Washington Dulles (IAD) Polaris lounge review

The first trip report of 2022 is going to be a bit different from the others! This report covers my trip from Washington DC to London, and I decided to do something a bit different because I slept for the entire flight and so can’t comment on the inflight service.  Originally, I had been planning to take the daytime flight from Newark on Monday Jan 3, but my plans in New York were cancelled by COVID, so I switched to the Sunday night flight from DC.  Having no change fees any more is absolutely amazing.

I started my morning in Virginia Beach with a friend of mine (Billy).  We drove back to Richmond, where my parents live, and then got an Amtrak service to Alexandria.  I rarely travel business class on Amtrak’s Northeast Regional trains because the regular coach class is very comfortable, but definitely feels a bit dated. I’ve always thought doing a train trip report would be cool, but since there isn’t really any service to speak of (or lounges most of the time), I’m not sure what to write about.

Upon arrival in Alexandria, Billy’s parents picked us up for a transfer to Billy’s house for the afternoon.  In the evening, Billy took me to the airport. 

I was dropped off outside United’s Polaris entryway.  I cleared security using Clear (which I got for $9 using my Amex Green card).  I’m not particularly impressed with the amount of time that Clear saves me at the airport, but maybe it will one day.  After clearing security, I made my way straight for the Polaris Lounge.  I’m not the biggest fan of Dulles airport in general, but I thought this Tuskegee Airmen poster was really cool!

Soon I found the newly opened Polaris lounge.  I’ve only been to a Polaris lounge once previously, in Newark Airport in 2019.  Although the United Club in London Heathrow is very nice, it simply cannot compare to the Polaris Lounge.

Once inside the lounge, I found plenty of seats were available.  Travel is picking back up, but it was definitely not in full swing yet in January.

Because of Billy’s schedule, I arrived at the airport over 3 hours before my flight.  It was way earlier than I would’ve liked, but I didn’t want to be a burden, and it meant I got to sample everything the lounge had to offer.  I started with a light visit to the buffet. 

I also spent some time working on my laptop.  My flight wasn’t until 10:30 pm, and the lounge closed at 10 pm, so I decided to stretch out my time as long as possible.  At around 8:45 pm, I visited the dining room.  United is the only US carrier to offer an all-inclusive dining room for its business class (Polaris) customers.  American Airlines offers an elevated dining experience only for Flagship First Class customers, but when I flew Flagship First, the dining room was closed unfortunately.

There was only one other person in the dining room when I sat down (and then later a third person came), so I had ample space.  The menu was relatively small, with breakfast on one side and lunch/dinner on the other.  Each section had four options as seen below.  I selected the autumn squash soup and seared salmon.  If I’d had more time (and had been hungrier), I would’ve also tried the ramen bowl, which sounded like a lot of fun.  I started with a glass of Riesling.

The soup came promptly and was nicely spiced and creamy.  I would’ve preferred it to be served a bit hotter, but I liked not burning my tongue better, haha. 

The salmon came a short wait after I finished my soup.  The salmon was well-cooked, but the sweet potato cake had way too many onions in it for me, unfortunately, because I love sweet potatoes.  I was convinced to order a cookie for dessert.  It was great, of course, but was also served substantially hotter than the soup, which was weird.

After dinner, I took a shower and changed into sweatpants for the flight.  By the time I left the shower room, the lounge was empty because it was almost 10 pm.  I headed out because my flight was scheduled to start boarding soon… and because I didn’t have a choice in the matter anyway. 

When I got to the gate, boarding hadn’t started yet, which wasn’t a good sign.  The flight was then delayed by a half hour to 11 pm.  Then to midnight.  Then to 1 am.  Then finally we took off at 2 am. Luckily all my friends in California were still awake. So I called Valerie, and then Alex and Ben, who were on a roadtrip.

The seat was very nicely set up, however. 

By this point I was exhausted. 

I declined the meals, napped during taxiing, and then made my bed after takeoff and slept until landing began.

We finally landed just under 3 hours late in London.  I got treated to a nice flyover of London on the approach, including London City Airport.  The River Thames looks really gross in this picture though…

In summary, I didn’t actually experience this 7-hour transatlantic flight, which is why I’m billing this as a lounge review, haha.  The Polaris lounge was excellent.  The Polaris seat is excellent, and since it was a night time flight (and I was further back in the cabin) the lack of door ironically wasn’t noticeable this time around.  What was noticeable was the lack of a soft underlayer of bedding.  I skipped the meals, the service and the inflight entertainment, so I can’t really give this flight much of a score.

From a points perspective, I earned quite a few.  I earned 8 496 United miles, based on the price of the ticket (and 1 062 PQP).  Like with the previous United Polaris flight, I earned a similar number of miles as in a distance-based program.  I booked put this ticket on my Amex Green Card to earn 3x points, so I earned around another 3 500 Membership Rewards points in addition to the United miles. Between the Amex points and the United miles (which don’t include taxes/fees), I earned around 10x points/dollar, which is pretty good.  The Points Guy values Amex Membership Rewards points at 2 cents each and United Miles at 1.3 cents each.  Using their valuations, I earned $170 worth of points, for a return of 13%, which isn’t bad.