Polaris Lounge EWR
After I flew in from Washington-Dulles (you can find that review here), I immediately headed to the Polaris Lounge in Terminal C.
The Polaris Lounge is exclusively for passengers flying long-haul in United Polaris business class or departing in long-haul business class or first class on a Star Alliance member airline. You can find the full access policy here.
The entrance to the lounge is located in the main corridor between Gate C102 and Gate C120. It says Polaris Lounge and has a large round reception area. You check in with the agents at the desk, and after scanning my Polaris boarding pass, I was admitted in.
This lounge is huge. At 27,000 square feet, it is the second largest Polaris lounge behind San Francisco. The only other Polaris lounges that I’ve visited are the ORD and IAD lounges. With the ORD one at 16,300 square feet and the IAD lounge at 21,000 square feet, this lounge seems so much bigger. And, it makes sense given that Newark has the most long-haul flights going across the Atlantic out of all of the United Hubs.
Once inside, your eye is immediately drawn by the hallway that leads to the bar. The bar is long and has a few different stations where you can stand and order a drink, as well as plenty of seating. Additionally, there are seating areas around the bar.
Immediately upon arriving in the Lounge, I took a seat in the seating area near the windows, and decided to get some work done for a bit.
After a while, I decided to take a walk around the lounge. Just behind this seating area is the buffet with several different areas of tabletop seating where you can sit.
For dessert options there was a cardomom cookie crumble as well as a while chocolate mousse with raspberry compote.
There was a meat and cheese selection, an Italian salami sandwich, some caprese lemon split wraps, and the salad bar.
When I went to the buffet, they still had the hot items from breakfast.
On the other side of the buffet, adjacent to the entrance is another seating area, as well as the shower suites and quiet suites, and some phone rooms where you can sit and get some work done.
At the far end of the lounge is the restrooms. All of the restrooms in the Polaris Lounges are gender neutral, completely private, single person bathrooms. They are located along a dark hallway with stars on the ceiling, reinforcing the Polaris branding. There are lights on the door handles that illuminate green and red to alert you of which rooms are vacant and which are occupied.
After I finished my little tour of the lounge, I decided to grab a drink at the bar and some food from the buffet, while getting some work done.
At around 1:00, I decided to have lunch in the Dining Room, located just behind the bar. Which is the sit-down restaurant in the Polaris lounge that has a la carte dining, and is the highlight of the Polaris lounges, in my opinion. You’ll find the dining room menu for today posted on a board outside of the dining room. A printed menu will also be given to you when you sit down.
I was immediately shown to a table in the middle of the dining room area. The Newark Dining Room is my favorite out of the Polaris lounges that I’ve visited (which is all of them except SFO). Why? The windows. The floor to ceiling windows provide a lot of natural lighting while you’re eating, which is way nicer than the artificial lighting of the IAD and LAX dining rooms and the lack of lighting in the ORD and IAH Dining Rooms. The view is also of the ramp outside which has most of the united heavies sitting outside of it. Today, I got to look at a 777-200 and a few 767s as I ate.
The service was slow even though it wasn’t busy. My server didn’t come for about 10 minutes- good thing I wasn’t in any sort of rush.
While I was waiting, the server came and asked the hostess loudly, and yelling across the Polaris Lounge, “WHO WAS HERE FIRST?” asking about me or another woman sitting a few tables away. It was weird and a bit unprofessional.
She did come by and didn’t ask me if I wanted anything. She just stood there with a notepad, and look annoyed that she had to take my order.
I ordered a Hendrick’s and Tonic and went with the Pan Seared Chicken as my main. I realize now as I’m writing this report, that I forgot to order my starter, but oh well.
Within a few moments, she brought out my gin and tonic and my water.
About 30 minutes later, my chicken arrived.
The chicken was not that good. It wasn’t seasoned well, and the “spicy pepper sauce” was just Tabasco that they put on the side. Extremely underwhelming and disappointing.
When I finished my main, just like the experience I had in the IAD lounge this morning, I never saw my server again. I originally want dessert and she never came back. Oh well…
After having lunch in the dining room, I decided to await the rest of my lounge visit by just relaxing. I left the lounge about 15 minutes ahead of my boarding time of 4:10 p.m. for my original flight to Munich. Be sure to check the United App and use the airport maps feature to see how long of a walk you’ll have to get to your gate from the Polaris Lounge.
Story Time: The Flight Cancellation and how I ended up on the flight to LHR
I was originally ticketed to fly from EWR-MUC at 5:00 p.m. and then onward to HAM. We boarded on time, and I was seated, and things seemed to be going ok.
At 5:09, about 10 minutes after our scheduled departure time, the captain came on to welcome us aboard. But told us that we had a minor maintenance issue and that maintenance technicians were on board taking care of it and he would give us an update as soon as he could. Luckily, there’s multiple flights to Hamburg from Munich, so I originally wasn’t too worried about being rebooked if I missed my connecting flight.
At 5:30, I received a notification on the United app that our new departure time was 5:48 pm. At around that same time, I saw the captain coming down the aisle, and he looked happy. Which can only be a good sign right?
At 5:39, I got a text and email from United stating that we needed to return to the gate because they needed to evaluate the braking system. But, we were already at the gate, so I just waited for the next announcement to come.
At 5:41, the captain said that the problem was solved and that we are just finishing up the paperwork and would be on our way soon. He told the flight attendants to arm the doors, cross check… etc.
