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Home » Lounge Reviews » New “Pop-Up” United Club in Newark Airport
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New “Pop-Up” United Club in Newark Airport

Matthew December 21, 2017 7 Comments

With ongoing construction on a new Polaris Lounge at Newark’s Liberty International Airport, United faced a critical overcrowding issue in its only other Terminal C United Club. The solution? A new “Pop-up” United Club near Gate C-124.

United’s lounge near C-74 is chronically overcrowded and far more so now that the main international lounge is under closed for renovation. To alleviate this overcrowding, United opened a “Pop-up” lounge near Gate C-124.

Although the club is temporary in nature and stuck in the corner of a busy concourse, United did a nice job of making it feel as enclosed as possible. The Pop-Up United Club has a real door and check-in desks like any other United Club.

Unfortunately, though, the lounge faces severe overcrowding issues. The pictures below were during a relatively “light” period in the middle afternoon before the evening bank of international departures to Europe. Even when I returned at 10pm for my delayed departure to Los Angeles, the lounge remained crowded and I had trouble finding a seat.

This “pop-up” club does not offer the full spread of food and alcohol that normal Untied Clubs offers. Instead, there is coffee, soft drinks, beer and wine–but no hard liquor. Instead of soups, salads, and other more substantial food items, there is only packaged snacks and whole fruit.

Wi-Fi works well, but the terminal also has its own relatively fast network.

CONCLUSION

Thus, I’d say this Pop-Up United Club is better than nothing but not anything you need to avail yourself too unless you run into an unexpected delay.

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About Author

Matthew

Matthew is an avid traveler who calls Los Angeles home. Each year he travels more than 200,000 miles by air and has visited more than 120 countries over the last decade. Working both in the aviation industry and as a travel consultant, Matthew has been featured in the New York Times, Chicago Tribune, Wall Street Journal, USA Today, BBC, Fox News, CNN, ABC, CBS, NBC, Al Jazeera, Toronto Star, and on NPR. Studying international relations, American government, and later obtaining a law degree, Matthew has a plethora of knowledge outside the travel industry that leads to a unique writing perspective. He has served in the United States Air Force, on Capitol Hill, and in the White House. His Live and Let's Fly blog shares the latest news in the airline industry, commentary on frequent flyer programs and promotions, and detailed reports of his worldwide travel. His writings on penandpassport.com offer more general musings on life from the eyes of a frequent traveler. He also founded awardexpert.com, a highly-personalized consulting service that aids clients in the effective use of their credit card points and frequent flyer miles. Clients range from retirees seeking to carefully use their nest egg of points to multinational corporations entrusting Matthew with the direction and coordination of company travel.

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7 Comments

  1. Jack Reply
    December 21, 2017 at 11:23 am

    Last time I was there they had self serve cans of soda. That was pretty awesome.

  2. Marissa Reply
    December 21, 2017 at 5:09 pm

    Thanks for the update Matthew. I don’t suppose we know when the Polaris club with open do we? Unless you have a late pm flight clubs are always overcrowded at Newark.

  3. UA-NYC Reply
    December 21, 2017 at 7:50 pm

    More insulting was United’s note basically saying “sorry, now go spend money with OTG!”

    They should comp every long haul C/F pax $20 at OTG In the interim.

    EWR supposedly ready next summer but given the glacial pace (esp compared to AA) I doubt it.

  4. Seat38A Reply
    December 22, 2017 at 1:56 pm

    Actually those items in the pop up United Club are exactly the items I wish some of the regular United Club’s offered.

    • Matthew Reply
      December 22, 2017 at 2:01 pm

      Question: is that because you like to take some items to go or you feel that these snacks are better than the soup/salad/bread/oatmeal/cereal offered in “regular” United Clubs?

      • Lior Reply
        December 30, 2017 at 2:40 pm

        While I didn’t make the original comment, I’ll can provide my angle: While I miss the showers in the old lounge I do like to have packaged food to take on board (at-least when I’m not upgraded). I would visit the C-74 lounge, have some salad, cheese and a cappuccino, and before boarding grab some snacks to go from the pop-up lounge. Personally as I can only eat Gluten-Free food, the fact that the packaged food has an ingredients list and is not cross-contaminated like the standard lounge where lovely passengers drop crumbs of crackers into the salad bowl, the packaged food is definitely a plus for me.

  5. Mike Reply
    December 23, 2017 at 7:00 pm

    I wish SFO International would do this! Their lounge is under renovations and they just put a sign in front saying “Come Back Next Summer” and we will have a new lounge. They do have a First Class Lounge (with a muscular attendant out front to make sure no unworthy patrons pass) but of no help to us dedicated (1K) passengers not in First. A “Pop-Up” or Temp lounge would be a show of appreciation by United to its loyal customers. Even if it occasionally was overcrowded at least something!!

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