03/04/22 UPDATE: The United Polaris Lounge has reopened in Los Angeles International Airport (LAX). It is open daily from 6:30am to 10:30pm and is located between gates 73 and 75 in Terminal 7.
A United spokesperson shared with Live and Let’s Fly that an updated menu in the restaurant section of the lounge includes “Southern-California inspired dishes including freshly pressed juices, ricotta toast, tuna poke, fish tacos, the Polaris signature burger, and blood orange sorbet with California berries.” All food and drink is complimentary.
The reopening of the LAX Polaris Lounge marks the final Polaris Lounge to be reopened. All six locations, including the latest in Washington Dulles, are now open.
01/04/22 UPDATE: The United Polaris Lounge has reopened in San Francisco International Airport (SFO). It is open daily from 5:00AM to 11:00PM.
You can read my pre-pandemic review of the lounge here.
The LAX Polaris Lounge, the only Polaris lounge still closed, is expected to open shortly.
12/07/21 UPDATE: The United Airlines Polaris Lounge has reopened in Chicago O’Hare International Airport (ORD). You’ll find it in the C Concourse of Terminal 1 near gate C18. It is open daily from 7:00AM to 9:00PM.
You can read my pre-pandemic review of the lounge here.
No change in the planned openings of United’s final two shuttered Polaris Lounges in LAX and SFO. Both are expected to open in early 2022.
12/03/21 UDPATE: The United Airlines Polaris Lounge has reopened in Houston Bush Intercontinental Airport (IAH). It is open daily from 5:45AM to 9:00PM.
The lounge is located in Terminal E, near gate E12. You can read my pre-pandemic review of the lounge here.
New signs have been placed outside the Polaris Lounges in San Francisco (SFO) and Los Angeles (LAX) heralding an “early 2022” opening. Officially, United has still not released which dates the lounges will re-open. However, at an invite-only event for high-spending MileagePlus elites in Los Angeles, one attendee was told that SFO would open January 4th and LAX on January 24th.
The impact of the omicron variant on international travel could push those dates back further.
The Chicago O’Hare (ORD) Polaris Lounge is still set to open by the end of 2021.
11/15/21 UPDATE: The United Airlines Polaris Lounge has reopened in Newark today. It is open daily from 5:15am to 9:45pm.
I’m still hearing that Chicago and Houston will both open next month, though United remains tight-lipped on exact opening dates.
For an idea of what to expect, check out my recent review of United’s Polaris Lounge in Washington Dulles.
10/18/21 UPDATE: United Airlines will shortly open the new Polaris Lounge in Washington Dulles and re-open three additional Polaris Lounges in 2021, including:
- Chicago (ORD)
- Houston (IAH)
- Newark (EWR)
The information was confirmed via a United spokesperson to Live and Let’s Fly. Precise dates were not provided, though this is the first time United has said on the record that these three lounges will re-open in 2021.
San Francisco (SFO) and Los Angeles (LAX) will not re-open immediately due to depressed demand for international travel from United’s two west coast hubs. While goals of an “early 2022” re-opening have been discussed, my own prediction is that LAX will not open until more longhaul flights, like London and Melbourne and Shanghai, return.
In any case, it is good to know that four United Polaris Lounges will soon be open.
The original article is below.
While not set in stone, United Airlines plans to reopen three Polaris Lounges later this year if international demand continues its rebound.
When Will United Polaris Lounges Reopen?
United’s Vice President of Loyalty, Luc Bondar, whose position includes overseeing airport lounges, told Live and Let’s Fly that United hopes to open a trio of Polaris Lounges “later this year” contingent upon international travel rebounding.
While he did not name the three airports, Bondar did note that the Polaris Lounge in Washington Dulles is progressing “beautifully” and will soon be complete.
Alexander Dorrow, United’s Managing Director of Lounges, has said in the past:
“It is stunning, not only aligned with the vision of Polaris, but also really localized for the Washington, DC market.”
My guess would be Newark (EWR) and Washington (IAD) for sure with the third being either Chicago (ORD) or Houston (IAH) or San Francisco (SFO). Both Chicago and Houston now have four United Clubs open, but, the Polaris Lounge would help with crowding as international travel returns. With travel bans to Asia and Australia still in effect, United’s west coast hubs, Los Angeles (LAX) and San Francisco (SFO), continue to see depressed international traffic. Still, SFO has seen a lot more traffic than LAX and may resume more flights to Asia by the end of the year.
Dorrow also noted:
“These lounges have a significantly longer lead time to re-open than United Clubs due to the scope, amenities, and training that is required.”
