United Club at ORD Gate B6, The Big O’Hare Flagship at the Top of the Escalator

Main seating area at the United Club at ORD Gate B6 with the signature starburst chandeliers overhead, the food counter on the left, and historical United airplane photography on the wall.

Chicago O’Hare · Terminal 1, Concourse B, Gate B6 · Family Travel + Solo Work Trips · United Club Card / Star Alliance Gold

Chicago O’Hare has two United Clubs in Concourse B. The smaller one sits deeper in the concourse near Gate B18. The bigger one is at the entryway end, up the escalator, near Gate B6. This is the bigger one, and it is the United Club at ORD that I would actually call a flagship. If your gate is anywhere in Terminal 1 and you have time, the walk to B6 is worth it.

Exterior view of the United Club at ORD Gate B6 from the concourse below, with the black-and-white checkerboard floor in the foreground and the United Club entrance flanked by structural braces.
The entrance to the United Club at ORD Gate B6, up the escalator from the checkerboard floor of Concourse B.

This article is not sponsored. I paid for my own United Club Card and tipped my own bartender. Nobody at the club knew I was coming.

First Impressions: Up the Escalator and the Starbursts Are Right There

The first thing you notice walking into the United Club at Gate B6 is the ceiling. The signature starburst chandeliers run across the main floor and there are skylights cut between them, so the room is bright in a way most United Clubs are not. Blue glass divider walls and white marble countertops do most of the rest of the work. It feels like a flagship, even by the standards of the newer clubs in the network.

Reception at the United Club at ORD Gate B6 with the United logo on the back wall and four illuminated frosted-glass check-in podiums in front.
Reception at B6 with four illuminated frosted-glass check-in podiums and the United wordmark on the back wall.
Main seating area at the United Club at ORD Gate B6 with the signature starburst chandeliers overhead, the food counter on the left, and historical United airplane photography on the wall.
The signature starburst chandeliers and the main seating zone at the United Club at ORD B6.

The Layout: Multiple Zones for Different Travel Modes

What makes B6 actually useful, beyond the design, is that it is large enough to give you different rooms for different things. There is a long stretch of marble communal high-tops if you need to plug in and work. There are clusters of low-back swivel chairs and side tables under historical United airplane photography for the relax-before-the-flight mode. There is a quieter zone deeper in the lounge with leather chairs under the skylights. You can find your spot.

Marble communal high-tops at the United Club at ORD Gate B6, with travelers working on laptops under the skylit ceiling.
Marble communal high-tops at B6. Plug in, get an hour of work done, watch the daylight come through the skylights.
Seating cluster at the United Club at ORD Gate B6 with low-back swivel chairs, side tables, and three black-and-white historical United airplane photographs on the back wall.
Lower-back swivel chairs and historical airplane photography in one of the seating zones at B6.
Wide view of the seating at the United Club at ORD Gate B6 under the skylit ceiling, with starburst chandeliers, leather chairs, and travelers working at small round tables.
A quieter pocket of leather chairs further into the lounge. The skylights and chandeliers carry through.

The Food: Real Hot Food, Not Just a Snack Counter

The food at B6 is the strongest of the United Clubs at O’Hare, and it is the closest in feel to what you get at a really well-run domestic United Club like Newark Terminal A. There is a hot food station with rotating dishes (we caught penne pasta with chicken on one side and seasoned green beans on the other), a station of mini personal flatbreads with sliced baguette and condiments, a salad bar with grain salads and Greek-style options, and a real dessert counter with cookies and Oreo cookie bars. Plus a coffee bank and a Coca-Cola Freestyle. It adds up to something you can actually call a meal.

Two cast-iron skillets of hot food, penne pasta with chicken on the left and seasoned green beans on the right, on the warming plate at the United Club at ORD Gate B6.
Hot food trays at B6. Penne pasta with chicken on the left, seasoned green beans on the right.
Hot food station at the United Club at ORD Gate B6 with mini personal flatbreads, sliced baguette, and a tray of mayonnaise, mustard, and Tabasco sauce.
Mini personal flatbreads, sliced baguette, and the condiment tray (mayo, mustard, Tabasco) at B6.
Salad bar at the United Club at ORD Gate B6 with mixed greens, two grain salads, a Greek-style salad, and a yogurt or feta-and-olive option in white serving dishes.
Salad bar at B6. Grain salads, mixed greens, a Greek-style option, plus what looked like a feta and olive plate.
Plates of oatmeal raisin cookies and Oreo cookie bars on the dessert counter at the United Club at ORD Gate B6.
Cookies and Oreo cookie bars at the dessert counter. The cookie bars were better than they had any right to be.

