United Airlines has just rolled out some major changes to its Polaris Lounge access. This goes beyond the recent announcement that select premium transcon passengers would receive access to Polaris Lounges, and that basic business class passengers wouldn’t receive access to Polaris Lounges.
In this post:
New United Polaris Lounge access restrictions
United has quietly updated its rules for accessing Polaris Lounges (thanks to Harold for flagging this). Specifically, the latest updates, which have been implemented as of April 14, 2026, impact those traveling on Star Alliance partners.
Under the old rules, all long haul Star Alliance first and business class passengers departing from a particular airport would have access to the Polaris Lounge at that airport (only at the long haul gateway). It didn’t matter which Star Alliance airline you were flying, as long as you were in long haul first or business class.
Under the new policy, only the following Star Alliance partner airline passengers get access to Polaris Lounges:
- Those with first class tickets on All Nippon Airways, Lufthansa, and SWISS
- Those with basic and flex business class tickets on Lufthansa, SWISS, Austrian, and Brussels Airlines
- Those with business class tickets on All Nippon Airways, Air New Zealand, and ITA Airways
These changes apply effective immediately, and as you can see, this means travelers on most Star Alliance partner airlines don’t get access to Polaris Lounges. Flying Air India, or EgyptAir, or LOT Polish Airlines, or Singapore Airlines? No more Polaris Lounge access for you!
I don’t like this change, but it’s a logical development
Of course I’m not happy to see passengers receive downgraded lounge access, so I find this policy change to be pretty frustrasting. At the same time, from a practical perspective, it’s hard to blame United.
United is growing like crazy, and is massively expanding its long haul fleet, including adding a lot of business class seats on newly delivered aircraft. Obviously airport real estate comes at a premium, and airlines are greatly limited in terms of how much they can grow their lounge network.
Polaris Lounges have had major crowding issues, and I imagine things would’ve only gotten worse if rules hadn’t been changed. What United’s essentially doing here is that it’s focusing on its joint venture partners with long haul service from United hubs with Polaris Lounges, and is continuing to offer them access (I should mention that ITA isn’t yet part of the Star Alliance transatlantic joint venture, but that’s expected to change).
That makes sense, given the intent of metal neutrality, price coordination, revenue sharing, etc.
Bottom line
United has added major new restrictions for Polaris Lounge access. While we’ve seen some changes in recent times, the latest update means that first and business class passengers on most Star Alliance partner airlines can’t access Polaris Lounges anymore.
Instead, the airline is limiting access to its own premium passengers, plus first and business class passengers on select (primarily) joint venture partners.
Of course I’m sad to see this reciprocal lounge access perk cut, though given Polaris Lounge crowding, I also can’t blame the airline, really.
What do you make of these Polaris Lounge access changes?
I am glad that this will annoy the Air Canada thinking they can be treated like US passengers. Might make think again about keep disrespecting America so often recently with ultra woke Carney. Simple respect, they need us far more than we need them.
I visited the Polaris Lounge at SFO about a month ago prior to a late night flight to Korea on UAL in business. It took about 15 minutes just to find a seat, the bar was a zoo, and the food offerings at the buffet were a joke. Hopefully this change opens things up a bit.
Sigh. Leave it to Kirby to give a big middle finger to *A partners. It should be interesting to see which lounge EVA will use in ORD now. In any case if United was trying to make me like them less they've done a bang-up job of it lately.
EVA departed from the international lounge at ORD, so I don’t think they will be affected much either way.
Kirby doesn't care about alliance partners. Haven't you heard? United replaced Singapore as the bougiest carrier.
Good to see this fucking over Air Canada, they've always restricted partner awards from being able to use their Signature Suite lounges
Well, they restrict their own award tickets from accessing the lounge as well...only flex J awards qualify.
But yeah, make the polaris lounge for people actually getting their butts in polaris seats, the Senator lounge for actual senators, and the signature suite for actual J passengers for AC. I'm fine with that.
You people are taking this news surprisingly well, unlike when Delta does anything
My biggest concern as a predominantly domestic US flier would be any fallout regarding pissed off carriers limiting * Gold access to partner lounges on domestic UA itineraries. I like the TK lounge at Dulles and the LH lounge at DTW for instance.
Honestly the impact really depends on the airport. At ORD for example, this doesn't significantly change who has access from a practical standpoint. It cuts off some fare types for LH and ANA flights which depart from United's terminal 1, but other Star Alliance airlines depart from Terminal 5. So the only fliers impacted would be those on other Star Alliance carriers connecting through ORD, with a long enough connection to stay in Terminal 1...