United has also not specified what specific metrics must be met or exceeded before these lounges will open:
With extensive analysis and tracking of enplanements, customer types, flight schedules and city/country reopenings, the team can make thoughtful decisions on when and where to reopen a club.
In the meantime, United will continue to re-open United Clubs at its line stations, with these lounges set to open this month or already now open again:
- Atlanta (ATL)
- Boston (BOS)
- Dallas/Fort Worth (DFW)
- Orange County (SNA)
- Raleigh-Durham (RDU)
- San Antonio (SAT)
- Washington National (DCA)
More United Clubs will follow in September.
CONCLUSION
East Coast to Europe flights are so short that re-opening Polaris Lounges at Washington Dulles and Newark strikes me as a priority. The good news is that United still intends to re-open Polaris Lounges in 2021. The bad news is that we still do not have a date and that re-opening is contingent upon travel continuing to rebound as the delta variant rages.
I would hope that SFO also is on the list given how many international flights United has out of SFO. The SIN-SFO route restarts 10/31, twice per day.
SFO-SIN is definitely not returning this year.
Probably just old un-updated schedule you were looking at.
Nice to hear about the lounge at IAD. But honestly, how can anyone feel at all good about that horrid, old, crummy terminal? Built as a “temporary” terminal for Presidential Airways in the mid 1980s. the condition of the facility now is simply wretched. When will United build its new terminal? After another bailout from the Biden administration?
Calling it- IAD, EWR, and ORD. No chance of LAX, very little of SFO or IAH.
I’m afraid I will believe IAD only when I see it.
Do you mean IAH? IAD is already open and amazing.
https://liveandletsfly.com/review-united-airlines-polaris-lounge-washington-dulles-iad/
Need to include access for long haul Hawaii in Polaris simply to match AA. AA started branding their HI flights as Flagship Business. Makes the ORD flights uncompetitive simply being United First
Aa is only for Xhicago and DFw, charlotte flights only. No access for pjx and Lax
yep, the long haul Hawaii flights is what AA is branding as Flagship
UA should allow PL access for EWR, IAD (if it ever gets built), definitely ORD if they want to stay competitive on that route, and IAH to HNL and OGG. Maybe DEN (if they ever build a lounge there)
Not gonna happen, ever!! UAL holds the Hawaii market like no other. The routes, hubs, frequencies and schedules will remain unmatched. AA is just fishing for table scraps. They have to wag their tail and they know it!
The IAD Polaris lounge is about 95% complete. It’s definitely built.
This is great news!! Finally the “lounge of all business class lounges” set to reopen. I just hope they go back to pre pandemic style offerings 🙂 !! Btw, awesome news about IAD Polaris, long time in the making!
Had a long post. Deleted it. Short version: Polaris is United’s halo to its halo international business class. Its full version has always been “coming soon” to most routes, and the pandemic has allowed them to stretch it out further. Don’t spend anything of value until it arrives in concrete, and not just some vague promise like “coming to IAD in summer 2019” or (to use another *A example) “to be introduced with our 777X service in 2020”.
Aug 19 – ORD Polaris still not open and the nearby United Club is packed to the gills (520pm on a Thursday!). The traffic certainly would bear having Polaris at ORD open – should be open now!
For this former Houstonian, it’d be wry irony to see the Polaris lounge in the airline’s HQ city remain dark while the Polaris at IAH, in the city once called home to the airline formerly known as Continental, opens up! It is very disappointing for this international traveler & his wife,
a) preparing for an overnight flight preceding which a shower would be nice and,
b) with Delta rampant, shoe horned into an overcrowded United Club,
to not have the proper facilities which our ticketing provides.
Is the reopening of EWR’s Polaris Lounge more likely with AA’s announcement that the Flagship Lounge at JFK will reopen on September 14?
It’s a joke…United is happily reducing the services but does not even consider reducing international Business class prices. Starts with Polaris lounge, continues with onboard service. I’m very tired of reading their BS about analysis and the lead time – quite concerning that they are so eager to say that their operations are terrible.
Totally agree. UA wanted $10k RT from west coast to LHR–so not worth the money. With all the amenities missing decided to use points and go via Germany on LH.
So the original article said no date was announced…and the update also has no date?
UA is really dragging their feet on this.
What’s happened to the London Polaris lounge? Has that fallen down the sofa?
Depressed demand at sfo? Hard to see that based on their current schedule. They just have a fortress hub there for international on star alliance and are keeping the cost cut.
It does appear they are working on the IAD lounge. Of course, as noted, they then have to train staff, etc. I still don’t plan to book any international flights on UA until I see it open (later this year or early next will be the first TATL business travel for me since early 2020).
