Polaris in-cabin service?
 

Has anyone flown long-haul Polaris in the last couple of days? Curious as to whether the level of service is consistent with pre-virus times. Dessert cart? Flight attendants seem anxious? Revised service? Thanks!

UC in London? on Polaris flight
 

Does anyone have any info on the United Clubs that do remain open in London Heathrow? Have a family member booked out of London to Dulles next Monday, Polaris flight. I know this is a rather somber time to be concerned with lounge access, but she will have 3 hours to wait in LHR.

I flew LHR EWR less than a week ago. Maybe 5 or 6 in Polaris. Service was excellent. Crew was very upbeat, and they said that had plenty of choices, everybody gets what they want, including seconds if wanted! Constant drink refills, and overall a great flight in terrible circumstances. UA Club at LHR was a ghost time, but fully catered. It is the best UA Club in the system in my opinion.

I flew SIN-SFO on Tuesday, service was fine, flight attendants were great and nobody seemed nervous. The dessert cart was used - the only thing missing was hot towel service. On a later SFO-EWR flight in a mostly empty business cain, the FAs were practically giddy, although I'm not sure why. Their loud laughter impeded with my ability to pass out.

There is just a single UC in LHR and it remains open.
Terminal 2, across from Gate B46
5:00 a.m. – 10:00 p.m. daily

The under-booked front cabins are sure providing a lot of new target practice for the UC receptionists. Two couples in front of me at SFO Rotunda club last night thought "upgrades to first class provided lounge access". Haven't observed that in years...

Relative of mine flew EWR-BOM in J yesterday, said it was completely full in J and O and only 5 or 6 open seats in Y best he could tell. I guess UA really properly picked out the routes it wants to operate. But I would argue why not operate the Polaris lounge only for limited hours? Like EWR in the evenings are bound to be busy as UA48 to BOM and UA82 to DEL are usually filled up in J (for the most part even during these times), so maybe operate during those hours only, or something of the sort.

Simple. UA is bleeding oceans of cash right now. Cutting contractor staff needed to service a few dozens of people is a no-brainer. It's not a trivial thing to staff and cater (food, supplies, cleaning) the Polaris lounge, especially for such a small group of users.

That's true I completely ignored the aspect of actually setting up the food spread to the degree and detail the Polaris lounges do, not to mention the restaurant catering.

But in that case, maybe a just few staffers and limited Polaris features? Perhaps a light buffet? I'm sure travelers would like the separate space and wifi at least. Not to mention having just one club open in these hubs is not exactly keeping up with the social distancing requirements I would say.

Ehh who am I kidding, it's United, if they are bleeding cash they wouldn't hesitate to close all their lounges anyways. They are probably thinking that they are "doing us a favor" by keeping a single club open in these hubs.

They are doing us a favor. And they're providing people like me who have a Club Membership what I paid for. Dealing with an agent in person in a club about changes beats calling in any day.

Just as DL, AA and most major airlines are doing --- or at least those that are continuing to try to provide some service versus shutting down completely ????

You mean before getting on India-bound packed planes with the same people that were in the lounge for a 14 hours or whatever flight where distancing requirements are not even close to the spacing available in a UC? From my experience at the SFO Rotunda UC Tuesday night, there was plenty of room, and far more than in a Polaris cabin.

If your argument is about spacing, might as well shut down all the lounges - there's more room per passenger in the terminals nowadays. There would also be that many fewer people (UC lounge staff) to come into contact with.

I think I'd be happy with at least the UCs still being open...

Normally I would think from a cost/demand standpoint that the UCs are not far from being temporarily closed. That said, I'm sure more than one person will try to sue based on having paid for a membership. :rolleyes:

I think United has determined keeping the lounges open is far cheaper than giving a credit or extension for memberships for people who aren't even flying

That's true, I don't have a club membership, so I didn't think of it that way. I guess if enough people are not flying, then spacing won't be an issue in the C74 club especially.
That's also fair.
LOL yep, exactly. Some space before getting on a packed UA48/82 as always :D. And Likewise UA49/83 which are even more packed.

Also I'm starting to think I'm not meant to visit a Polaris lounge at EWR. I've had a grand total of 5 Polaris eligible flights from EWR. One of them a car crashed right about .2 miles in front of me on the freeway and was stuck there for 2 hours before I was able to go anywhere, and so very late to the airport. Twice, I just showed up late for no reason in typical Indian fashion, another time I got a battlefield upgrade, and the 5th, I ran into friend at airport who was coincidentally on same flight but in Y, didn't feel like leaving him out so walked him into a UC and spent time there instead. And If I fly UA this summer on return from FRA, and Polaris lounge still closed, that's 6 :(.