As my home airport lounge, I do admit a preferential bias toward it, but the United Club at LAX is one of the best in the United system. Here’s a detailed review with a fresh update on food and beverage service.
United Club LAX Review
Location + Hours + Access
The United Club at LAX is located in Terminal 7 near gate 71A. It is open daily from 5:45AM to 11:30PM.
Access is reserved for Untied Club members, Chase United Club Visa holders, Star Alliance Gold travelers, business class travelers flying to Newark on United’s premium transcontinental service, and international business or first class passengers traveling on any Star Alliance flight. Furthermore, one-time passes from Chase are accepted or can be purchased for $59. Note that if you hold a Star Alliance Gold card from United Airlines (Premier Gold or higher), you can only access the lounge when traveling in conjunction with an international itinerary. Those who have a Star Gold card from other programs can use the lounge when traveling on any Star Alliance flight in any class of service. Also note that United does not give premium cabin passengers access on domestic flights, with the exception of the premium transcontinental route noted above.
Seating
You’ll enter the lounge on the ground floor, where an agent will check you in. From there, you’ll take the escalator upstairs to the lounge itself. At approximately 20,000 square feet, there is plenty of space to spread out, particularly during the pandemic. The main seating area consists of chairs and rectangular tables in which you can sit or stand while eating or working.
It looks even better with natural light:
Further back in the lounge is the dining and bar area, which is surrounded by additional seating, both tables and booths.
You’ll find plenty of power and USB ports throughout the lounge:
Finally, there is a rear indoor seating area that tends to be the most quiet part of the lounge. Even when the lounge is crowded, this area reliably has a place to sit.
Terrace
The highlight of the lounge, at least in my opinion, is the outdoor terrace overlooking the tarmac below. Not only can you catch the sunrise, but you can watch airplanes go in and out. You might except a lot of noise and the pungent stench of jet fuel, but it is fairly tranquil out there.
Food + Drink
I dedicated a special post to what you can expect during the pandemic, but we are now (thankfully) past that point. Food selection is still limited, though a far greater spread is currently available than was earlier this year.
The buffet, once empty, is now full. Food and non-alcoholic drinks are now self-serve.
Breakfast options currently include:
- Croissants
- Muffins
- Bagels
- Biscotti
- Freshly-cut fruit
- Hardboiled eggs
- Overnight oats with blueberry
- Greek yogurt
- Breakfast burritos
- Jimmy Dean breakfast sandwiches (sausage, eggs, cheese on a biscuit)
- Cereal
- Oatmeal
Lunch and dinner options include:
- Potato chips
- Pretzels
- Burritos (hot)
- Cole slaw
- Sandwiches
- Green salad
- Pita bread with olive spread, dried apricots, and grapes
- String cheese
- Vegetable crudités
- Cookies
- Cheesecake
- Brownies
- Pie
For perspective, this was how the lounge looked before pandemic restrictions were lifted:
Back then, bar staff had both food and drink available behind a plexiglass divider.
Over the years, I have enjoyed many delicious meals in the lounge. From Greek yogurt with berries and chia seeds in the morning to Korean BBQ tacos in the evening, the food offerings in this lounge have generally been above-average (certainly better than the two closest hubs, SFO and DEN).
I’m not counting on the holiday Egg Nog and hot chocolate station to return this year, though one can hope…
Customer Service
Customer service agents are able to help you with ticketing needs. They are located upstairs behind the escalators. Having an agent without a huge line during irregular operations is an under-valued benefit of the club. While united.com and the United mobile app is now able to handle most rebooking, if you need something complex (or want to get booked on another airline), you need to speak to an agent in-person.
Phone Rooms
Around the corner from the customer service agents are a number of phone rooms that act as mini cubicles or private offices. My son lounged out on the floor (sorry germaphobes) during his first visit to the lounge in 2016…
Nursing Room
The last “phone room” is reserved for a nursing room. Hey guys, this isn’t a room to chat a cell phone chat…
Restrooms
Restrooms are clean and spacious, though the automatic flushers usually don’t work…I hate them with a passion.
Wi-Fi
Kudos to United for having fast wi-fi in the lounge. Expect speeds of over 100Mbps up and down.
What I’d Like To See…
There is one thing missing from this lounge and one thing that would make the lounge significantly more attractive, in my humble opinion. United deliberately chose not to install showers in this lounge, knowing it would install shower suites in its nearby Polaris Lounge. In fact, United has removed showers from its clubs in Houston and Newark. I find this curious and regrettable. While it is an extra expense, there’s nothing like a shower after a redeye flight. I wish United would offer showers in their clubs like American and Delta do.
