United Club Lounge — Local services in Los Angeles

Best United Club at any USA airport by far. This lounge was recently renovated and as such it is spacious and offers plenty of seating areas for relaxing, eating, and working. It has everything one might expect and want from a lounge except for showers, as well as the typical United Club amenities.

For food and beverage, again, everything you would expect is here, including a full service bar, self service coffee, espresso/latte/americano, and soda.

What makes this location special is they are experimenting with real, substantial, and tasty food options for lunch/dinner, unlike every other United Club which is limited to crackers, party mix etc. When I visited they had Korean Beef tacos, udon noodles, and miso soup, all of which had toppings and condiments. I enjoyed each, although I wish the tacos had sour cream or something similar. They also had lemon squares at the dessert spread which are a particular favorite of mine.

Everything else is standard and almost identical to any other Club (travel assistance, phone rooms, bathrooms, fast wifi, bar). Only other difference is that they only stock the WSJ as a newspaper selection, other Clubs usually have more to choose from, this may be a recent change.

The value proposition for the United Club depends on what kind of traveller you are. Access restrictions to the United Club are incredibly complicated; the last portion of this review is a guide of who can get in and when. TL;DR, if you're not a frequent flier it likely isn't worth it at 59 USD per person. If you are a United Premier member, or fly in premium cabins and are curious about access, read on.

You must be flying on a ticket marketed as United Business for club access to be included, which basically means premium cabin flying internationally. As with the other big US airlines domestic first class does NOT include club access, with the exception of "premium service" routes (LAX-EWR being the relevant one here, where the premium cabin is sold as United Business).

If you're looking for free access, you must be a United Premier Gold, Platinum, 1K, or Global Service member travelling internationally. Star Alliance Gold members from any non-United Airlines loyalty program are allowed on both domestic and international flights. Otherwise membership is 550 USD (500 for Premier Platinum, 450 for Premier 1K) plus 50 USD "initiation" fee , or 59 USD per traveller per visit. Alternatively there is a credit card with a 450 USD annual fee which grants United Club membership.

If you have free access then this is a no brainer lounge choice for travel out of LAX. The general Star Alliance lounge, while nice, is much too far to be convenient for any domestic United flight.

Membership only seems worth it if you fly domestically about once every couple of weeks at the minimum, or if you fly many connecting itineraries with long layovers.

Otherwise at 59 USD per person I would slum it in the terminal unless there was a delay or cancellation necessitating a stay of over 5 hours. At the end of the day it's a place to sit with light food, drinks, and wifi, not some kind of paradise. Bear in mind that one time passes are not accepted when it is too busy so it's a good idea to head there early if many flights are delayed or cancelled. This includes the passes from the United...

In my continuing review of United Club Lounges, I'm reviewing the LAX lounge in terminal B. First problem is that a number of the machines (coffee and Soda are down) it is currently not busy here, but I can see this being a problem if the traffic picks up. Area is large and open, same basic furniture as the rest of the lounges. Small two seat tables to sit at and eat, leather chairs with side table and power and USB ports (don't use the USB ports always use a brick), the high top large tables with charging for the laptop workers, and a few of the high back, dark blue lounge chair clusters. All in all it is open and not crowded. There is one main buffet area with (at lunch) sandwiches, soups, salad, cookies, and fruit. The sandwiches were a sub like roll, but were lots of bread and a bit firm. Filling was tasty, a turkey breast, cheese and banana peppers. Cookies were very good though I doubt made here. I was on a forced 5 hour layover due to mechanical problems in Houston, so I was able to meet the bar staff Miguel and Jessica. Both very nice and took good care of everyone. Overall cleanup in the seating areas is not as good. I can see several side tables with rubbish and no sign of occupancy. Houston was much better in this respect. There are a couple of other stations with water and coffee and one has some cold cereal in it. Restrooms are well kept up. There is a nice terrace area for sitting outside. No other interesting amenities that I have noticed. Update: nice BBQ and chili today, also noticed some of the tables near the bar have power ports in the center. One of them wasn't popping up, but was fixed on my return trip. LAX dock strikes seemed to have put a dent in the beer deliveries as some of them were...

I am glad I used my one time club pass to experience this lounge to know that I would never use money to pay for the experience. The only positive side about this lounge is the huge space. Here are the negatives:

The place is filthy especially between the cracks and crevices of the lounge chair and tables on the ground. There's a lady who is constantly mopping the floor but she only mops around the food area because she wants to socialize with another lady who is replenishing food in the buffet area. The food was Holiday Inn free breakfast 'buffet' style. The food quality was poor, the 'bacon' tastes like impossible bacon. The eggs tasted like microwaved eggs. The area for the 'buffet' is so tiny compared to the huge lounge space so there's a constant line to get 'food'. The only space to get water (water that's not mixed with fruits) is in the food section so it is hard to obtain water through the line of people.

Do better United. Go to the Delta Lounge to study how they run their operation. Observe the food placement, increase your 'buffet' table location across the lounge. Improve your food quality. Delta has an Omelette Station, Taco bar, Scrambled Eggs with Creme Fraiche, Mozzarella Pesto Egg Bites, salad and fruit bar, etc...

Your customers don't deserve low grade food and...