Welcoming news! I wish United could give us conformed dates.
I am flying NRT-EWR-IAD in mid November and would love to visit one if not both lounges.
I’m pushing UA hard for details.
This is great news as ORD is a great hub for Euro connections from west coast and really does not have any decent concessions. IAH has better concessions but the lounge is nice for layovers when returning from South America etc. IAD and EWR are best avoided from the west coast unless you are a glutton for punishment.
Although SFO is my home I really do not much miss the lounge here as there are good food options in the international terminal and I don’t need the showers. Also as noted above travel to Asia and ANZ is unfortunately not an option this year.
I’m going on my first international flight in years and I reaaallllly want the EWR and ORD PLs to open up!
i’m flying out of SFO tomorrow & hoping POLARIS there has reopened but I guess not. in AUG, it wasn’t when i flew through SFO…in OCT when I flew out of EWR, POLARIS was still closed. hopeful for both EWR & SFO opening by spring/summer 2o22! POLARIS was so new when covid hit that when all the diff hubs finally open it’ll be like the official openings. here’s to brighter flying days, ms. bond
With airlines charging premium fares for premium services, there is no excuse any longer for lounges not to be open. I will be looking for a partial refund from any airline not currently providing lounge access.
Huzzah! I’ll be there this weekend!!
Do you really think the LAX lounge will reopen in early 2022? That is the Polaris lounge I want to try the most, but with a daily flight to Sydney that is essentially empty and a few flights a week to Tokyo that have 10 people on them, how would it be justified to reopen to LAX lounge?
Besides London this spring, do you see any of the other long haul Polaris flights out of LAX resuming?
The United Airlines official websites states Newark Polaris as Temporarily Closed still, so who’s lying here???
probably a soft opening first
Woo! I’ll be there at EWR this Thursday for my evening flight to Frankfurt. Maybe I’ll come early and work from the lounge so I can eat off every menu 🙂
That is really sad, a company like United offers a service like “The Polaris Lounge” but picks and chooses where they will offer the service is just wrong. If they don’t offer “Polaris” in SFO or LAX – then don’t call it Polaris full service, be truthful and change the name during no lounge.
For transcontinental flyers, it is an ordeal to use the limited menu, limited seating United lounges, especially, since the menu has been sanitized and scrubbed due to various factors. I am writing this from UA Club lounge opposite Gate 12 today, and there is nary an empty seat. Since our flight from DCA arrived 45 minute early, we have a 5 hour layover. Other than a hot dog, there is nothing hot available, not even soup. No latte, cappuccino either.
TPG just reported reopening of IAH and EWR today. Said LAX early next year, but didn’t even mention SFO. Have there been rumblings if a permanent SFO closure?
SFO will open in early January.
I’ll also be there in the coming weekend!! Thanks for writing about this Matthew.
In the article you linked about the SFO and LAX lounges, it mentioned United wants to grow their LAX hub. What would that entail?
I’ve pressed for details and received nothing concrete. We do know that LHR service is slated to return in March and HND + MEL + PVG service will return. But UA has grown in Latin America this year and we may see some additional routes, especially as AA has pulled back.
Great timing on the reopening! Flying through ORD tomorrow to FRA! United still shows closed on their app and site.
I suspected they were very close to re-opening. When I walked by last night (Dec 6th) the lights were on, everything was clean, and it looked like they were ready. A nice holiday gift!
Bonus: There was also live music in the B6 lounge, they definitely helped lift my spirits after a long flight back from FRA.
I was in Chicago on a stopover for a business class seat to Frankfurt on 12/6, the day before they reopened the Polaris Lounge. The reception in the C116 lounge informed me there was no Polaris, but that it would reopen the next day–probably the worse thing she could have said at the time!!! She did give me a coupon for a “premium” drink. Problem was, the bar on the United Club didn’t have any premium drinks to offer.
Wish they had told me there was live music in the B6 lounge. I’d probably have schlepped back to the B concourse to check it out. That might have been a treat above and beyond the Polaris Lounge.
Similarly for me this week. Was in SFO on Monday one day to early. Would have been great to spend the 7hrs waiting for the delayed flight to LIS at Polaris instead of Club.
LAX opens Jan 24.
Yeah! Visited SFO and ORD Polaris a few years ago and it sets a very high bar!!!
what time does the sit down restaurant close at SFO in the polaris lounge?
In the past, it was 10pm.
Great news. I have a LAX-SFO-LHR trip in a few weeks so I can use both LAX & SFO lounges!