Honestly the impact really depends on the airport. At ORD for example, this doesn't significantly change who has access from a practical standpoint. It cuts off some fare types for LH and ANA flights which depart from United's terminal 1, but other Star Alliance airlines depart from Terminal 5. So the only fliers impacted would be those on other Star Alliance carriers connecting through ORD, with a long enough connection to stay in Terminal 1 before they make their way to Terminal 5. I'm sure those folks would say it's a material population but outside of travel enthusiasts, I wonder how many average travelers actually know they can use the Polaris lounge...
Passengers arriving on non-UA Sate Alliance carriers don’t get access to Polaris lounges anyway, even in transit. Only departing passengers get access.
Not a fan of this at all.
“ lAt the same time, from a practical perspective, it’s hard to blame United. United is growing like crazy, and is massively expanding its long haul fleet.”
Ben, I disagree. No one forces United to be part of the Star Alliance. If UA doesn’t want to offer standard Star Alliance benefits, it can leave and sit outside major alliances like Emirates, relying on limited partnerships with select carriers. No cherry picking.
They do offer standard benefits. They offer United Club access to Star Alliance Gold members or those traveling in Business class on partner airlines departing from the specific airport.
Most star alliance partners do not offer access to their elevated lounge offerings to United or other star alliance flyers either. You can't access Air Canada's signature suite if flying on United in business class. Lufthansa only offers First Class Terminal access to their own...
They do offer standard benefits. They offer United Club access to Star Alliance Gold members or those traveling in Business class on partner airlines departing from the specific airport.
Most star alliance partners do not offer access to their elevated lounge offerings to United or other star alliance flyers either. You can't access Air Canada's signature suite if flying on United in business class. Lufthansa only offers First Class Terminal access to their own subsidiary airlines, not Star Alliance partners even if traveling in First.
Glad I’m OWE. *Holds breath*. Other than overrated Qatar we still holding on to lounge privileges.
Qatar still offer full access to their lounges to OW business class passengers.
They also don't offer access to their best lounges to their own FF.
Their system, is super consistent. If you're part of Oneworld as a premium cabin passenger, they will treat you as a premium cabin passenger. If you're their as an economy/PE passenger with FF status, they will treat you as a FF status.
This instead treats passengers...
Qatar still offer full access to their lounges to OW business class passengers.
They also don't offer access to their best lounges to their own FF.
Their system, is super consistent. If you're part of Oneworld as a premium cabin passenger, they will treat you as a premium cabin passenger. If you're their as an economy/PE passenger with FF status, they will treat you as a FF status.
This instead treats passengers of some *A partners one way and excludes the others entirely
I also totally understand why they're doing this. I took ANA business out of SFO a year ago and the Polaris lounge was absolutely overrun. I walked to the Amex lounge in terminal 3 (because it was still there then) and it was a much better experience. If Amex is more chill than your lounge, something *bad* is happening.
I once spent a great snowy afternoon at the ORD Polaris lounge on a TAP Air Portugal business ticket, so I’m sad that that won’t happen again, but I do understand the logic behind it.
Polaris lounges are a mid business lounge. No reason for anyone to worry about missing out. Its a basic business class lounge globally
They've definitely declined but that's a bit of an exaggeration even on a global basis. Compared to Star Alliance partners they're quite good. Much better than Lufthansa, Swiss, Austrian, LOT, etc. business class lounges - even better than ANA's Heneda lounges. Delta has definitely surpassed them in the US but they're still better than American's equivalent (IMO). Certainly not as nice as some of the middle eastern carriers and the top Asian carriers, but all...
They've definitely declined but that's a bit of an exaggeration even on a global basis. Compared to Star Alliance partners they're quite good. Much better than Lufthansa, Swiss, Austrian, LOT, etc. business class lounges - even better than ANA's Heneda lounges. Delta has definitely surpassed them in the US but they're still better than American's equivalent (IMO). Certainly not as nice as some of the middle eastern carriers and the top Asian carriers, but all things considered that still puts them in the top third of lounges globally in my opinion.
Another alliance ought to pisch Singapore
I get it, and I like it! At least, there’s a lounge that somehow brings back what airline lounges used to be when I was growing up.
I’m tired of going to lounges that are crowded and noisy because of credit card perks or buying their way in. I might as well go to an airport bar.
