United Airlines will open a brand new Polaris Lounge at Washington Dulles Airport later this month, its first international business class lounge opening since the pandemic began.
United Airlines Will Open New Polaris Lounge In Washington Dulles (IAD)
After 19 months, United Airlines will begin to open Polaris Lounges again, its premium lounges reserved exclusively for international longhaul business and first class travelers.
Details are still limited, but the lounge will open in October in the IAD C Concourse and include:
- Private a la carte dining room, secluded behind lattice pocket doors
- Library with Washington DC-inspired decor
- Bar area boasting a unique coffered ceiling, which adds a touch of DC style to the overall look and feel of the lounge
- A unique bar and dining menu that is exclusive to the IAD lounge but popular items like the Polaris Burger will be available.
- The space has 355 seats, 6 shower suites, 13 private restrooms and 42 dining seats
The new lounge will be located directly across from United Club C17 and will be open from 5:30 a.m. – 10 p.m.
This lounge was essentially complete in March 2020 and then the pandemic struck, leaving it closed for the last 19 months along with all the other United Polaris lounges.
In August, Live and Let’s Fly reported that three Polaris Lounges would re-open in 2021 as long as travel continued to rebound. The first such lounge will be Washington Dulles, while the other two have yet to be named.
> Read More: Three United Airlines Polaris Lounges Set To Reopen Later This Year
For an idea of what you might expect, you can read full reviews of the other Polaris Lounges below:
CONCLUSION
At long last, United is openings its Dulles Polaris Lounge. Even more noteworthy, United sees enough business to begin re-opening its network of premium lounges. Hopefully the other five Polaris lounges will shortly follow.
EWR PL will also reopen in the “first half” of November. No firm date YET, but it’s happening.
Also 95% sure the other PL reopening is going to be ORD, for now.
UAL expects to generate good premium cabin results from the EU network this holiday season, hence EWR IAD ORD (3 largest EU hubs).
While this is great news, I’m surprised United isn’t opening the EWR lounge first, considering the amount of international travel to and from Newark surpasses the traffic that goes through IAD.
Would you say it’s worthwhile to arrive to the airport early in order to use the a la carte dining in this lounge rather than eating on the plane? I rarely fly United but picked up some very cheap Polaris flights (from IAD) in January during the big business class sale this summer.
Absolutely worthwhile to eat before. The a la carte (and buffet) selection will be better than what has been served onboard lately. Before, it didn’t really matter since the cart service was so loud and lights were turned up, but one advantage to the single tray service these days is the meal is done quickly and if you choose to go right to sleep, it won’t disturb you.
Think about it – your flight time will probably be under six hours. If you have dinner after takeoff and breakfast before landing, you’ll get three hours of sleep at most. Best to eat before the flight and then have breakfast before landing (or ideally, in the LHR arrivals lounge if that ever opens).
Thanks, will definitely check it out. As far as I know, the only other lounges that have offered a la carte dining at IAD were the BA lounge (F passengers) and AF lounge (J passengers on the 9pm flight only). We flew BA F once and the food in the dining room was spectacular.
We will be traveling with a 3 and 5.5 year old on this trip, so even 3 hours sleep would be a very successful flight for us.
Expect a decent buffet with hot/cold items and a menu with 4-5 dishes. I bet crab cakes will be an option, plus the Polaris burger. Maybe a pasta dish and potentially fish.
Agree about the Concorde dining room, but for the late BA flight in Club World, they had a separate dining room with several prepared items (I recall the Korean tacos- very good) and some to order, like the BA burger (nice with a Speedbird). Very nice to eat beforehand and sleep the whole flight, though I sometimes had the cheese course and port on board. It is a good way to travel. The Polaris in EWR was better, but still not too shabby and miles better than the UCs in C/D, and why I went from 1K to Plat because the IAD-LHR experience was so much better on BA. The IAD AF lounge had great La Premiere dining in a private room, and I understand had also introduced Affaires dining for the late night flight after their last renovation pre-Covid, though I have not tried it. UA certainly has competition at IAD, so they need a Polaris there.
My last flight – 8hr in Polaris – when the FA set down a tray of food I asked, “Are there other choices?” In fact there were 3 entree choices on my flight. it seems as if the FA are enjoying the single tray service as well.
So you didn’t get a choice prior to the tray being served?
Hello, today is Saturday 9 October. The Polaris lounge will open in 2 weeks according to the staff here at this United substandard club.
Good news
Pre-covid I really enjoyed the specialized dishes at each Polaris lounge. They did a decent job picking several local specialities. I second Matthew’s belief a crab dish will be one, hopefully lump meat with little filler and some Old Bay (Maryland/DC native here). The lounge sounds lovely and I will be excited to see what they offer on the menu! And if for no other reason- it will maximize your sleep and your dining experience will be more pleasant (your tastebuds work better on the ground and its dinner without turbulence).
Also the desserts are lovely, usually, if you like sweets.
Wow this is so exciting!
Since you have been to all the Polaris lounges, do you think one is nicer than the others, or are they all pretty much the same? I have heard a lot of people say SFO is the best. Also seems like LAX might be nice since there are so few international flights it wouldn’t get too busy.
I think each one has strengths and weaknesses. I like the LAX/SFO ones a lot, but EWR also quite nice.
nothing says exclusive like a burger.
There are plenty of other food options, but why not serve a burger if it’s among the most popular items? The reviews I’ve read point out it’s really good.
The VA lounge at Dulles, in the A terminal, has a few a la carte items in the evening, too, and one of those is a veggie burger. I recall tikki marsala chicken as well, and some really good desserts. Available with Amex Plat, so I would consider that if the Polaris has not opened yet.
How does this capacity compare to the other Polaris lounges? Just wondering how full it will be during the evening departure banks.
Bigger than ORD and IAH but smaller than EWR and SFO
I am flying Polaris iad-bru-iad in early December. So excited that they are opening the lounge before then. Thanks for sharing the news!
Now if only united would start providing special meals again. It a little irritating to pay $3000+ for a point end ticket and then have to bring your own food on board for a 8+ hour flight. Matthew can you please use your bully-aviation-blogger-pulpit to help affect a change? Vegans, vegetarians, folks with religion-based dietary restrictions and those who have gluten allergies would be grateful.
I will pass along the word.
My wife and I are flying Polaris from Chicago to London on October 30th and back to Chicago from Munich on November 6. I know the Chicago Polaris lounge most likely won’t be open by then, but if we are flying Polaris from Munich to Chicago, are there any lounges in Munich we could have access to? I know the Air Canada lounge is open.
Sorry, I meant Lufthansa lounge.
I’m flying Copa business class from IAD to PTY in December. That should get me into the new Polaris Lounge, right?