operation to determine if there's really a big size issue.
Originally Posted by WineCountryUA
From reading the reports, some of the crowding may have been due to longer than normal stays?? making a day of this since many did not have travel plans or came much earlier than normal?

Probably better to wait a week or two to see what the normal loading is gone to be. But in reality, UA was pretty space constrained. Look at the massive reconstruction that had to be done to get the larger UC at LAX.
Was able to enjoy a wonderful afternoon there yesterday as well. It's my impression that the demand for dining room seats was unusually high yesterday, as most of us in the lounge were pre-view guests who of course wanted to try out the sit-down dining experience. More so, as most had ample time and were in no rush to make a flight. The situation under "normal" operations might be different.
While the dining room space itself is limited, it might still be adequate due to the lower number of Polaris flights & pax out of LAX. Comparing on that basis I would guess other PLs like in SFO might actually have less dining room space available than LAX.
Time will tell for sure.
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Old Jan 12, 2019, 3:06 pm
  #82  
 
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There are only 8 tables in the dining room with a maximum capacity of 16.

UA839 and 98 leave at about the same time in the evening, with 98 Polaris seats just with those 2 flights. So even if just 10% of the eligible passengers wanted to dine, there wouldn't be enough room. Add in other Polaris seats and any other eligible passengers (who may opt to connect onward on UA metal and not use the *A lounge) and there's no room for them to eat.

When the circular area was closed off during construction, I thought they'd expand into that entire space. I was surprised to see if left open.

Prior to 4pm yesterday, crowds were light into the club; so much so that UA invited LAX-area elites in for free. Even at its busiest, I never counted more than 25 "passengers" trying out the lounge at once. Now I know not every J passenger uses a lounge and not everyone that uses the lounge will eat dinner, but I think space will still become an issue here, especially if you have 2+ Polaris flights leaving at about the same time.
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Old Jan 12, 2019, 3:24 pm
  #83  
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Originally Posted by WineCountryUA
From reading the reports, some of the crowding may have been due to longer than normal stays?? making a day of this since many did not have travel plans or came much earlier than normal?
I'm optimistic the space will be fine. SFO has just over 2x the square footage and about 6x the passenger load during the main departure windows, and I've been pleasantly surprised that while the main room at SFO can get busy, there are areas (downstairs and towards the Studio) that are never crowded.

The max crowd for LAX will likely be prior to SYD and MEL. That's a combined 96 J pax.
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Old Jan 12, 2019, 4:14 pm
  #84  
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As seen at EWR, only a fraction of the Polaris customers actually use the dining room, so observations that the space cant handle an entire Polaris cabin might be true, but it wont have to.
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Old Jan 12, 2019, 6:46 pm
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Pictures of the Wellness Room:



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Last edited by SS255; Jan 12, 2019 at 6:59 pm
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Old Jan 12, 2019, 8:02 pm
  #86  
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Foodwise I had a chance to sample some buffet items, while having a couple glasses of champagne at the bar. I tried the smoked chicken open-faced sandwiches, chicken skewers, roasted yellow & red peppers, the olive tapenade and an Italian-style artesan salami. All was excellent. The dessert selection was varied and the S=mores parfait looked very enticing. There were also a two kinds of a Mexican style soup, with various ingredients to add to it. It drew great compliments from fellow visitors.
Opposite the buffet is a life-food-preparation station, which will be serving freshly prepared items at breakfast, lunch and dinner time. Yesterday afternoon a lady made great looking fresh pizza with cauliflower crust.
I found this station concept very creative. It reminded me of a great restaurant in Italy, where the "Nona" upfront prepares fresh pasta.
In the dining room I had the Pier Salad (outstanding), the street tacos and the Pavlona (yummy) for dessert. Service was great and very friendly, with Champagne and wine flowing freely. The Duckhorn Pinot Noir and the Prisoner Red Blend are very fine selections.
Back at the bar we had a couple more glasses of Champagne, chatting with some FTers and other guest. The bartenders were of younger generations and seem to really enjoy their jobs.

Overall I would rate the food outstanding and best alongside the ORD offering. Definitely a step above SFO and a bit tastier that IAH. (I can'comment on EWR PL) - all personal preferences of course

It was a really interesting and memorable fun event. Probably the best value for 2500 miles ever!
Kudos to UA Team LAX and PL staff! Well done! ^

Many thanks to all posters above for the excellent pictures of the facilities! Let me just post a couple of pictures of my two favorite food items that day: the Pier Salad and the Pavlona.dessert.


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Last edited by cesco.g; Jan 12, 2019 at 8:11 pm
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Old Jan 12, 2019, 9:35 pm
  #87  
 
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And I forgot to take off my shoes going into the scanner! Its been a long while since I had to take off my shoes anywhere in the world! (@TBIT for CA pre-Pre)
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Old Jan 12, 2019, 11:11 pm
  #88  
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Originally Posted by HkCaGu
And I forgot to take off my shoes going into the scanner! Its been a long while since I had to take off my shoes anywhere in the world! (@TBIT for CA pre-Pre)
Just wanted to echo this - even if you've got PreCheck, the LAX gate passes that we were issued had us go through the Premier/Premium security screening - NOT GS/Pre. So, if you've forgotten that drill, shoes jackets coats belts phones metal all go in the bins - and you're probably going to be sent through the nudeoscope.

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Old Jan 13, 2019, 5:55 am
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Originally Posted by tstauck

The old Continental livery with the new LAX Polaris lounge pics makes for a great juxtaposition! Kudos!
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Old Jan 13, 2019, 11:13 am
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Originally Posted by DELee
Just wanted to echo this - even if you've got PreCheck, the LAX gate passes that we were issued had us go through the Premier/Premium security screening - NOT GS/Pre. So, if you've forgotten that drill, shoes jackets coats belts phones metal all go in the bins - and you're probably going to be sent through the nudeoscope.

David
I have precheck. There was no precheck on my gate pass, although I was walked to the front of the security line. I did indeed go through the nudeoscope, but was only carrying a laptop. I totally forgot to take off my shoes and had to be reminded.
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