Second, the espresso machines are fine, but it would be so nice to have a real coffee machine behind the bar and train the bartenders to be baristas. I’m sure they could make beautiful coffee in no time and it would consitute a real value-add for me.
One can dream…
Service
Finally, let me offer a shout out to the staff in this lounge. Over the years, I have interacted with many agents and found the lounge staff (both the United employees and the Sodexo service employees) to be lovely. I must give a special shout-out to Bruce, who has served United for 45 years and is a fixture at the LAX United Club.
I love chatting with him and will never forget how he worked so hard to save my trip back in 2013 when I was traveling to Singapore via San Francisco and rolling delays on my SFO flight nearly cost us the trip. But Bruce reached out to Singapore Airlines in SFO and the flight did not depart without us (even though it should have…).
CONCLUSION
The natural light and terrace make this one of my favorite United Clubs. While I miss the pre-pandemic food and drink options, hopefully those will return one day. In the meantime, expect a clean environment with snacks and serenity.
What has you experience been in the LAX United Club?
If you are considering signing up for a new credit card please click here and help support LiveAndLetsFly.com.
Great review and I agree with you about showers. Such a critical aspect of a lounge, especially, as you noted, one with several transcon routes. UA has done a great job with lounges overall. The Polaris lounges are in my humble opinion excellent for a US carrier. And I am a big fan of the UA lounge at LHR.
So sad to see these empty. I wonder if LAX and other airports are adjusting the rent on lounge spaces?
Good question on rent. 20K square feet cannot be cheap!
Didn’t United pay to have the new Club built? In which case would they really be paying rent on the new Club? I would think they would have worked out some sort of waiver.
Good point. I hope so!
I am traveling on Thursday.
Do u know what the serve around 8.30 pm
Thi king if u should buy a pass ? I have 2 the third for my child? Is it worth it? Is the food back to normal? What do they serve at night? What beers are included
“Note that if you hold a Star Alliance Gold card from United Airlines (Premier Gold or higher), you can only access the lounge when traveling in conjunction with an international itinerary. Those who have a Star Gold card from other programs can use the lounge when traveling on any Star Alliance flight in any class of service. Also note that United does not give premium cabin passengers access on domestic flights, with the exception of the premium transcontinental route noted above.”
This seems like a really good reason to credit all UA travel to another Star Alliance carrier, especially if anything higher than Gold is out of reach.
It does. Programs like Air Canada, Copa, Turkish, and Singapore are somewhat attractive. These days, however, status seems overrated to me.
Won’t get you E+ nor upgrades on domestic itineraries if you do that
A very complete review, including your thoughts on the urinals!
Been to the lounge a few times and never knew the workspaces/offices were there. Fortunately never needed agent support so never walked down that way.
Are there domestic red eye flights that land at LAX? The only red eyes I take are Eastbound (LAX->EWR, and EWR->Europe). If the flight is international, then could you use the Polaris lounge on arrival?
During normal times, there are early morning arrivals from MEL, SYD, HNL, OGG, KOA, LIH and this summer there was going to also be ANC. People traveling internationally in coach who wouldn’t have Polaris lounge access and those on domestic itineraries would greatly appreciate the showers.
ITO too. I forgot about ANC!
I forgot that ITO was a redeye not a day flight!
A lot from Hawaii.
As someone who flies 150k miles a year in ultra-longhaul on UA and usually transits EWR, I miss the showers on every trip, especially when I enter the US on early morning flights. It was so good to be able to shower after a 16.5 hour flight before my next flight to my destination. Just a horribly short sighted decision by UA to remove them. That along with UA constantly demanding more money for status and not recognizing the butt in seat miles makes me wonder whether AA would be a better fit in 2022
I was wondering if you know what the mask requirements are for the outdoor terrace space? Might be a nice reprieve on a long travel day if it was not required outside.
Mask is technically required when not eating or drinking, but practically no one is going to say anything to you if you sit out on the patio with your mask off.
1st…Love Bruce too! He always remembers me and is always helpful when needed….miss his face when I go through and he isn’t there.
2nd…I love this updated lounge ..the food pre-covid was great..for am flights loved the egg/avocado mix, choice of teas, etc.
3rd.. since this is my home lounge, shower is not missed, but in any other United lounge if I’m feeling the need to refresh…please have a shower, especially on international re-entry with a layover to freshen up along the way.
What do they serve at 8pm these days.
