Lounge Review: United Global First Lounge SFO
***This is part 2 of my “Big Fat Indian Wedding” trip report detailing a recent trip to Singapore and India***
1. Introduction
2. United Global First Lounge at SFO
3. Singapore Airlines Krisflyer Lounge at SFO
4. Singapore Airlines First Class San Francisco to Seoul
5. Singapore Airlines First Class Seoul to Singapore
6. Conrad Singapore
7. Eating Singapore Part 1 – Flowers, Supertrees, and a River Safari
8. Eating Singapore Part 2 – Hawker Stands, Chili Crab, and Kouign Amanns
9. Dinner At Singapore’s Best Restaurant, Restaurant Andre
10. Premier Lounge at SIN, SilkAir Economy Class to Hyderabad
11. Part Hyatt Hyderabad
12. Exploring Hyderabad
13. Etihad Airways Business Class Hyderabad to Abu Dhabi
14. Etihad Premium Lounge at AUH
15. Etihad Airways (Jet Airways Config “Jetihad”) First Class Abu Dhabi to San Francisco
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The best lounge option for Star Alliance First Class passengers is the United Global First Lounge, located between gates 98 and 100 in International Terminal G. While I still consider the Emirates Lounge to be the best lounge at SFO, this one is probably tied with the American Express Centurion Lounge for a distant second.
After entering, you head downstairs and past a deserted help desk and into the lounge.
There’s definitely an Asian theme with the decor, evidenced by the mini dragon statues all over the place.
And the wall art.
The majority of Star Alliance flights out of Terminal G are huddled around the same early afternoon time frame, so the lounge can actually get quite busy during this time. Fortunately, as busy as it might get in here, it’ll never match the chaos that you’d find at a normal United Club.
We spotted a couple of open seats along the wall and cozied up against a large planter.
The lunch-time food offering here was decent, but nothing to skip a proper meal for. The selection was heavy on the carbs, including a mix of breads, pastries, sandwiches, and pasta.
There was a salad bar as well which included some fruits and cheeses as well as mediocre sushi similar to what you’d find at a gas station.
While it’s not the most appetizing picture, my favorite thing to eat here was from the selection of cold meats, which included teriyaki chicken skewers, smoked salmon, seared beef, and smoked duck.
There was a self-service bar with a pretty impressive selection of booze.
And a great selection of beer and wine to help wash down all those carbs.
With plans to consume several large meals on-board my flight, I exercised a bit of restraint and had a couple plates that looked like this.
Because security had taken much longer than usual, we only had about 30 minutes to hang around before heading over to the gate for boarding. The plantation shutters made for an interesting view of the tarmac and this United 747 headed to London.
Overall this is one of the nicer lounges at SFO, but at the end of the day is still a domestic US lounge, so make sure to set your expectations accordingly.