United Airlines opened an expanded dining room at its Newark Polaris Lounge (EWR) today, adding 60 seats to its longhaul business class lounge in a move that underscores the competitive pressures in the New York City area, especially with its chief rival, Delta Air Lines.
United Airlines Ups Lounge Game With Expanded Dining Room In Newark Polaris Lounge
The renovated dining room, which opened on June 21, 2025, features nearly 60 seats, adding 10% more seats for lounge visitors. From seating that accommodates solo travelers to tables for large groups, there are a variety of options for all travelers to dine and the dining room has views of the New York City skyline. The entire lounge is now about 30,000 square feet, with the focal point the expanded dining room.
Breakfast (served until 11:00 am) includes items like avocado toast, blueberry crepes, and omelets, while lunch and dinner choices include crab cakes, scallops, eggplant Milanese, and the signature Polaris burger (with an impossible patty option for those who don’t like eating cows).
Aaron McMillan, United’s Managing Director of Hospitality Programs, focused on the dining:
“We’re bringing an elevated dining experience to Newark with the opening of a larger dining room at our Polaris lounge. Newark offers business class travelers ample opportunity to travel across the Atlantic, and we’re excited to offer them more room to dine before or after their long-haul flights. For years, we’ve been investing in our club and lounge portfolio at Newark, and it’s our first hub to fully reflect our new designs and amenities.”
Where did United get the extra space for this lounge expansion? This space is the former United-operated, invite-only “Classified” restaurant, which Kyle reviewed in 2018.
After Chicago O’Hare, this marks the second refresh of a Polaris Lounge, representing more muted colors and a new logo.
This Is United’s Answer To The Delta One Lounge At JFK
I recently reviewed the Delta One Lounge at New York JFK, which sets the standard for a premium lounge in the United States. The food, drinks, service, size, and decor of that lounge was stunning…and is a massive value-add for Delta or SkyTeam passengers traveling through JFK.
With this addition, United now also boasts a premium dining space and unlike Delta, offers a la carte dining the entire day, not just for lunch and dinner. I cannot comment on the quality of the food…I’ll have to do that when I have a chance to revisit both lounges, but I’ve dined in the Newark Polaris Lounge many times over the years and the food has always been excellent.
The Delta One dining room is still twice the size of United’s (with seating for 125) and the Delta One Lounge itself is 39,000 square feet versus United’s 30,000 square feet.
But it matters less who is better than the fact that Delta and United are challenging one another to up their respective games, and consumers benefit from this.
CONCLUSION
United Airlines has expanded its Newark Polaris Lounge with a larger dining area and a refreshed menu. The move represents an answer to the Delta One Lounge at JFK, which features a beautiful dining room itself.
Polaris Lounges are a big reason I choose United over Star Alliance partners like Lufthansa or SWISS when flying through a United hub. While travelers can use the Polaris Lounge when flying out on a partner, only United Polaris passengers can use Polaris Lounges upon arrival. For example, if I was flying United from Lisbon – Newark – Los Angeles I could use the Polaris Lounges in both EWR and LAX while if I flew TAP from Lisbon and connected to United, I would not have Polaris Lounge access in either city.
> Read More: United Polaris Lounge Newark (EWR) Review
> Read More: Delta One Lounge New York (JFK) Review
images: United
“After Chicago O’Hare, this marks the second refresh of a Polaris Lounge, representing more muted colors and a new logo.”
Yes and no? Do they have plans to refresh the look for the rest of the lounge as well or is it just the dining room for now?
Would never fly thru EWR. Maybe when they take over B6 and put one in JFK.
EWR isn’t bad…and with the schedule reduction, is now more on-time than LGA and JFK. Terminal A is wonderful. I don’t get the hate other than for the occasional grumpy gate agents…
Terminal A is wonderful? I guess if you’re taking an Uber. Getting to Terminal A using transit is a joke. A very long Air Train ride followed by a long walk (or a bus).
I don’t know if you’re high as a 747 or if United paid you a lot of money to defend EWR. It is by far America’s worst major airport and I refuse to fly United anywhere east because of it.
If I ask my family to pick me up at Newark I might as well not make the trip. Hopefully united gets back to JFK.
Visited the SFO Polaris Lounge two weeks ago and it was a mess. The dining room was out of several menu items and the self-serve area had plastic and paper cups, plates and cutlery. It was hardly premium and really went downhill since last time I was there.
Should have hung out in the men’s room longer, we have a poster here that hangs out there often and offers full service.
Supposedly only on your days off.
@Rob: same experience recently. The offerings were meagre to say the least. Then there’s the ongoing catering issue for the flights. West coast Polaris clubs aren’t the best.
Are there really 100 people in the world who consider this a “War”? And are there even 10 people in the world who will give up their status and switch between these 2 airlines because of a bigger lounge? Both have their loyal fans for reasons such as flight maps and other reasons developed over years. This is unlikely to change anyone’s loyalty.
A War is what is happening against the Jewish people by terrorists who deny their right to exist.
These follies in a world that matters to less than .01% of the worlds population of elites hated by most certainly aren’t a “war”
There are plenty of Reddit threads for you to turn EVERYTHING into Israel vs Hamas/Iran/Hezbollah. It’s no secret that Iran is a state sponsor of killing Jews.
Calm down.
Some people don’t need to turn a NYC club article into Israel vs Iran/Hamas.
Even if I do think AA/BA clubs should’ve been mentioned, matthew 😉
To be clear, Dave. Not an attack on you. Apologies if it seemed like that.
Also Amex announced they’ll be opening a Centurion lounge at EWR as well.
It’s an interesting article but pitting Polaris vs D1 in NYC when AA/BA have three levels of clubs either above or below this?
It does seem like a rather obvious omission?
At 30,000 sq ft you would thingk that it could hold more than 60 people????
As a United 1K i can tell you the Polaris lounge doesn’t come within a mile of the Delta One experience a few extra seats does nothing to make up for what the Polaris lounge lacks compared to delta one
Private check in and security
Transcon flights eligible
Spa
way way better service.
Anecdotal evidence on the service
When you walk into the delta one lounge there is someone to greet you ( with a smile ) and make sure you know your ear around.
No such thing at Polaris except surly agents who just bark instructions. “Passport”. “Boarding pass”
At the delta one lounge when I went to bar the bartender served me a glass of water with my drink. At the Polaris lounge when you ask for a glass of water they point to fridge with mini bottles of water
At the delta one lounge they have little carts set up where they serve wine and if you glance at the set up they rush over to offer you a glass of wine. At the Polaris club bartenders treat you like you are invisible and when you get their attention they act annoyed.
And for the record I tip at both lounges.
The one thing United could do would now that the lounge has been expanded is offer the lounge on transcons in business to match delta.
The lounge has not really been expanded, only the dining room has been expanded. As for access, United has a significant larger global flight network than Delta, So adding domestic transcon to their premium lounges would likely increase crowding. Part of the attraction of the Polaris lounges is crowd control.
The biggest difference in this supposed “war” is that DL, like AA, serves all THREE NYC airports and has lounges at each one.
and all of the lounge benefits in the world don’t matter if flight attendants aren’t aligned – and UA faces the very real prospect of having a very hostile group of FAs regardless of how the vote turns out.