Connecting in SFO
I’ve never arrived into SFO before on an international flight, so this was going to be a bit of a treat! I'd arrived into SFO from Tokyo Haneda, you can view the review for that flight here: https://flight-report.com/en/report/76353/united-ua876-tokyo-hnd-san-francisco-sfo/
It took about 38 minutes from the time that the fasten seatbelt sign was turned off to get to the Polaris Lounge. This included the getting through immigration, claiming and rechecking my bag, and getting through security. The walk from the B gates to the CBP checkpoints took about 10 minutes- it was a long walk.
The Lounge: The Polaris Lounge at SFO
Because I was arriving in on a connecting flight from Polaris, I had access to the Polaris Lounge on arrival. This was my firt time in the Polaris Lounge in SFO. Now, I've visited and reviewed every Polaris Lounge in detail. You can review all of those here:
IAD, IAH, EWR, ORD, LAX, SFO
I didn’t have a lot of time in the lounge today, so I had to make the most of it.
Upon entering the lounge, you’ll be on the first floor. This lounge has two usable floors. On the first floor, are the shower suites, quiet suites, and a seating area that’s pretty quiet.
I kept heading back to where the shower suites were located because I was in need of a shower after my overnight flight from Tokyo Haneda. The super friendly agent told me that all the showers were full but it would only be a few minutes as people were constantly coming and going. She told me to take a seat in their little waiting area, and I grabbed a coffee from the nearby station outside. I’d only had a few sips of my coffee, when I was told my shower suite was ready!
This was your typical Polaris Shower Suite. It had a table to place your belongings on, a toilet, a sink, and some amenities such as slippers, deodorant, shower cap, and a toothbrush.
Once I finished my shower, I took the escalator upstairs.
At the top of the escalator, I took a right turn and walked through to find the lounge's main seating area, which went on past the buffet and leading to the dining room at the end.
You'll also find the buffet in this area. It had a number of hot and cold options. The hot options included scrambled eggs, egg whites, bacon, sausage, and a potato hash.
My next stop was to get some breakfast in the dining room. Except, the dining room had a 45 minute wait time. I obliged and said I would wait. So I joined the waitlist. The lounge was quite busy after all, with all of the Asia-Pacific arrivals and departures within this bank.
While I waited, I decided to walk around and explore the lounge a bit. So I headed to the other side of the lounge, on the other side of the escalators to find yet another seating area. This area, was much quieter. And even featured the “studio” which is a space with a mini buffet and some other seating at the end of the lounge.
There’s also private phone booths in the middle of the second floor, but there’s only a few.
I walked over to the bar to grab a mimosa. All of the Liquor in Polaris Lounges are complimentary, and United uses Laurent-Perrier La Cuvée Brut, which is a very nice champagne. I’m not a connoisseur of wine or champagne by any means, but I’ve heard that it’s a nice Champagne.
Since I wasn't sure how long it would take to get my seat in the dining room, I decided to get some food from the buffet and take a seat. I got some food and went to sit down. As soon as I sat down, I got the text message saying my table was ready.
The friendly Maitre’d, Andrew, showed me to my table by the window.
I took a look at the menu and was happy that it had more variety and local flavors compared to Dulles.
I started with the Greek yogurt parfait and the chicken and mushroom empanada. I also ordered the puff pastry for my entree (which I now realize I never took a picture of, sorry!)
The parfait and the empanada came out about 2 minutes after I ordered it, which means they were not made after ordering. They were made before and just reheated and served to order. The parfait was overly sweet for my liking and the empanada was delicious and fluffy!
A few minutes later, the puff pastry was brought out. It had nice flavors and was also nice and fluffy!
After that, I had about an hour left in the lounge, so I decided to find a seat and just get a bit of work done before heading out to board my flight.
Boarding, the Cabin and Seat
I left the Polaris lounge 10 minutes before boarding, which was the perfect amount of time to leave the lounge as gate F13 was exactly a 10 minute walk from the Polaris Lounge.
Boarding began right on time at 12:05, and I boarded with the other 1Ks. SFO is a premium travel heavy hub for United, so the number of Global Services and 1K members can be quite a lot. Especially on a hub-to-hub flight.
The 787-8 Polaris Cabin is arranged in a 1-2-1 configuration, and has a total of 28 seats. The cabin is split into two cabins, separated by a galley. The first cabin, between L1 and L2, consists of 20 seats spread across 5 rows. Whereas, the second cabin, where I was sitting, consists of only 8 seats, spread across 2 rows. So, the second, mini-cabin feels much more private.
