Review of United flight Chicago → London in Business

polaris lounge: ORD

I had flown in earlier that morning on a connecting flight on a 737-900 from IAD (you can find that review here: https://flight-report.com/en/report/66522/united-ua2440-washington-iad-chicago-ord/, so I headed to the Polaris Lounge, located next to gate C18, right across from the escalators leading you from “Rhapsody in Blue Tunnel” going towards Concourse B.

The lounge has this wall at the entrance with the United Polaris Lounge logo. It’s kind of cool, and it indicates that you are entering an area of exclusivity.

Speaking of exclusivity, the Polaris lounge rules are only for passengers traveling in United Polaris Business class or passengers flying in long-haul business class on a Star Alliance carrier. No level of status can get you in. The full access policy can be found here: https://www.united.com/en/us/fly/travel/airport/lounge-access.html 

You enter the reception area of the lounge where you are greeted by the lounge agents, who will admit you in after scanning your boarding pass.

Surprisingly, the ORD Polaris lounge is one of the smaller Polaris lounges. At a bit over 16,000 square feet, you can really feel how small the lounge is when it gets busy.

Once you enter the lounge, and go straight, you’ll immediately see the hallway where the restrooms are located with the signature Polaris lighting. Each restroom is all-gender and is completely private with a closed, locking door. There are also lights on each door indicating which one is available or closed. Green means its open, Red means its locked.

To the right of the restrooms is the first seating area that you’ll find with couches and the Polaris style work pods.

As you go deeper into the lounge, you’ll find the bar on the left, which has an extensive drink menu. Everything is complimentary, unlike the United Club. You do not have to pay for any premium spirits or anything else like that.

If you go further back, there is another seating area that offers views of the tarmac outside.

Just beyond that, is the dining room, where I went for lunch.

The dining room at ORD is an open area style, but is in a darker part of the lounge and is quite small.

I was seated right away, and took a look at the menu. 

I ordered the cheese plate as a starter, and the fish and chips as my entrée (very fitting for a flight to London!)

Not too long after that, the food arrived, all at the same time. 

Just after that, my server, Angie, came by to ask if I needed anything else. She came around a few times and was really nice!

The cheese plate was good, but only had one small piece of bread, which, was not enough for the amount of cheese on the plate. It should be a minimum of 2 pieces.

The fish and chips were good, they were flaky, and not too greasy. The fish was cooked perfectly and fell apart right in your mouth.

After I finished eating, my plates were cleared, and Angie asked me if she could get me some dessert. I went with the carrot cake.

The carrot cake was delicious and I thought the topping of freshly shredded carrots was a nice touch.

After I finished, I left a tip for Angie, and headed out to explore the rest of the lounge.

I wanted to grab a shower at this point, and I went past the buffet area to get to the shower suites.

I went into the room with the shower suites, and was immediately shown into a suite. The suite features a shower with a rain can and a handheld groomer, a sink area with amenities, Saks Fifth Avenue towels, slippers, and a loofa. If you need deodorant or a dental kit or other amenities, you can get those at the front desk.

After I showered, I thought it was 3;00 p.m., and so I started to head out of the lounge to the gate for my 3:15 p.m. boarding time. But, then I realized that I forgot to set my clock back to Central Time and I was still on Eastern Time, so I still had over an hour before boarding.

I found a private and secluded area on the other side of the Dining Room that was extremely quiet, and I think its because nobody sits back there. Anyways this is where I decided to wait for my flight.

boarding

We were boarding from gate C19, which was right across from the Polaris Lounge, so for the second time today, I had a 10 second walk from the lounge to the gate. 

The gate agent had an excellent sense of humor! And it was much appreciated by me at least! He said, “ We do need to check and make sure you have a valid passport while boarding, so please make sure you show that to us! If you don’t have a valid passport, I promise you that when you get to London, they’ll send you right back!” He also said, “You know how sometimes we can be annoying and ask you to check your larger carry on bags because we don’t have enough bin space? Well today, we have a light load, and won’t need anyone to check anything!” I thought he was great!

We boarded about 10 minutes behind our scheduled 3:15 boarding time. We had an emergency exit sign out, and they needed to fix that before letting us board. It was a quick fix and we boarded soon after.

