United Airlines is reportedly spending $50 million this year to renovate and refresh many of its United Club locations, and I had the chance to visit the recently redone Denver West location yesterday.

Basically what they’ve done is swapped out the seating for new chairs, tables and counters identical to what’s in the newest club location at Chicago O’Hare’s Terminal 2 (F-concourse).

[My apologies for the poor quality iPhone images – the lounge was rather busy and I was trying to be as discreet as possible.]

United Club Denver West - Seating Area

United Club Denver West - 'Short' Tables

United’s clubs in Denver are known for their lack of power outlets and you’ll still have a hard time finding them if you’re seated in the new leather chairs. But they have at least added counters along the windows with outlets, as well as included plugs underneath some of the tabletops.

United Club Denver West - Window-side Counters

United Club Denver West - Seating

United Club Denver West - 'Hidden' Plugs Under Some Tabletops

The Denver East location has yet to receive the refresh and sports the same old worn furniture with highly limited access to power outlets. The view, however, remains one of the best features of either club.

United Club Denver West - View

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No, this isn’t an April Fools joke. In case you missed it from UA Insider on MilePoint or Flyertalk, United announced on Saturday that the United Club in Philadelphia is closed temporarily:

Hi Everyone,

I wanted to give you a heads up that we have temporarily closed the United Club at PHL, due to ventilation issues possibly associated with an airport roofing project that is underway in the vicinity. Although we’re still working to identify the precise cause(s) and mitigate appropriately, for now we’re erring on the side of safety and caution for both our co-workers and customers.

As you probably know, United Club members and eligible Star Alliance Gold members (i.e. traveling on int’l itineraries) may use the US Airways Club(s) at PHL as an alternative to the United Club while we work to re-open.

Aaron Goldberg
Sr. Manager – Customer Experience Planning
United Airlines

So far there’s no ETA for it reopening. And the closure has nothing to do with the restrooms in the club having been out-of-service for some time, as Matthew previously reported. But UA Insider noted yesterday that they should reopen by May 1, 2013.

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After a brief visit to the ANA Suite Lounge at Tokyo Narita Airport last month, I headed over to the more spacious and serene United Global First Class lounge.

Entry to the lounge is via an elevator just inside the reception area to the United Club in Terminal 1. After an agent checked my boarding pass upon exiting the elevator, I situated myself alongside the windows.

Global First Lounge Seating

Global First Lounge Seating

The lounge hasn’t been updated in years, but aside from the well-worn leather chairs, I think it’s still a pretty comfortable lounge – except for the temperature. It always seems to be too warm and although electronic screens are lowered as the sun beats through the windows, it rarely cools down.

The buffet area doesn’t offer anything spectacular in terms of food with only marginally better nibbles than the club downstairs, including sushi and pork dim sum. All beverages are self-serve with chilled glasses available in the refrigerator.

Dining and Buffet Area

Buffet

Buffet and Beverages

A selection of newspapers and magazines are available in the hallway near the bathrooms, and around the corner are business center cubicles, massage chairs and Panasonic Note stations.

Hallway

Massage Chairs

Massage Chair

Panasonic Note Station

The shower rooms are also rather warm, but thankfully include multi-speed fans. Individual bottles of Plegaria shampoo, conditioner, body wash and lotion are provided. (Read more: United Airlines Global First Shower Room Amenities)

Shower Room Key

Shower Room

Shower Room

The main reason I like this lounge is because it rarely fills up and it remains very quiet. And when the runway parallel to the windows is in use, it affords pretty decent #avgeek views.

Departures Monitor

Singapore Airlines A380

The Global First lounge in San Francisco remains my favorite, followed by Los Angeles, Hong Kong (primarily for the food) and Tokyo. My best advice is to hit the ANA Suite Lounge for the food, then relax in the Global First lounge before heading to your United flight.

Related posts:

Lounge Review: ANA Suite Lounge Tokyo Narita Airport – Terminal 1, Satellite 4

Flight Review: United Airlines Global First Class, San Francisco to Tokyo Narita

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Cathay Pacific today announced the completion of their renovations to The Wing First Class Lounge at Hong Kong International Airport. I visited when renovations began in 2010 and offered a review in this post. They’ve certainly spruced things up by the looks of it.

First class, oneworld Emerald and Diamond Marco Polo guests are now greeted upon entry and treated to a drink at The Champagne Bar before heading into the main part of the lounge.

The Wing First Class Lounge Hong Kong

The furniture in the main seating area has been replaced (thankfully from the worn and tired offering when I visited), but do I see limited end tables and other laptop friendly fixtures?

The Wing First Class Lounge Hong Kong Seating

That could, of course, be negated by the generous amount of work desks and a separate business center I used during my visit in 2010, though I tend to enjoy staying put on a comfy chair or sofa. I wonder if power outlets have increased in the more loungy area?

