Booking the Trip: 5,336 Miles of Flying to Nowhere
Review: United Airlines Embraer ERJ175 First Class Los Angeles to Seattle
Review: Delta Sky Club Seattle Concourse A
Review: Delta Airlines 737-900ER Main Cabin Seattle to Detroit
Review: Delta Airlines CRJ-400 Main Cabin Detroit to Houston
Review: United Club Lounge Houston Terminal E
Review: United Club Lounge Houston Terminal C (North)
Review: United Airlines 787-9 First Class Houston to Los Angeles
YOUTUBE: United Airlines: Los Angeles to Seattle
YOUTUBE: Delta Airlines: Seattle to Detroit
YOUTUBE: Delta Airlines: Detroit to Houston
YOUTUBE: United Airlines: Houston to Los Angeles
After getting off my flight from Detroit, I made my way over to Terminal E to use the United Club there. This lounge can be accessed by having a club membership, purchasing a single day pass, traveling internationally in first and business class on a star alliance carrier, or being Star Alliance Gold through any program EXCEPT United’s frequent flyer program. Even though I am Star gold, I cannot access any UA clubs because my status is through UA’s program. So I purchased a day pass online prior to my travel and used it then. What you need to know about the day pass is that from the day you activated it, you can visit as many of an airport’s club locations you would like. For instance, on a single day pass, I visited this lounge and the newer lounge in Terminal C which I will review next.
Now onto the lounge review:
After walking from the train towards the signage showing signs guiding me to the lounge, I arrived at this nice blue door. Now the club lounge at Terminal E used to be the biggest in the system and probably the one with the most amenities. However many of the features were removed to make room for one of the neighboring United Polaris lounges, which are taking forever to be built.
Upon entering there is a desk with friendly agents to take your boarding pass and admit you to the lounge if you are eligible. Once that is done you go up the escalators and end up here at another desk:
This desk is kind of like a help desk if you need any questions answered, boarding passes printed, gate information, etc.
To the left and ahead of the desks are the bathrooms pictured below. This lounge used to have showers and private office cubicles which made it one of the best club lounges in the system. Sadly now it has lost both of them, crowding the lounge and making it a mediocre lounge.
Near the desk there is also a small food stand with different fruit and vegetable flavored waters. There are also fruits and small snack items like popcorn to go with the items.
Facing the snack stand above, if you turn around 180 degrees, you see this. This is one section of the lounge where there was seating. The tables to the left were mainly meant for eating and there were no power ports on the chairs. However, on the leather seats to the right, they all had power ports and USB ports as you can see in the photo below.
Below is the single seat that I found at the end of the hall.
Here were some other seats near mine which were available. This section of the lounge was not very crowded, however the section that you will see soon was extremely crowded.
Next to my seat there was a door. Going through that door takes you to this bar area (picture below) with high top seating and to the left is the main crowded area of the lounge where the actual food is (picture above).
Immediately to the left after passing through the door was this coffee stand with coffee makers and other amenities (I think?? Not much of a coffee person so not sure).
This part of the lounge was fairly crowded with nearly every seat taken. I was definitely glad that my side was a lot quieter.
Now this part is the main food in the lounge.
First there was a variety of breads, cookies, brownies, and crackers along with butter.
Then there was another stand with veggie cups and also Salami & Mozzarella cheese with a pesto sauce base and that was fairly good.
And then we come to the dreaded cheese cubes of sadness that is there in AA and UA clubs. I love cheese and so do a lot of people, but the cheese is not nearly as high quality as you’d like it to be.
Lastly, there was this section with corn, salsa cucumbers, shredded carrots, and some salad leaves. The food section is a big improvement from the last time I visited a club lounge but is still seriously lagging behind the competition. The Delta SkyClub that I had visited the night prior completely blows this lounge out of the water and there is no competition. Unfortunately, this lounge was one of the best in United’s system. However, with the removal of the showers and cubicles, this lounge is just another average to mediocre united club lounge. United is moving in the right direction with some of its redone lounges, but they still have many ways to go with this one even though it is older.