The 767-300 only boards through one door because there is only one door forward of the overwing exits, door L1. When I boarded, I was greeted by a team of extremely friendly flight attendants! There were like 4 of them! Each one asked me if they could hang my coat, show me to my seat, and within 10 seconds of arriving at my seat, came by to offer me a pre departure beverage of water or sparkling wine. I went with water, as usual.

the “High J” 767-300

This “High-J” 767-300 is a very premium heavy aircraft. It has a large business class cabin with 46 Polaris seats! The Polaris cabin stretches to about half of the length of the entire fuselage! It is laid out in a 1-1-1 configuration across 18 rows, with rows 17 and 18 having only 2 seats in them along the windows. Each seat offers every passenger direct aisle access. The odd rows face straight, and the even rows are at an angle. I always prefer the odd, window seats as a solo traveler for the most privacy. Note, that rows 7 and 11 have strange window placements and are generally avoided.

Then, past that is the Premium Plus cabin with 22 seats arranged in a 2-2-2 configuration across 4 rows, with the first row, row 20, only having window side seats, and no middle seats.

Then, past that is the Economy cabin, which features… are you ready for this? 45 Economy Plus seats, and 52 regular Economy seats. Meaning that 46% of the Economy cabin is composed of Economy Plus seating! Wow!

the seat

My seat for tonight’s flight was 1L. A window seat on the right side of the aircraft.
 
In the seat, I found my bedding, with the gel pillow and the day blanket on top of a bag that contained the other regular pillow as well as the duvet-style blanket. The amenity kit and menu were also on the seat itself.

The seat controls are located in the right armrest, with a wheel that allows you to adjust between fully-flat bed mode, and the fully-upright taxi, takeoff, and landing mode. You can also adjust your footrest, lumbar support, and recline with a lot of different combinations.

There is a faux marble countertop on the right side where you can set things on top of.

Just above the countertop is the IFE remote control, the universal power outlet, a USB-A charging port, the headphone jack, and a small vanity closet where you can store a few things during the flight. In there was a water bottle for use during the flight, as well as the headset. I find this spot perfect for storing my toiletries and chargers.

The seat is well padded, comfortable, and extremely private. You can’t see another passenger in the cabin unless you really start looking for them, and nobody else can see you. Which is what I love about the Polaris seats. Unlike this aircraft’s brother, the 767-400, this seat features two individual air vents, as opposed to just one.

Additionally, seat 1L features two windows.

pre-departure

Once I settled in to my seat, I took a look at the menu. 

I then took a look at the IFE, and the IFE system on this aircraft is the older looking system, which was somewhat disappointing.

At 3:49, the captain came on to welcome us onboard and informed us of our flight time of 7 hours and 25 minutes.

At 3:51, the boarding door was closed.
A few minutes later, a flight attendant came by to clear our empty glasses.

At 3:57, TJ, our extremely friendly purser, came by, and said, “Mr. Shivpilot14, welcome on board, and thank you so much for being a Premier Platinum member with us. I wanted to se what you would like to eat for dinner tonight?”
 
I went with the green curry chicken, which I’ve had in a flight before and honestly was one of the best meals I’ve ever had on an airplane. But, I also love Thai green curry. Then, he asked if I wanted the buratta cheese appetizer or the sweet and sour chicken. I told him I was fine with either, and that they could bring me whatever they had because both sounded good. He said, “Okay, well that helps us out a lot! My name is TJ and I’m your purser, if you need anything at all, I’ll be taking care of this side of the aircraft so please don’t hesitate to let me know, Mr. Shivpilot14!”

the flight

At 3:58, the safety video began.

At 4:07, the captain came on to say that we have a maintenance issue and that they have to reconnect the jetway and open the boarding door to allow the maintenance crew onboard to fix it. He said it would take about 15 minutes to fix.

15 minutes was about right. The boarding door was closed again at 4:17, and we began pushing back at 4:24.

At 4:38, we were taking off on runway 28R.

We got a great view of O’Hare as we climbed out.

At 4:42, we reached 10,000 feet and were well on our way to London-Heathrow.

At 4:57, the captain came on to let us know that we reached our initial cruising altitude of 33,000 feet.

At 5:01, the in flight service began with the distribution of a hot towel.

At 5:05, a tablecloth was brought out.

