United is known for its excellent Polaris Lounges, which are for long haul business class passengers. The carrier’s first-ever Polaris Lounge was at Chicago O’Hare (ORD), and it opened back in 2016.
For the past several months, the airline has been working on expanding and renovating the lounge, and there’s now an exciting update — the lounge has reopened as of today, and it looks like there are some awesome improvements!
In this post:
Expanded United Polaris Lounge Chicago opens
Today (April 29, 2025), the updated United Polaris Lounge Chicago has opened. It’s located in Concourse C, near gate C18, and is open daily from 7AM until 9PM. With these updates:
- The lounge has been expanded from 16,000 square feet to 25,000 square feet, so the size of the lounge has increased by over 50%
- The lounge feature twice as many seats as before, so clearly the additional space is primarily being used for more seating, as there’s now capacity for over 350 guests
- The lounge expansion includes more restrooms, amenities like private seating and workspaces, a larger 50-seat dining room, and a second (speakeasy-style) bar
- The lounge features updated decor and tableware from Crate & Barrel
The additional space for this lounge was made possible by the former United Club that was adjacent to this lounge, which closed back in 2023. So United basically knocked down a wall to create this expanded space.
Here’s how Aaron McMillan, United’s Managing Director of Hospitality Programs, describes the lounge updates:
“Our vast international network is one of United’s unique strengths, and our United Polaris lounges help set the tone for business class travelers before or after their long-haul flights. Customers are going to love our new Chicago lounge because it gives them more of all of the things they want most—more space, more amenities, and more dining options—and we’ll carry this new elevated design into future lounge openings and renovations across our United Polaris lounge portfolio.”
This Polaris Lounge expansion is long overdue
An expansion to the United Polaris Lounge Chicago was most definitely necessary. United has huge premium cabins on its long haul aircraft, and has continued to grow its wide body fleet in recent years. When you combine that with booming demand for international premium travel, this lounge has become uncomfortably crowded in the afternoons. Beyond that, United has massively grown its market share in Chicago, at American’s expense.
Also keep in mind that Star Alliance partners All Nippon Airways and Lufthansa depart from this terminal, and send their premium passengers here.
Bottom line
The updated United Polaris Lounge Chicago has just opened. The lounge is roughly 50% larger, with a lot more seats and amenities, including more dining and bar seating. Not only has the lounge been expanded, but it also has updated design, in partnership with Crate & Barrel. These changes look great, and I can’t wait to visit!
What’s your take on the United Polaris Lounge Chicago changes?
Does anyone know if I can access upon arrival on Swiss business? In ORD for 5 hours on an unprotected layover. Could not find availability for final leg home on United economy.
No, you won't have access on arrival; even if you were on a connecting UA flight on the same ticket you still wouldn't have access. Access on arrival is reserved for those coming off of UA Polaris flights, not star alliance partners
Thanks. Cheese cubes it is.
Brilliant news indeed! It was a bit odd how, until now, the nicest lounge at ORD had probably been Delta's Sky Club lol.
This looks very promising.
Flying Lufthansa biz out of ORD tomorrow and was so excited to see this news!
Nice to hear. Had a good experience at this lounge on a layover to Taipei with a friend back in 2019, and I'd love to go back. Only problem is getting United connections on ANA award tickets, but who knows? That might get a bit easier when they switch over to allowing one-way awards this year.
How does this now compare with the JFK Delta One lounge?
Different ballpark, surely? Delta One is about as nice as it gets in the USA (with the caveat that I'm judging this based on LAX)
seems like this is just a refinement of the existing Polaris Lounge but doesn't raise the bar to the level of JFK/LAX Delta One Lounges. Those are in a league of their own.
Yeah this isn't to the level of Delta One. The space is an upgrade for sure, but the food quality had declined since they first opened and I wouldn't expect any difference or improvement in catering quality (other than maybe a temporary bump in quality control / consistency with folks being retrained or excited about the opening). So the food won't be on the level of Delta One. They may have improved the alcohol offerings...
Yeah this isn't to the level of Delta One. The space is an upgrade for sure, but the food quality had declined since they first opened and I wouldn't expect any difference or improvement in catering quality (other than maybe a temporary bump in quality control / consistency with folks being retrained or excited about the opening). So the food won't be on the level of Delta One. They may have improved the alcohol offerings given the improvement we've seen onboard in Polaris.
Of course the food is better than onboard but that's about the lowest bar you could ever set.
The food quality has been limited during construction. Even before the Longue closing the kitchen was impacted by the construction for nearly a year.
Eh, lets wait and taste before making any statements.