East Coast weather completely nuked my itinerary, so I leaned into same day flight changes and turned it into a full blown Polaris lounge crawl. Ended up hitting five Polaris lounges in one day.
Food highlights in order:
LAX: skillet cookie, espresso martini mousse, espresso martini
LAX: roasted pear gorgonzola salad, shrimp provencal, signature burger
IAD: crab cake hollandaise
SFO: skillet cookie, matcha mille feuille
SFO: shrimp and clam pasta, roasted chicken, Prisoner red blend
SFO: raspberry cheese plate, apple pear salad
ORD: Polaris lounge classics
Rankings after much scientific research:
Overall lounges: IAD > ORD > LAX > SFO
Cookie skillet: IAD > LAX > ORD > SFO
Burger: LAX > IAD > ORD > SFO
IAD and LAX were standouts for dining rooms. ORD crushed it on cocktails, especially the speakeasy. SFO had the weakest food overall. Still fine, but noticeably more mass produced. I get the complaints now.
Staff was excellent everywhere.
Hot take: United actually has a fantastic hard product and Polaris lounge experience. I know this sub loves to dunk on United, but this was genuinely great.
Pro tip: give yourself 3 hours at the Polaris lounge. Go straight to the dining room, skip the plane meal, and sleep onboard.
Planning a cookie skillet only crawl next month. Will report back 🫡
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