At 5:13, the drink cart was brought around by TJ. I went with a gin and tonic, which was served with a ramekin of warm nuts, and a glass of still water.

At 5:31, my dinner arrived, all on one tray.

The green curry was delicious, and was honestly one of the best meals I’ve ever had on an airplane. I’d highly recommend it.

At 5:47, I finished my meal and placed it on the countertop. It was cleared immediately. They were clearing the trays of other people in the cabin as well, so it seemed as if a good amount of people in the cabin finished their meals around the same time that I did.
 
It took a while for the dessert cart to come around. By 6:15, it still hadn’t come around, and so I had decided that I wanted to get some rest and skip dessert. Just as I was about to settle in. TJ came by with the dessert cart, and at that point, I couldn’t pass up an ice cream sundae, which was delicious as always.

At 6:30 p.m. Chicago time, I finished my ice cream sundae and put my bed in lie flat mode to get some sleep.

arrival

I slept for about 4 hours and woke up with about an hour to go until our arrival in London, at 4:53 a.m. local time. 4 hours of sleep on a 7 and a half hour transatlantic flight is pretty decent, and I consider it to be a win.

I woke up to find that breakfast service had been started and that they had left a, now very cold, hot towel on my countertop. Which is a bit weird because I was asleep and had my do not disturb light on.
 
A few minutes later, TJ saw that I was awake and came by to ask if I wanted breakfast, and when I said no, he said, “are you sure? Coffee? Tea? Water? Anything?” I laughed and said no that I was fine and I’d be eating in the arrivals lounge in London.
 
At 5:07, the captain came on to let us know that we’d be beginning our initial descent and would be on the ground in about 40 minutes.
We descended over London and landed on runway 9L at 5:43 a.m.

We had a quick taxi to the gate, and parked at our gate at Terminal 2 at 5:50 a.m., about 5 minutes ahead of our scheduled arrival time.

After a quick deplaning, I made the long walk to the UK Border and was through in a matter of minutes. There was nobody in line at this time of the morning.

united arrivals lounge lhr

One unique aspect of arriving into London Heathrow on United Airlines in Polaris is that you get to experience the United Arrivals lounge upon arrival. It is the only arrivals lounge that United has in its network currently.
 
The lounge is restricted only to passengers arriving in Polaris or in Air Canada Business Class prior to 12:00 p.m. No level of status will gain entry. You can find the full access policy here: https://www.united.com/en/us/fly/travel/airport/lounge-access.html

Upon entering the lounge, I was greeted by an agent, who scanned my boarding pass and asked me if I wanted to take a shower. When I said yes, she directed me to a shower suite.

Additionally, the lounge agents will even store your luggage for you while you enjoy the lounge.
The shower suites are not like the Polaris shower suites. They are not accented in the same way, and are much smaller, but they get the job done.

There is also a closet within the door where you can hang your clothes if you want them pressed and laundered. I didn’t use this service as I had a fresh shirt in my bag. Though, the last time I was in Heathrow I used this service and it took quite a bit of time for my clothes to come back, and so I had to wait after I finished showering for my clothes to come back. On top of that, they didn’t close the door on the other side so when I opened it to get my clothes, I was exposed to the world- luckily nobody was outside. But I wasn’t taking that chance again.

Once I finished showering, I headed back to the main part of the lounge, where there is a dining area with a small seating area. 

There is a buffet with cold food options such as fruit, cereal, and pastries. There is also an A La Carte menu where you can order food from.

I’ve ordered the full English breakfast here before and it was pretty good, but today, it was still very early (or late at night in the US} and I really wasn’t hungry considering that I’d had a full dinner on the plane just a few hours ago, so I grabbed a coffee and that was it.

The lounge also has free WiFi, but for some reason I couldn’t get it to connect so I just connected to the Heathrow WiFi, which worked perfectly fine.

Once I finished eating, I left the lounge, and made my way into London.

Overall, this is a nice lounge if you’re looking to shower, grab something to eat, and get on your way, but there’s not much else in the way of amenities or anything else. The chairs at the tables are not that comfortable and the armchairs are very few in number so if you’re planning on waiting here for a long period of time after your flight, that’s probably not a good idea. But if you’re looking to just freshen up, eat, and get your day started, this is a great choice.