At 5:53, the captain came on to say that we had another maintenance issue as well. So now we had to wait for that to be taken care of. At this point, I decided to call the 1K desk to get moved onto a different flight from Munich to Hamburg.
At 6:07, while I was on with the 1K desk, the captain came on to let us know that we would need to deplane and our newest departure time was 7:15, which I knew wasn’t going to happen given that we still needed to deplane- they needed to get a new aircraft- and re-board all of us.
Good news was that the 1K desk was able to rebook me on a new flight from Munich to Hamburg, a flight about 2 hours after my original flight was.
When we got off the plane, the gate agents said, “If you have lounge access, it’s best that you go back to the lounge.” That’s never a good sign in terms of when we’re getting on our way. But, at least we are being well informed of what’s going on. So, I headed back to the Polaris lounge.
When I got to the Polaris Lounge, I decided to go to the customer service desk to inquire about my flight. They were super helpful. At first, they were working on printing my boarding pass for my flight to Hamburg from Munich, but couldn’t give me an update on the flight because they didn’t have any information.
After about an hour in the Polaris Lounge, I got worried. We had no news of the flight’s departure and I was worried that I would now miss my next flight to Hamburg again, so I went back to the desk.
While I was there, they were looking and offered me a flight option through London departing at 10:00 p.m. and connecting on Eurowings to Hamburg. They asked me, “Would you like for us to put you on that flight or would you like to see if you can still go through Munich?” When I said I wasn’t sure and I was thinking about it, the agent whispered to me, “Mr. Shivpilot14, that flight to Munich is about to be announced as canceled.” He whispered because there was a line of other people asking about the Munich flight, and because I was the first one there, he didn’t want to start a panic.
So, I said, “Yes, please put me through London!” And they did, immediately. They even called down to the baggage office to get a trace on my bag done as well. They really went above and beyond in taking care of me.
I waited at the bar in the Polaris Lounge until it was time for boarding.
Boarding
I arrived at gate C123 just prior to the 9:10 p.m. boarding time.
We were supposed to start boarding at 9:10, but at 9:30 we still hadn’t started begun boarding. I was tired and frustrated by the whole situation, and I hope that this isn’t taken out in my review today.
At 9:31, we were given an update, which I’m happy that we got. But the explanation was that the cleaners weren’t able to get on board to clean the aircraft. I’m sorry, but this aircraft arrived into Newark at 7:30 local time. There was plenty of time to get the cleaners on board and this was just not acceptable.
At 9:43, we began boarding.
Polaris Business class ordinarily boards in Group 1, but I preboarded with the other Premier 1K passengers, due to my 1K status.
We boarded through door L2, where I was greeted by a friendly female flight attendant who welcomed me on board.
The Cabin and Seat
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!
I found my seat 5A, a window seat on the left side of the aircraft.
At 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 seat controls are located next to the left 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, your lumbar support, and your 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, this is where the headsets and the printed menu were located.
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. I find this spot perfect for storing my toiletries and chargers.
United recently re-did their menus from a single plastic card to a menu with multiple pages. It looks better than the old menus but it's not that premium.
Just in front of you is the IFE Screen. United has an excellent IFE system.
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 the 767-400s, this seat does feature individual air vents.
The seat features two windows.
Pre-Departure
At 9:52, our flight attendant Nadia, came by to introduce herself and ask for my first and second meal choices. I told her I wanted the short rib as my first choice and the lemongrass chicken as the second choice.
I also opted for Express Dining, which is a service that United offers in Polaris. This service means that everything is brought out in one tray and at the same time, so that you can maximize sleep. It’s also usually brought out first.
At 10:15, I got a notification stating that our new departure time was 10:30 pm. Great…
At 10:18, the boarding door was closed. And the captain came on to announce our flight time of 6 hours 26 minutes.
The Flight
We pushed back at 10:21 and the safety video began to play.
At 10:36, we took ru way 22R for departure.
At 10:43, we reached 10,000 feet, meaning we were well on our way to London.
At 11:02, the captain came on to announce that we had reached our cruising altitude of 36,000 feet.
At 11:09, the service started with the distribution of hot towels. This towel was exceptionally hot, I mean I could barely touch it!
At 11:14, a tablecloth was brought out.
At 11:14, a flight attendant came by to ask me what I wanted to drink: I went with a Cabernet Sauvignon. It was served with a ramekin of warm nuts.
Two minutes later, my meal was brought out, all on one tray, just as I requested.
The Short Rib was very flavorful and juicy. It wasn’t dry or anything and actually quite tasty. I quite enjoyed it.
Once I finished eating, I went straight to sleep. I was so tired.
I slept for a solid 4.5 hours, which is very good for a transatlantic flight. Especially when the total flight time is only 6.5 hours. I woke up to the announcement that we had about 47 minutes left in flight. My super friendly flight attendant came by and asked if I wanted breakfast. I declined and just asked for a Coke Zero to get a bit of caffeine in me.
Descent and Arrival
At 9:30 local time in London, the captain came on to let us know that we had about 30 minutes left in flight and the seatbelt sign would be coming on in about 10 minutes, so it was our last chance to get up.I decided to go ahead and use the lavatory.
The lavatory was clean. It had obviously been refreshed and cleaned mid flight.
We touched down on runway 9L at 10:04 am local time.
We parked at gate B33 at 10:09 for a slightly early arrival!
