United Polaris Business Class Flight Review

I recently splurged like a madman and travelled from San Francisco (SFO) to Rome (FCO) in United Airline’s Business Class (called Polaris). Here’s what my impressions were.

SFO United Polaris Lounge

The Lounge is available only to customers who are flying Business class. This is unlike United’s regular lounge where you can buy admission for $50 or so. The Polaris Lounge is huge, on 2 levels, with tons of nice seating, tables and chairs.

Food

Guests can dine from a buffet of sandwiches, soup, and salads. You can also dine in their full service restaurant. When we were there the wait for the restaurant was about 1/2 an hour. We were hungry so just went to the buffet. The food was good! There is also a free full bar.

Showers

The SFO United Polaris Lounge has 8 Showers available to guests. Shampoo, conditioner, body wash, and towels are provided. Slippers, a loofah, deodorant, toothbrush/paste, and Q-tips are also provided. The shower rooms appear clean and well-maintained.

Quiet Rooms

Guests also have access to book a Quiet Room for a nap for up to one hour. It was indeed quiet in the area! Rooms have a lay-flat lounge, slippers, pillow, sleep mask, earplugs, some Pellegrino sparkling water, and a Ghiradelli chocolate to help wake you up.

The Good

The SFO United Polaris Lounge was very impressive! Spacious with lots of various seating options. Even a room for Quiet Seating. The buffet spread was varied, fresh and tasty.

The sit down restaurant option was very cool, though I didn’t get to try it since there was a 1/2 hour wait. If I’d had more time to kill between/before my flight I happily would have waited.

The options to have a shower and/ or private nap room were wonderful! Life of luxury and leisure!

The staff was courteous and attentive.

Open bar! Need I say more!

The Bad

Honestly, I can’t name a bad thing about the Lounge! I had to use a coffee cup for my water because they happened to be in between bringing out more clean water glasses, but no big deal.

The Flight

I flew from San Francisco to Rome on a 777. It was scheduled to take almost 12 hours but ended up closer to 11 and a half hours. I chose seat 3L and my friend, Sophia chose seat 2L.

Seats

Seat 2L had easy access to the aisle, while 3L had a very narrow entrance to the aisle. It would be difficult for anyone with mobility issues to navigate. However, in seat 3L it was easy to look out the window, while 2L was a bit far from the window.

On a flight from San Francisco to New York a few years ago I was able to upgrade to a business class seat right before boarding for only a few hundred dollars. On that trip I got seat 1L, which was a great seat! Right next to the window AND easy aisle access.

Food

The flight started out with a glass of champagne, and an amazing pass over the Golden Gate Bridge, then downtown San Francisco! Beautiful!

Next came dinner! I chose “Roman Holiday” from the wide range of movie and TV show offerings. Then I thoroughly enjoyed my dinner. I’d pre-ordered the beef short ribs entree. (They send an email about a week before the flight with 3 options from which to choose.).

Things started off with warmed nuts and wine (or whatever beverage you wanted). Then a salad, mozzarella in balsamic wiht tomato, and a warm roll with butter!

Next came the entree with broccoli and mashed potatoes. Also, notice the fun salt and pepper shakers that look like little Star Wars Death Stars 😀

Finally, dessert! They had an option of a custom made Ice Cream Sundae, a cinnamon crumb cake, or cheese plate. Sophia and I both got the cinnamon crumb cake, and Sophia was wise enough to ask for a drizzle of hot fudge on her cake! All was very good!

Soon after that most people settled in for the night. At the push of a button your seat turns into a flat bed.

About an hour and a half before landing, lights slowly came up and the breakfast service started. I got the scrambled egg and sausage. Not bad for an airplane.

The Good

• Good sized portions of food.
• The food was pretty good.
• Food presentation with the little “tablecloth” and cloth napkin and real flatware.
• Dessert offerings, especially the custom Sundaes.
• Friendly and attentive flight attendants.
• TV was a good size for the space, with lots of movie and TV show options.
• Two pillows were provided: one small regular soft pillow and one memory foam pillow. It was great to have those two options to use behind your back while seated, then for a varitety of “head support” while sleeping.
• Ability to lay flat!

The Bad

• Laying flat wasn’t as comfortable as I expected. I’ve read that you can ask for a “mattress topper” which will make the experience much better, so try that! It didn’t occur to me at the time.
• Seats which were closer to the aisle may have light from the galley or other passenger shining in the passenger’s face.
• Seats closer to the window (except for the first row), had very narrow entrances. It was a little awkward getting in and out, but would be very difficult for someone with mobility issues.
• The cost! This is the main thing (of course!!) that keeps me from flying Business Class every time. Here are some annoying facts for you: if you paid $5000 for a one-way 12-hour flight from San Francisco to Rome, that breaks out to $417 per hour or $7 per minute. (By the way, one would typically book a round-trip flight, which makes it cheaper, especially if you do coach on the return flight, like I did.)

In Summary

In summary, it is a very cool experience to fly United Polaris Business class! The SFO Lounge is practically perfect. I mean, what more could you want?

The flight experience was great. However, a “mattress topper” would have made the sleeping experience much better. Other than having a private, “Airforce One” style bedroom, I think the seat “pods” were very comfortable and indulgent.

Please let me know if you’ve flown United Polaris before and your thoughts on it! Also, have you found a better business-class experience on another airline?