Pandemic-era Trip Report: SFO layover and a visit to the United Club
We arrived about half an hour early from San Diego, which was a relief because there had been a layover of only 1 hour 28 minutes before the all-important SFO-ICN-PVG flight. With this extra time, I decided that I’d make a pit stop at a United Club, to check out what the service was like in COVID times.
In SFO, there is only one club open at this time. Every other lounge, including the Polaris lounge, is currently closed.
The one that’s open is in the “rotunda” by boarding area F - the area where you have to walk down the pier with moving sidewalks. Usually there’s some kind of SFO Museum display up, but maybe those are on hold during this time. Instead, there were posters of past exhibits.
Here I also saw the only people wearing hazmat suits during this whole trip.
Here’s the entrance to the open lounge.
Christmas decorations are up!
All of the food now is served at the bar.
You walk up to the bar in specific areas, designated by ropes, and you can select any number of snacks for the attendant to hand to you. There were Fritos, Wheat Thins, sweet potato tortilla chips, Oreos, Lays potato chips, Chips Ahoy, crunchy and chewy Nature Valley granola bars, mixed nuts, vanilla Chobani, salsa, nacho sauce, cup noodles, different kinds of cereal, apples, and bananas. Though everything besides the fruit was packaged, I think there were actually more to choose from than the usual selection!
I chose the sweet potato tortilla chips, salsa (which came out of a fridge), and the chewy chocolate chip granola bar. Next to the bar is an area with drinks, including tea, coffee, and water. When I asked for water, the attendant offered two bottles.
There was a fair number of people in the lounge, such that I felt safest taking off my mask and eating the chips and salsa in the area with tall tables and chairs, separated from the rest of the seating area by a partition.
I ate as quick as I could, and then proceeded to the international terminal. I passed the sadly-closed Polaris lounge. I was actually eligible to enter this trip! Oh well, I didn’t have a lot of time anyway.
Finally, I arrived at the gate for the next leg of my journey, the transpacific sector.
