United hopes to open London Heathrow Polaris lounge by mid-2019

United Airlines is aiming to open its new Polaris business class lounge at London's Heathrow Airport by the middle of 2019.

Airline CEO  Oscar Munoz confirmed the tentative timetable, saying the upmarket lounge at Heathrow's Terminal 2 would lay out its welcome mat "hopefully the first half of the year."

London Heathrow's Polaris lounge will of course adopt the same design as its popular stateside cousins.

Read: From showers to sushi – designing United’s new Polaris lounges

“We’ve listened to our folks, the way the seating is arranged, whether it’s private seating, group seating, there’s dinner if you want to sit down for dinner, and buffets" Munoz tells trade outlet Buying Business Travel.

"When you walk in as a customer, you say 'this is special, I feel special, I want to come back.'"

The Polaris lounge will spring forth from the footprint of United's current Global First and United Club lounges at Heathrow's Terminal 2B satellite wing, with the total space also being carved up for a revamped United Club.

United is looking to "reconfigure" that space because the Polaris lounges are restricted to business class travellers, with even the airline's own top-tier MileagePlus Premier 1K frequent flyers denied entry if they're seated in economy or premium economy, and redirected instead to the United Club.

Speaking with Australian Business Traveller at the opening of the Polaris San Francisco lounge earlier this year, the airline's Director of Premium Services, Alexander Dorow, said the Polaris London Heathrow lounge will be “a very different experience again" to its US fore-bearers, "and bespoke to the market that we serve. Our international product won't be one-size-fits-all.”

David Flynn

David Flynn is the Editor-in-Chief of Executive Traveller and a bit of a travel tragic with a weakness for good coffee, shopping and lychee martinis.