What beer are complimentary? Any idea?
If one were to price each pre-packaged food item at 7-Eleven, I’ll bet it would exceed $50…not bad.
BTW Matthew assuming the newish JFK flight in biz also gets you access, not just EWR
Correct.
I must have gotten Bruce on a bad day. Because my one and only encounter with him was the worst CS experience I’ve had in 1.6MM on UA.
Have really mixed feelings about the food… the breakfast selection is certainly varied, but it’s also about the same industrial, processed, pre-packaged food you’d find at a Holiday Inn Express during Covid- stuff I wouldn’t normally touch. Not sure whether to give UA credit for improving the offerings or to shame them for thinking that this crap is fit to be served in a lounge.
I still hope this is an interim measure. In some ways, the food is very good – nice fruit, decent croissant, nice salad for lunch. But I don’t think UA wants to encourage people to take food with them, which I saw so many people doing (and admittedly, I did recently from the UA Club in IAH). Thus, I think we will eventually see UA restore the sort of service it had before the pandemic…cheaper that way, I suspect, and less consumption.
Hours have been extended past 6:30pm. The app says 11:30pm. I’ve personally accessed the lounge around 10pm a few weeks ago.
They serve these 7-11 quality bean and cheese burritos in the lounge at ORD. Is that really a good thing to offer before people get on a plane?
LOL.
Thank you for a lovely review. The LAX UC is my favorite, and I especially enjoy the patio. Everyone who works there has always been delightful…the only exception is the one grumpy bartender, but he’s so over-the-top grumpy, he makes me laugh. I am delighted the cappuccino machine is now self-serve again. Free lattes are the main reason for my UC membership.
Interesting comment. The bartenders are one of my favorite aspects to the LAX United Club lounge. I’m looking forward to seeing them again … some day …
I flew out of L.A. in late April and found the lounge to be excellent. Yes, it was still in pandemic mode, but the service was impeccable. I couldn’t find anything to eat (real health issues). I asked the bartender what else may be available and he Brough out a cart full of individual containers of salads, cruises, gluten free cookie, chocolate, nuts and so on. He told me to take all I wanted and have the on the plane. Great lounge (especially the outside deck). Too bad all I had was my last free credit card pass.
I have only been there in April of this year and it was a Ghost town!! There were only a few bar snacks out and my champagne was served in a closed plastic cup with a straw per their LA Covid health archaic regs.. Was bummed I had to waste 3 of 4 coupons from my United Chase card for access. They were overly overkill about masks as our 4 year old grandson was eating with mask half-off and we were told to have him keep it on?? Hope We get to experience it again with more options now available.
Perfect timing for your review, as I will be using the lounge this Friday night prior to my redeye. Looking forward to it, thanks!
Enjoy your trip!
IAH UC E used to be my favorite, then UA removed the showers.
Are the 2 Coke Freestyle machines finally available at LAX?
Every UC should have Coke Freestyle so we don’t have to beg a grumpy Sodexo bartender for a Diet Coke. I realize they only work there to get tips for mixing alcoholic drinks.
Coke Freestyle was on!
Well for IAH, they didn’t technically “remove” the showers. The E club was just split into two, the upper level containing the showers is now the Polaris Club…
I could not figure it out, are United 1K’s allowed into this lounge when traveling in economy?
Only when traveling on an international itinerary.
Int’l flight yes, domestic no
Lifetime member…good report, altho I think the clubs have stuck to marginal packaged snacks vs fresh items longer than they have had to…blaming Covid of course. Poor bartenders (like SFO) had to do drinks and pass out snacks and coffee from the bar…
Now if we can just figure out a way to eject those entitled acting members who loudly chat on their phone conversing without any concern about others peace and quiet…super annoying.
Those who need a shower can walk almost a mile to the Star Alliance Business Lounge in TBIT, but it isn’t open yet due to the pandemic’s impact on the number of TBIT flights.
The LAX lounge is ok by United lounge standards (the SFO lounge is more like what you’d expect from a Priority Pass lounge by comparison), but, pre-pandemic, if you had the time and status why would you waste it there when the oh so superior Star Alliance lounge is available for any *A Gold level passenger. Yes, it’s a walk back but it’s worth it.
Sadly it’s still closed and will probably remain closed until Air New Zealand starts flying to LAX again (ANZ operates it)
+1
I hope the staff there are doing OK.
ESP. The awesome Asian lady Ms. T (;
Whose baby is that lying on the floor?
Ick.
Mine. He survived.