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United Airlines giveth and United Airlines taketh away. Lately, though, it’s been doing more of the latter.
The latest example are new restrictions on Polaris Lounge access (which are more premium than United Clubs), by removing entry for travelers flying business or first class on certain Star Alliance partners.
Here’s what to know.
United Eliminates Polaris Lounge Access for Certain Star Alliance Partners
Whether you frequently or only occasionally fly Star Alliance business or first class and take advantage of reciprocal access to United Polaris Lounges, we’ve got bad news. United just rolled out unannounced changes to the access policies for its most premium lounges.
In short, to access a Polaris Lounge, you’ll now need to be flying on one of the following partner tickets:
- First class on Lufthansa, SWISS, or ANA
- Business class on ANA, Air New Zealand, or ITA
- Basic or flex business class on Lufthansa, SWISS, Austrian, or Brussels Airlines
To help make sense of these changes, travelers flying business or first class on airlines like Singapore Airlines, Turkish Airlines, Ethiopian Airlines, and EgyptAir — among others — no longer receive complimentary Polaris Lounge access.
In other words, if you’re passing through Chicago O’Hare (ORD), Houston Intercontinental (IAH), Los Angeles (LAX), New York/Newark (EWR), San Francisco (SFO), or Washington Dulles (IAD) on a now ineligible partner ticket, you’ll be redirected to a United Club or another partner lounge instead.
Moreover, access on eligible partner tickets is limited to departure before your long-haul flight. That differs from flying on a standard or flexible United Polaris ticket, where you can access the lounge at departure, during connections, and on arrival as part of a same-day itinerary.
Related: How to Use the AwardWallet Lounge Tool to Find All the Airport Lounges You Can Access
Bottom Line
United Airlines is on a bit of a heater when it comes to rolling out less-than-favorable changes for travelers. That includes brand-new basic fares in premium cabins and all but requiring a co-branded credit card to fully participate in the MileagePlus program. And paring back lounge access for Star Alliance partners — even if it’s warranted due to crowding — doesn’t reverse that trend.
In the Reddit thread that an AwardWallet reader, Brian, pointed us to, one traveler discovered these updates the day they went into effect. After scanning what would have previously been an eligible boarding pass, they were met with a red “not eligible” message at the entrance.
And, in my humble opinion, there are better ways to roll out negative changes than letting your biggest spenders and most frequent flyers find out after getting barked at by a boarding pass scanner.
