Thanks for your help everyone! Like I said, I don’t travel for work, but am an aviation geek and when I do travel for pleasure I like to enjoy the experience as much as possible. I suppose because I don’t travel a ton I also tend to enjoy the experience because I don’t get the chance for things to get repetitive as I’m sure it would be if traveling as much as you guys do.

Every time I’ve ever had any questions, you guys have always been so helpful and I’ve had so many amazing vacation experiences because of all the help I’ve gotten from people from this site. I’ve changed hotels, flights, etc because of the advice I’ve gotten here and every time it’s made the experience better. Thank you all so much for your valuable advice!

It's not. The lounge itself is average, not terrible and not great. But it is located before security. So, the location by itself makes it a subpar option.

As others have said, the Star Alliance lounge is ok but if your flight leaves out of the same terminal as the CDG-SFO flight you'll be in an Air Canada lounge which really mediocre.

To throw a curveball here, if JFK isn't too far out of the way, it not only opens up multiple AF flight options it also will have a good chance of having their new business cabin upgraded seats.... The service, dining and wine selection experience on AF is far better then UA/AA and it looks like your wanting to try AF anyway... The lounge at JFK is small but updated/nice and has the new spa option for business and La Premier customers. Especially if you fly back into Newark as you can Uber from Newark airport parking to JFK in about 45 minutes non rush hour so maybe that's an option.

Yes, I would consider going to JFK for Air France. You can drive through Staten Island on the way. :D
But otherwise UA nonstop over AA connection, especially if it’s an AA 788. 789 is better and as mentioned 772 is a crapshoot. AA’s catering is better but UAs has improved somewhat and it will only really matter on the return as you will eat in the Polaris lounge on the outbound (get there early to have time for table service as the buffet is dreadful.)

I totally would have gone to JFK for AF. In fact, when I was planning to go in October, I was going to fly JFK-CDG and then return CDG-EWR, parking my car at EWR. Unfortunately in August the flight to EWR arrives at 10PM which is too late since I’d have to drive back and then go to work the next day (it was 3PM in October which was perfect). I suppose I could return to JFK, but it is a royal pain getting from there back to Philly. But I’m open to the JFK idea if I can figure out the logistics of getting there from Philly. At least with Newark it’s an easy drive and I don’t need to cross into NY!

PHL -> JFK. Take Amtrak to Penn Station and then either the "E" train or the LIRR to Jamaica and switch to the AirTrain to your terminal. It's definitely longer than driving but saves the hassle. Just not sure if you're up for 3 train rides just to get to JFK. Personally I would drive. And since you are so stuck on flying AF I think that's your best option. Highly doubtful AF changes their schedule by 7 hours to allow a 3pm arrival instead of 10pm.

The *A lounge at CDG is post immigration but before security. So when leaving the lounge you need to allot extra time for the security checks. It's a nice *A lounge; not the best, not the worst.

-RM

Thanks. I think I’ve just accepted the fact that this time around I’ll be flying on UA. I’m hoping there’s some catering improvements between now and August, but it is what it is. At least I can have dinner at the Polaris lounge. As for trying AF - I guess I’ll just have to plan another trip to France sometime!