United will open its fourth Polaris Lounge on Friday, this one in Houston (IAH). United describes its latest addition to the Polaris Lounge portfolio as akin to a “boutique hotel”.
Indeed, at 12K square feet the lounge is far smaller than San Francisco and Newark (each over 27K square feet). Even so, United has maintained key Polaris lounge elements including an a la carte dining room, shower suites, and daybeds. The new lounge includes:
- 191 seats
- 12,000 square feet
- 324 power outlets and 264 USB ports
- 2 private daybeds outfitted with Saks Fifth Avenue bedding
- 6 shower suites, featuring rainfall showers and Soho House & Co’s Cowshed Spa products
- Personal valet services, including steaming garments
- A private dining area with table service for up to 28 guests
- 11 pieces of contemporary art
- Hours of Operation: 5:30AM – 10:30PM daily
I mentioned this lounge is described by United as a boutique hotel. This comes from Mark Krolick, United’s Vice President of Marketing:
We specifically designed this United Polaris lounge location to feel like a boutique hotel, with dedicated spaces for relaxation, refreshing and dining and we’re confident that our Houston customers and those connecting through this award-winning airport will enjoy a best-in-class lounge experience.
That last dish looks amazing…
CONCLUSION
I plan to visit the new lounge very soon and will report back on crowding, dining, and overall comfort.
> Read More:
Review: United Polaris Lounge Newark (EWR)
Review: United Polaris Lounge San Francisco (SFO)
I’ll be going to the public pre-opening tomorrow evening and then I’ll be visiting the lounge before an ANA J flight in mid-July, so it will be interesting to see what the crowds are like. I’m anticipating it being a zoo tomorrow, but I’d be pleased to be proved wrong!
Jeremiah, please report back!
I’ll bring my camera!
Having been to both the EWR and ORD version, I much prefer the smaller ORD than the cavernous and yet still seemingly crowded EWR. I look forward to checking the IAH one soon.
I am flying EVA business tomorrow from IAH 🙁
So the lounge is really beautiful. The finishes are all great, the bar is nice (nice underlit surface), the service was generally warm, the buffet food was pretty decent, the shower suites were nicely appointed, and even the rest areas looked nice.
But the big (big) sore point was the a la carte experience. The service was really slow and very rough. A group of four of us got to the lounge at around 7 pm and there weren’t any tables for four available. We were approached and a lounge staff member got my name and proactively kept me updated about the table. But once we sat it was all downhill: it took us about an hour to get our main dishes. The servers also didn’t seem very experienced- they seemed to have some trouble remembering orders and remembering which table an order was for, let alone what member of that table. The food was good (recommend the gazpacho and burger, which was one of the better burgers I’ve had in recent memory) but it just took so damn long to get it that it really overshadowed a lot of the good.
It was a unique experience to be one of the first to experience a brand new lounge and on balance I’m glad we went, but after the traffic, parking, security (no Precheck!) and having actually paid miles to visit, the bad service left a poor taste in our mouths.
Hopefully things will be improved when we visit two weeks from today.
Really appreciate your report. I was supposed to visit on Saturday, but will likely visit next week instead. I look forward to comparing reports.