United Finally Brings Polaris Lounge Access To Premium Transcontinental And Long-Haul Hawaii Flights, Unless You Book Basic Polaris

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United has long been an outlier in how it treats its premium transcontinental routes. American and Delta provide Flagship and Delta One lounge access to business/first class passengers, but United reserved their premium Polaris lounge access for long-haul international customers only.

Last month, United introduced basic Polaris fares, which among other restrictions, don’t include Polaris lounge access.

United also restricted Polaris lounge access to United and joint venture partners only, excluding most Star Alliance and partner carriers.

And now we know why.

Rather than build larger Polaris lounges, United added those restrictions to make space for first class passengers flying on:

• Premium transcontinental routes, namely between Newark to/from Los Angeles or San Francisco.
• Long-haul Hawaii routes, such as Chicago, Newark, or Washington DC to/from Honolulu, Kona, or Maui.

Those routes are now all sold as Polaris business:

Note that if you connect via other routes, it will be sold as United First, and not Polaris business, and won’t have Polaris lounge access:

Unsurprisingly, United is now selling all of those routes with basic, standard, and flexible fares. If you buy the so-called base fare, you will forfeit Polaris lounge access, free seat selection, flight changes, and 1 of your free checked bags.

Unlike with Delta, United award tickets booked with United miles all count as Flexible tickets:

United’s Newark Polaris lounge is stocked with fresh hot meals from Fresko and kosher wine, though unfortunately, none of the other Polaris lounges have those amenities.

What do you think of these changes?