Review of United flight from Houston to Washington in Domestic First

vacation through the benelux

Here is the last leg of my trip home from the Netherlands. Due to all the chaos last summer at European airports, my originally neat trip featuring one flight each way has doubled into a 4-leg journey.

united polaris lounge - iah

While IAH is probably my least favorite airport to transit through, this switch at least gave me the chance to review the Polaris Lounge here, which I have never visited.  The Polaris Lounge can be found in Terminal E as you walk from the international connection area (or if you're coming from D).

There is a variety of seats from individual booths, to tables, to loungers.  In this regard, it is like all of the other Polaris lounges.  As you can see in the pictures, the lounge was reasonably full when I was there mid-afternoon.

A highlight of the Polaris lounges is always a beautiful bar.  All of the counter seats were occupied though.

Directly behind the bar is the dining area, which is smaller than at ORD, EWR, or IAD.  I didn't have enough time for a sit-down meal, so I skipped it this trip.

Instead, I opted to go directly for a shower. Luckily, I had no wait. As always, a hot shower after a long flight is always very satisfying.  United uses Sunday Riley amenities in the lounge just like onboard. 

The regular bathrooms are more or less the same.

Because I was short on time, I opted to check out the buffet area instead:

I grabbed a small plate and got a glass of champagne from the lounge. Like at IAD, the IAH lounge was serving Lanson.

I sat at a small table across from the bar.  It had a good view of the tarmac.

As I was leaving the lounge, I found where the concierge agents worked, as well as some solo seats and a bench right by the entrance. I'd only sit in those seats if you had nowhere else to go.

I didn't have too long in the lounge, unfortunately, and had to trek to my gate soon.

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After a short stay in the lounge, I made my way to Gate D1.  Currently Terminal D is under renovation (and will be for a while), so there's no carpet. It very much has the feel of a construction zone.

I was going home on an ERJ-175 (how many times have I flown this between IAH and DCA?).

Preboarding began at 4:02pm CT. There didn't seem to be many other elites on the flight. As shown here. United's ERJ-175s have 4 rows or 1-2 in the first class cabin followed by economy in a 2-2 configuration.

These seats are reasonable for a regional jet, just missing any seatback IFE screens.

Here's a look at 4C/D before their passengers got seated.

Predeparture water was offered (I wasn't planning on asking for the sparkling wine anyways).

We pushed back at 4:34pm, 4 minutes behind schedule.

While taxiing to the runway, here is a look at the construction currently underway at IAH.

We took off at 4:51pm.

I noticed that 2C had an interesting contraption to set up her phone as a seatback screen.

The lavatory on regional jets are as tight as you might imagine. I really wish United would put lotion in the lavatories for domestic flights.

Brantley, the FA working the first class cabin, began taking orders about 30 minutes after takeoff. He thanked Global Services and 1Ks by name for our loyalty. Interestingly, it looked like he was skipping around taking the GS and 1Ks orders first (front-to-back) before going back and taking the orders from Platinums and below (and non-elite members). The usual procedure, per my understanding, is that they just take the orders front-to-back and arrange it so that GS and 1Ks are given their preference first (not actually served first).

The choices on this plate was some sort of a chicken dish or a cheese plate. Neither sounded appetizing. 

It would be about another half hour before I received my plate as drink orders and service took quite a bit of time.  I just opted for water to go along with the chicken. It was cold and not very good. The cookie cupcake is really addictive though.

The rest of the flight was very uneventful. We landed at 8:26pm ET, which was ahead of schedule, but had to wait around for ground crew. We finally got to our gate at 8:36pm, which ended up being 7 minutes early.