You've been very lucky. Lots of lounges when I was growing up only had filter coffee, packaged biscuits/crackers, and a few bottom shelf spirits on offer. I'll forever remember not only the miserable Swissport ones in regional UK airports, but also those at major hubs such as CAN and those of Alitalia.
I won't be surprised if other Star A carriers knew about this.
Probably the reason why at SFO, Air India is building a swanky new lounge in Intl A Terminal. I expect the likes of SQ (which owns 25% of Air India), BR, TK and others to use that lounge.
I agree. EVA has also been using the BA lounge over in the A gates for a couple of years now.
They already have. SQ move from terminal G to A in SFO and pax are now shuttled to the Ai lounge
What about Turkish airlines business class?
Huge downgrade for Singapore. They closed their SFO lounge (and the Polaris Lounge now sits partly in that old space), leaving only the United Club there. I wonder if they'll move to the A gates and contract with another airline for business class lounge access. More broadly, I'm always surprised that UA and Singapore aren't more closely partnered.
They already did. They moved to the A Gates in late March and are now using the nice but small Maharaja Lounge at the A Gates.
The airline alliance system is on life support at this point. From restricting partner award access to business and first class seats, to now restricting lounge access, United is destroying the alliance system that took many years to build brick-by-brick. The end result will be a more expensive and miserable experience for global flyers.
Unfortunately, from a business perspective I think they've realized the global alliances don't serve them like they used to. I think 15 years ago United saw Star Alliance as a marketing driver for their loyalty program and tool to keep customers within the alliance broadly. People liked earning on flights on United and then spending the miles on Singapore.
As that behavior increased (to the point that those tickets may have been getting unprofitable),...
Unfortunately, from a business perspective I think they've realized the global alliances don't serve them like they used to. I think 15 years ago United saw Star Alliance as a marketing driver for their loyalty program and tool to keep customers within the alliance broadly. People liked earning on flights on United and then spending the miles on Singapore.
As that behavior increased (to the point that those tickets may have been getting unprofitable), they rebalanced award pricing. Once you kill the lucrative opportunities to fly on partner alliance airlines (aspirational awards), the marketing benefit of the affiliation goes away.
Additionally, the joint venture partnerships are far more lucrative from a revenue standpoint and United has grown to a point destination wise where, for the most part, they can fly you there on UA metal (or with a JV partner), so they see themselves as providing benefits to non-JV *A partners but not getting much benefit from those non-JV partners in return. They don't really care about it any more and will continue to constrain how much they invest and participate in the Star Alliance system.
I think the reason behind this is that the US airlines are no longer interested in foreign customers because they're more into banking than transportation and they can't really sell their credit cards outside of their home country. Alliances can't possibly be as relevant to them as they are for airlines such as Copa or even Kenya Airways that move a lot of connecting traffic.
Glad to see SQ get what's coming. Restricting Star Gold from First Class lounges when on a J ticket makes this fair play by UA. Honestly, it's reaching the point of my wondering why SQ is even allowed to stay in Star Alliance. They offer nothing.
Why would SQ allow *Gold to get access to First class lounges? Their policy is only for business class, much like Oneworld Sapphire and Skyteam elite plus.
Lol, who would even consider getting first class lounge access on a J ticket to be reasonable just because you’re star gold (like everybody else in the world lol)?
UA J pax get to use Silverkris biz lounge so it is reciprocal. Polaris lounges acts the same the way with only j or f pax entry and not by status so its the same but now J pax can’t even use Polaris so its actually UA that’s the bully here.
I hope SQ prevents UA j pax from the silverkris lounge as then that’s reciprocal
I'm flying IAD to MUC in business (I fare) on an United award in October. Am I SOL?
Why would you be SOL? You're flying United.
Whoops. Lufthansa flight via a united award*
Did you read the article?
I did. It states "only basic and flex business class tickets on Lufthansa"
I didn't know if award tickets with "I" fare qualified. Thanks tho
it's still a pretty liberal policy for a "premium" lounge - Air Canada beside a few specific airlines' first class, reserve the Signature Suite for its own passengers only.
Its definitely a restrictive move from UA but still favorable when compared to some of their *A partners.
I'm not terribly upset by this. The Polaris lounges are a bonus for flying UA Business. United clubs still exist as a Star Alliance Business/*G lounge.
The United Clubs are still so much nicer than they were 15-20 years ago when that's all you got flying business. Back then the drinks weren't free and you got a measly two drink coupons when flying business class. Snacks were prepackaged granola bars and cheese.