The Haven – a first class buffet and dining area – has doubled in size, a noted improvement from my visit when tables filled to capacity rather quickly. And food options have reportedly improved with a reinvented à la carte menu complemented by recommended wine pairings.

The Haven Dining Area

Most improved by the looks of it is The Cabana – five individual rooms providing a shower, separate bathtub and day bed. I’m not certain if they’ve enclosed them fully as when I visited, the “back porch” where the day beds were previously located sat out on a communal area between the five. There were screens/walls stretching out into the rocky area separating each adjacent cabana (without fully enclosing them) and sound was an issue.

The Cabana at The Wing

Overall, it looks great and definitely more first class than the ANA Suite Lounge at Narita I reviewed yesterday.

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I visited United’s Global First Class lounges in Tokyo and San Francisco on my mileage run last week and I took advantage of the shower rooms offered in each in hopes of adding to my amenity kit collection.

Truth be told, I had freshly showered at my hotel in Tokyo before arriving at the airport, but I was keen to see if the former Murad kits had been swapped out for newer ones since my last visit in 2010. Sadly, there was no wrapped kit, but instead individual bottles of Plegaria shampoo, conditioner, body wash and lotion, along with a toothbrush, toothpaste and comb.

United Airlines Global First Shower Room Amenities in Tokyo

I did end up taking a shower (why not?!), but didn’t use the delicious smelling Plegaria products as I wanted to save them for my collection. And my Google search skills must be failing as I can’t seem to find Plegaria products online. The English part of the blurb on the bottles note they’re made in Thailand. I’d love to order retail-size versions.

On my arrival in San Francisco, I skipped the Arrivals Lounge that’s on the lower level after exiting customs having been there before and being unimpressed with the food offerings. In retrospect, I should have visited just to see if anything had changed, as well as pick up more amenities. Ah well… I’m a bad blogger. Instead, I re-cleared security immediately and headed to the Global First lounge.

Here, I definitely wanted a shower and after a quick nosh, I asked to use one of the two shower rooms available to passengers. Towels and an amenity kit were promptly provided.

United Airlines Global First Lounge Shower Amenity Kit SFO

The zipper bag itself isn’t really anything special or luxe, but I’m happy to have received one. Inside an internal plastic pouch are small tubes of conditioning shampoo, body wash, facial cleanser, shaving cream, body lotion and facial moisturizer. They’re not branded, but are remarkably similar in appearance and scent of the previous Murad offerings.

United Global First Lounge Shower Kit Contents

Also included with the kit: a small circular stick of deodorant, razor, Colgate toothpaste, toothbrush (identical to the one found in the Global First amenity kit) and a folding brush/comb. I do quite like the individual amenities as opposed to mass-use versions found in other shower rooms, usually in business class lounges.

I’ll have a detailed lounge review of the Tokyo location coming up shortly here on Frequently Flying, as well as a look at the ANA Suite Lounge and a San Francisco to Tokyo flight review in Global First.

Related posts:

The Reality Check That Is United Airlines Global First Class

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Amenity Kit Reviews

I plan to bring back this once-regular post here on Frequently Flying as I’m sure I’m not the only one who enjoys a quick snippet of notable airline, hotel and travel industry news of the day. It’ll be back as often as possible pending work, travel and other distractions. As advance notice, I’ll be flying 22,000 miles over the course of six days next week without Wi-Fi, so posting might be light.

• United Airlines and American Airlines have been accused of running sham operations in a rural Illinois city where satellite offices for each airline “process” jet fuel purchases for use at O’Hare and other Midwest locations. Doing so there saves the airlines millions of dollars by skirting Chicago’s hefty taxes. I blogged about this in 2011 and a lawsuit has now been apparently filed.
• Hilton Hotels launched a spoofy Vacation Care Center website where users can diagnose their vacation needs based on workplace and other stressors. It’s a fun concept, but I think they fail by adding in a section that requires you to enter your name, address and email to get your “prescription.” Why not just make it a fun quiz-like thing with an immediate Rx without requiring personal information? Yeah, I know why. Sigh.
• New rental car service Silvercar offers only Audi A4s for renters at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport. It’s a niche concept with techy features some travelers may like.
• The Australian Open began (I’m a huge tennis fan) and you can now book Venus Williams-designed suites at the InterContinental Hotel Miami. The two presidential suites her V Starr firm were involved with are a part of the property’s $30 million renovation.
• A new Star Alliance lounge at Buenos Aires airport opened. The 24-hour location offers the usual amenities (for an international lounge), including hot and cold snacks, Wi-Fi and shower facilities.
• The first of American’s 42 Boeing 787s are now slated for delivery in November 2014, having been moved up through an accelerated delivery schedule agreed upon by American and Boeing.