The next airport to get a United Polaris Lounge is San Francisco International Airport. Originally the lounge was supposed to open this year, though we recently found out that the opening was delayed until “early 2018.”
The new Polaris Lounge is in the same space that was previously occupied by several other lounges, including the Singapore Airlines Lounge. So we’ve known all along that the lounge would eventually close, though we now know exactly when.
Singapore Airlines will permanently be closing their SFO Lounge as of October 1, 2017. At that point the space will be renovated, and will become part of United’s massive split-level Polaris Lounge, which will hopefully open in early 2018.
Singapore Airlines A350 at SFO
Per Singapore Airlines’ announcement:
The Singapore Airlines SilverKris Lounge in San Francisco will be closed for renovations starting from 01 October 2017. As part of the renovations, Singapore Airlines will begin a transition to a newly constructed, shared lounge facility operated by our Star Alliance partner, United Airlines. It is scheduled to open in early 2018.
During the closure period, eligible customers will be invited to the following lounges:
First Class, Business Class Customers: United Airlines International Departure Lounge (located in the G Concourse between gates 98-100)
PPS Club, Star Alliance Gold members: Any United Club lounges in Terminal 3As these are shared lounges, no boarding announcements will be made. Customers are advised to be aware of the boarding time indicated on their boarding pass.
What’s happening here is really interesting, and this is going to be such a mess in the short term. Over the next few months:
- The United Global First Lounge (located between gates 98 & 100) will become a temporary international premium cabin departure lounge, for Star Alliance first & business class passengers; this space isn’t big, so it’s going to become so overcrowded
- The previous United Club in the G Concourse will close altogether so that it can be renovated, and become part of the Polaris Lounge
As you can see in the announcement, Singapore Airlines first & business class passengers will get access to the former Global First Lounge, while Star Alliance Gold members will be directed to one of the United Clubs in the domestic terminal.
The former United Global First Lounge, which will temporarily become a United Club
If you’re flying Star Alliance internationally out of SFO over the coming months, I’d do everything possible to minimize your time in one of the international terminal lounges. If you have access, visit the Amex Centurion Lounge instead (though that will likely be really crowded as well). However, once this is all done, the Polaris Lounge should be a nice improvement over what the individual airlines previously offered (this was never an impressive Singapore lounge, in my opinion).
(Tip of the hat to @timweston)
Ugh. I just waitlisted to fly out of SFO to HKG next Feb and reading all this is a bit depressing considering its the first time I will be flying first... and SG first even. Kinda bummed about the prospect of a crappy airport experience.
What route would you guys recommend for someone based in the midwest that could pretty much fly anywhere to get a good SG first all round? Guess I still have a chance to change my plans before I blow 200k points.
The SQ lounge wasn't great, but it had showers and great food compared to UA.
The food in EVA was even better, but the furniture was really dated.
When I transfer through SFO (which is pretty much every flight over the Pacific), I always like to use the SQ lounge for food and one last shower.
I will miss it. The current UA Club in the international terminal is pretty much a joke.
That lounge was crap - seriously - and the shower area was in disrepair when we were there a year ago.
Yikes. All said and done, fine, but really there are broader implications given that there are delays in the opening of the United Polaris lounge @SFO. I can't imagine that SQ premium fliers, United elites nor Star Golds @ SFO are too thrilled about all of this...
The EVA lounge is closing too. And today United (re-)opened a temporary lounge -- in Concourse E -- in order to mitigate the situation.
https://loungereview.com/united-lounge-changes-closures-sfo-before-polaris/
I will miss this lounge. It was far better that the bleak offering upstairs by United. I did enjoy the food. I thought it was closed now anyway because of the construction, Let's see how the Polaris Lounge performs.
Fortunately I was able to do some lounge hopping this week before my UA flight to LHR in F -- and it was the first time I have flown out of Terminal G. The Singapore lounge was definitely small and somewhat dated looking but it was much quieter and relaxing than the United Club -- which btw is also closing this weekend. The very positive feature of the Singapore club was the more interesting and varied selection of food including Laksa.
The EVA lounge is crap, good riddance if it closes. In fact, SFO has got to be one of the worst for airline-owned lounges out of major west coast airports.
Unfortunately most biz-class award space seems to be through there so I've started flying coach instead. It's just not worth the 80k+ miles wasted on United or SQ for such a crummy airport experience + having to fly United domestically to connect.
The SQ lounge was great mainly because it wasn't full like UA lounges. Anything was better than the United lounges at SFO actually.
The SQ lounge wasn’t great. Neither was the BR lounge.
UA has built a new lounge which while sparkly isn’t very big or especially nice.
MY favourite lounges at SFO still are the UA ones with the cubby desks.
Yup SQ and BR lounges are closing. I'm going to miss them both.
SFO Terminal G is going to suck for the next few months.
The Centurion lounge is going to be like a bread line.
Lucky: The EVA lounge at SFO is closing too. They are likely going to join up and open a shared bigger lounge space.