It depends on the airport. ORD has one nice United Club, with the others being ok. Meanwhile, the ones at IAD are…not good.
United IAD lounges are trash
And DL at JFK are now preventing SkyTeam elites from partner airlines from using the DeltaOne check-in area unless you are flying DeltaOne.
Why would I be flying Air India, or EgyptAir, or LOT Polish?
For the direct flights to those cities offered by those airlines?
I'd prefer any of those airlines over Lufthansa.
Flying Lufthansa or ANA Business Class out of Chicago's ORD will not be fun without access to the Polaris Lounge. ORD has few good alternative lounge options. It will be interesting to see what the alternative to the Polaris lounge will be. When the Polaris Lounge was closed last year at ORD airport, I was directed to a United Club lounge instead. Underwhelming experience.
LH and ANA are JV partners and they will have continued access to the Polaris lounges.
As it was clearly stated in the article.
I’d suggest also comparing this policy to AA and DL. DL also only allows JV partners (AF/KL/VS/KE/LA), so UA is really just doing the same here restricting to long haul JV partners. AA is the lone holdout for the time being.
Agreed- it is essentially the same rule, ensures metal neutrality for UA's JV partners (LH Group, Air Canada, ANA, and ANZ), while not allowing it to get overcrowded by the sheer number of other Star Alliance airlines that have daily flights to UA hubs like EWR, IAD, SFO, or ORD (but are not really partnered with UA to any significant degree).
ONE WORLD is by far the best alliance for elites. Hands down.
The concept of airline alliance as we know it is crumbling.
Last time I visited the ORD Polaris lounge, I was so underwhelmed. Neither the self service buffet or made to order food was appetizing. Thank goodness I was flying ANA business
Makes sense in that this is in line with Delta’s access policy for the Delta One Lounges
That is strange logic! Delta's policy sucks so, United should suck too!?
Alternatively, Delta's policy works, so United can implement the same thing knowing it won't materially impact their business.
And Scott Kirby wants to buy American and complete the journey to hell for US based majors. Terrific timeline we're in...
This eliminates one of the most important benefits of airline alliances. If I can’t get in to a Star Alliance lounge while flying Star Alliance business class, what the hell are we doing?
"If I can’t get in to a Star Alliance lounge while flying Star Alliance business class, what the hell are we doing?"
Decreasing the value of loyalty to alliances.
Wouldn't be surprising if one day the only benefit to flying on alliance carriers is the ability to interline checked luggage, if one has any.
This is a moot point as you are already unable to enter those lounges with your *G card, or even a business class ticket for the 'wrong' destination.
If anything, this is an improvement in terms of alliance product consistency, and it may spur the likes of SQ and TK to invest in their outstation lounges in order to keep up with their frienemies within *A.
This is confusing Polaris lounge with Biz lounge. Polaris is a category to itself. Star Alliance can still use the UA biz lounges.
You WILL be able to get into a United lounge in that case, just not the United Polaris lounge unless you meet the additional requirements.
Buy basic business to FRA on Lufthansa: Polaris Access
Buy basic business to FRA on United: No Polaris Access
Good to know.
No - Lufthansa just has poor naming. Basic business is the mid-tier fare class on Lufthansa. Saver is their 'basic' business class.
Saver on Lufthansa = No Polaris Access
Basic on United = No Polaris Access
Didn’t UA long ago operate global first class lounges? I remember being in one at Ord in the early 2000s. You had to have a first class or full fare business ticket.
So these changes aren’t quite as restrictive as they could be.
No, pretender, they were ONLY for first class customers, not business class ticket holders on any fare.
Now go start banging your face with a hammer, you look terrible.
You are factually incorrect. Cut off your penis.
GS members could access when flying business class
Hey, Greenberg Traurig, you enjoying those spiffy new offices at One Vanderbilt?
I wish I worked at Manhattan West (closer to EWR)!
"I wish I worked at Manhattan West (closer to EWR)!"
So you're actually a baggage handler. Good to know.
I've always had my suspicions of why you failed as a lawyer, but the logical reasoning you just displayed has relieved me of my doubts.
Good one, Miss Skadden Weiss Greenberg.
Now pick up that hammer and start pummelling!
Aww, I'm just glad to see you back on the blogs; were you here the whole time, or did you take some time off? Big M&C case?
Let me summarise what I predict this comments section to be
Those with a future UA booking: :)
Those with a future SQ/LH booking: >:(
I'd TAP that...
>:(