New United Club Debuts At Chicago O'Hare Airport

Agreed, Ben. For real high spend/frequency travelers, it’s the miracle-working troubleshooting agents who are the main reason we value lounge access. This decision to move to all virtual for customer support would probably force me to give up my membership. The terminal is already less crowded and has better food options. Take away the agents and what’s the point of the lounge?

They do have one in-person agent inside the club (their station is next to those self-service kiosks) but I can easily see that getting overwhelmed if there's a big weather event.

Ben I assume you mean the old club near Gate C16 (not C10) will become part of the Polaris lounge

I agree that I really hope the food/beverage choice improves. I'd also love to see UA clubs get rid of all the disposable plates, cups, 'silverware' and provide real dishes. All of the Big 3 US carriers love to talk about sustainability, but their lounges are filled with disposable everything.... it's disgusting to see so much waste.

United seems to really be pushing this virtual agent thing heavily through lots of channels ... I am not sure if I really get it myself, especially if it's replacing otherwise often-great lounge agents, but I guess I can understand the general concept that it's more efficient to have a single pool of assistance, since operations might be terrible in Chicago one day but fine in all of United's other hubs so you can hopefully even out the demand a bit. I wonder if there is any sort of prioritization of requests coming from the lounge or if they're just in a general pool, which would suck.

(It's also not entirely clear how this is different from or better than regular phone agents, though I think I have heard these virtual agents are essentially airport agents and can do some things that phone agents usually can't -- stuff that's "under airport control" -- though that doesn't really answer why that distinction needs to exist in the first place.)

I agree that this could be a benefit if it's a dedicated pool of "lounge customer service agents" that only handle inbound issues from pax in the clubs. Some days the agents have very little action if their airport is running well while agents at another club are getting slammed.

It's not just the airlines. The entire country loves these disposable items. It's a shock for me every time I travel to the US from Europe despite doing that multiple times every year.

Reminds of of my wife trying to keep her (plastic) cup in the UC in SFO from the lounge attendant trying to clean it up, just getting a lecture from the attendant that reusing cups is bad for your and everyone else health.. *sigh*

So what space was taken over for this new UC?

I was here on opening day…same day as the FAA meltdown. It was packed to capacity (for hours, obviously) but there was still some seating at the huge bar and plenty of staffing. The extra room really makes a difference when walking about. The food was excellent and shockingly they kept refilling it constantly. I was shocked they didn’t run out given all flights in the country were grounded. They have definitely upped their game. Hopefully they keep it as well staffed on a regular basis. I didn’t even notice the virtual assistants. They did have a desk open with CS people helping people with flight issues.

Ramp space. They completely built out new core and shell to build this - so overall net increase in lounge space.

Customer service via agent-on-demand kiosks is an oxymoron.

Are the wellness rooms only for the breastfeeding parents of religious devotees?

All goes back to the bottom line. If it’s cheaper and can be green, they’ll implement it and brag about it forever. If it’s more expensive to be green, that’ll quickly be ignored as a potential solution

I am at the club currently. I am not sure if this is only for the opening of the lounge but there are two staffed customer service desks near the self check in and once inside there is a staffed customer service desk next to the customer service kiosks.

I won't give up my membership but this is perhaps the biggest value that the lounges provide. My last trip through ORD I ran to the lounge for customer service assistance and then dined elsewhere.

I am glad to hear that the Polaris lounge may expand. The ORD one is so small and completely disappointing

virtual agents can't get body-slammed by irate customers - so they have that kind of job advantage.
Seriously, though, a highly trained group of people that can quickly move from one customer to another is more efficient than expecting to have a ready expert in person when needed.
Online chats for customer service issues (not just airline) have improved and work well.

It might interest everyone to know that AOD agents are regular airport agents that work in an airport and this is one of their duties. So the agent you speak with may be in DEN or SFO or EWR, but they work at the airport and are well-versed in this sort of customer service. They’re not someone in a giant call center who’s never seen the inside of a terminal.

Ben, food quality is directly related to kitchen size. New clubs are built/renovated with much larger kitchens as a proportion of overall footprint than older clubs. There’s only so much you can do without the right infrastructure (storage, food prep, etc) in place.

As a United MileagePlus customer holding 2 lounge passes for this year I find myself sitting in Concourse C with a 14 hour lay-over wondering why elegant surroundings in a lounge that closes at 9pm are discussed when clearly travelers like me need a bed, a meal and a hot shower.

International flights depart after club hours. Why wasn’t that considered during the decision making process?

I have been in the United lounges in Chicago, terminals C and F.Both are very comfortable and clean. The bathroom in Terminal A is exceptional , in terms of style and cleanliness. I do want to acknowledge the staff’s dedication to keeping all areas tidy , along with their pleasing attitude.
’ However, i was disappointed with the food choices . On both occasions the menu was the the same, vegetable soup, tofu or turkey sandwiches, minimal selections on the salad bar and a southwestern type of meat dish , with chips and salsa. In addition to fresh fruit, the same type cookies and pumpkin doughnut holes were provided. The soup was not very tasty , and the turkey sandwiches were sparely filled. . In contrast, the lounge in San Francisco was wonderful, with multiple selections of food choices to appeal to all. My time in the Chicago lounges were on different days of the week, so that lead me to think the menu would be different daily. Is this common practice not to change menu selections?

We purchase the United Explorer Card prior to our trip to Milan and part of the perks was two passes into the club at Newark airport. We went to the club and we’re turned away saying it was to full and only honored members and our passes were not accepted. We were pretty upset that you Advertised these as a perk and we could not use them, and now they have expired. We feel marginalized and it showed a lack of customer service. I hope this is not the case in April, when we go to Rome from Chicago.