Brutal: United Removes Polaris Lounge Access For Passengers On Most Star Alliance Airlines
United recently began selling basic business class fares that don’t allow for Polaris Lounge access.
United’s Polaris lounges are excellent, and I’m particularly partial to the Newark lounge, which has excellent Fresko catered meals and kosher wines.
But they can also get overcrowded, and United is working on lowering the demand without having to further expand the lounges.
Previously, all business and first class passengers on long-haul Star Alliance airline flights were able to access the Polaris lounge before departure:
Effective immediately and without warning, only passengers on select Star Alliance carriers (ANA, Air New Zealand, Austrian, Brussels, ITA, Lufthansa, and Swiss) will still have Polaris Lounge access:
United shared this statement with DansDeals about the change,
“United has updated access to its Polaris Lounges for customers traveling in premium cabins on select Star Alliance airlines. These customers will continue to have access to United Club locations, and this change does not affect customers flying in business class on our joint venture partners.”
If you bought a flight on airlines like Air Canada, Air India, Avianca, Copa, EVA, Egyptair, Ethiopian, LOT, Singapore, South African, TAP Portugal, Thai, or Turkish, hoping to have Polaris Lounge access, you’re out of luck. You’ll have access to United’s lackluster United Club, but that’s it.
It’s pretty wild that even as United makes a push to become more premium, the race to the bottom continues unabated. If you’re not flying on a United joint venture partner, the airline doesn’t care to spend more money on you.
What worries me even more is that now that United has carved out an exception for its business class lounges, other airlines like Singapore will do the same.
What do you make of this change?