It's also important to note that the 2 lavotories for Polaris are located at the very front of the aircraft. So, you have to go up to the very front of the aircraft in order to use the lavatories in flight. But, with 2 lavatories for 28 passengers, the passenger to lavatory ratio is 14:1, which is not bad.
The Polaris seats are arranged in a 1-2-1 configuration on the 787s, offering 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. Though, couples should opt for the odd numbered middle seats in the middle so that you can be close together and lower the partition.
The overhead bins on the 787s are massive, and have more than enough space to store any luggage that you may need to store in the overhead bins, especially if you’re in business class.
My seat today was 6A, the window seat on the left side of the aircraft in the first row of this mini cabin.
The seat has three windows, that are controlled by dimmer switches on the wall or in the IFE system. And this seat in particular offers excellent views of the engine and wing!
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. 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. I find this the perfect spot to store your toiletries and/or chargers.
At the front of the seat is the IFE screen.
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- you really don't need a closing door with this amount of privacy. But, United is adding those in Polaris on their 787-9s soon! On the 787-8, there are individual air vents above your seat, and an overhead reading light.
Pre-departure, Taxi, and Takeoff
At 12:17, a PDB of either water or Prosecco was offered. I went with water.
At 12:26, a flight attendant came by to confirm my meal order. United allows you to preorder your mealsbin premium cabins beginning 5 days before departure and ending at check in time. I had preordered the “SFO preorder exclusive”- the Wild Mushroom Ragout.
At 12:50, the boarding door was closed.
At 12:52, we were pushing back, and the safety video began to play.
At 12:52, the captain came on to welcome us aboard. He said that as we pass over the Midwest- from the Rockies onwards- we’d have some pretty high potential for the seatbelt sign to be on.
It was weird because he made his announcement mid pushback and mid safety video. So they had to restart the safety video.
I had some nice planespotting done while we were taxiing including this Emirates A380 and this United 777-300ER.
At 1:12, we were rolling down runway 1R for our departure.
The views on the climb out from SFO were really nice!
Cruise
At 1:18, we reached 10,000 feet and were well on our way to Washington-Dulles.
At 1:33, service began with the distribution of a hot towel.
At 1:45, I was offered a drink. I went with a gin and tonic.
At 1:48, my gin and tonic was brought out with a ramekin of warm nuts
At 2:02, my meal was served. The mushroom Ragout was really good. The sourdough was slightly burnt but that was my only complaint. The salad had a spicy, zesty, lemon dressing which was really good! United should really use this in Polaris! There was also a chocolate cheesecake that was also quite good.
When I finished my meal, my tray was cleared, and I was asked if I wanted another gin and tonic! I said yes!
I decided to use the lavatory before we hit the rough weather that the captain was talking about earlier. United’s 787-8 only had two lavatories at the front of the aircraft for Polaris passengers, which is an average of 1 lavatory for 14 passengers. Which isn’t bad, but considering that the only two lavatories are up front, that means if you’re in the second “mini cabin” like I was, you have to cross a whole other cabin to use the lavatory.
When I got back to my seat, I decided to switch my clock to Washington time. This meant that it was 5:42 pm in Washington, and we had about 3 hours and 10 minutes remaining in flight.
I reclined my seat and continued watching Mission Impossible.
At 5:50 in Washington, I was offered another drink. I decided to ask for a Coke Zero since I was a bit tired and I’d had a few alcoholic beverages already.
I ended up falling asleep for about 20 minutes just to get a power nap.
At 7:35, a pre arrival snack was offered. It was the Brioche Style Caprese Bake. It was quite tasty, though I don’t think United should put that ingredients list on the front of the packaging…
I fly United a lot, and this was the first time ever that I’ve received a “pre arrival meal/snack” on a regular domestic first class flight, so I’m glad that United is starting to treat long routes like this as being slightly more premium.
Descent and Arrival
At 8:25, the captain came on to announce that we’d begun our descent and that he’d turn on the fasten seatbelt sign in 5 minutes and that it would remain on for the rest of the flight.
We touched down on runway 1C at 8:48 pm, and began our taxi to the gate.
We parked at gate C1 at 8:57 pm, about 3 minutes behind our originally scheduled arrival time, which I still consider to be on time!