Coffee, Coca-Cola, and the Snack Wall

The coffee setup is a row of four Illy dispensers (decaf, regular, intenso, hot water) plus twin automatic espresso machines on the marble counter. There is a Coca-Cola Freestyle right next to the espresso, which is the kind of detail that earns family points fast. There is also a snack wall with Twinings tea, jars of mixed snacks (those crunchy mixed peas, plantain chips, corn nuts), and baskets of Lay’s chips.

Bank of four Illy coffee dispensers at the United Club at ORD Gate B6, marked decaf, regular, intenso, and hot water, with a tower of branded paper cups on the left.
The Illy coffee dispensers at B6. Decaf, regular, intenso, and hot water across one stretch of marble.
Coca-Cola Freestyle machine and twin automatic espresso machines on the marble counter at the United Club at ORD Gate B6.
Coca-Cola Freestyle and twin automatic espresso machines on the marble counter at B6.
Snack station at the United Club at ORD Gate B6 with Twinings tea, coffee thermoses, baskets of Lay's chips, and three apothecary jars of mixed snacks.
Snack station at B6. Twinings tea, jars of mixed snacks, and baskets of Lay’s chips.

The Bar: A Real Cocktail Under the Starbursts

The bar at B6 is fully stocked, the bartender actually mixes the drink, and the room around it has the starburst chandeliers carrying right over your head while you wait. It is one of the few United Clubs where I would order a Bloody Mary and not regret it.

Bartender at the bar at the United Club at ORD Gate B6 making a Bloody Mary, with bottles of Svedka and other spirits on the back wall and the starburst chandeliers behind.
Bartender at B6 mixing a Bloody Mary with Svedka behind, starburst chandeliers carrying over the bar.

PRO TIP: The window-facing seats and the long communal high-top fill up first during peak afternoon connection windows. If you want either, get there a little early.

Phone Rooms and Workspace

If you have to take a real call, B6 has a hallway of glass-walled phone rooms. Each one is enclosed, has a small writing surface and a task chair, and is genuinely private in a way the open call pods at most clubs are not. The communal high-top in the back is the work-from-the-airport option if you do not need that level of privacy.

Hallway of glass-walled phone rooms at the United Club at ORD Gate B6, each clearly labeled PHONE ROOM and outfitted with a desk and task chair.
Hallway of glass-walled phone rooms at B6. Real privacy for a real call.
A long marble communal high-top at the United Club at ORD Gate B6 with metal stools and the blue glass divider wall in the background.
The long communal high-top at B6 with metal stools and the blue glass divider wall behind.

The Honest Take: Almost Everything Except a Shower

The only real gap at B6 is showers. There are no shower suites at this lounge, and there are no shower suites at any of the regular United Clubs at ORD. If a shower is what you need before a long-haul, you are looking at the Polaris Lounge instead. For everything else (food, coffee, cocktails, real workspace, real privacy, real seating, a Coca-Cola Freestyle for the kids), B6 has it.

My Verdict

If you are flying United out of O’Hare and your gate is anywhere in Terminal 1, this is the one I would walk to right after Concourse C. Newest design, real food, real bar, real phone rooms, real seating variety. Out of all five regular United Clubs at ORD, B6 is my number two behind Concourse C, and the gap is small. For families with a longer layover at O’Hare, B6 is the one I would plan around.

The kids have used both B lounges at ORD. Out of the two, the bigger one is the better experience, and it is not particularly close.

Where This Sits in the ORD Network

Want the full guide? My Every United Club at O’Hare guide ranks all five regular United Clubs and threads in the Polaris Lounge as a future visit. The smaller B lounge near Gate B18 has its own review at United Club at ORD B18, and the family favorite at Concourse C lives at United Club at ORD Concourse C.

If you are finding this useful for your travel planning, I would actually appreciate a subscribe over on YouTube. I have not filmed inside B6 yet, but it is on the list, and the rest of the United Clubs at ORD are already up. I keep filming honest family-travel reviews from lounges, hotels, and cruises around the world.

What lounge should I review next? Drop your suggestions in the comments.

My United Lounges playlist on YouTube has every walkthrough I have filmed across the network.

#Airport Lounge #Chicago ORD #Cocktails #Concourse B #Family Travel #frequent-flyer #Gate B6 #Layover #Star Alliance #Terminal 1 #United Airlines #United Club

Alex Ostrovsky

Alex Ostrovsky is a frequent flyer, family man, and creator of Travel and Food Guy. Based in the Chicago suburbs, he travels the world with his wife Vika and their kids Josh and Emily, reviewing cruises, airline lounges, hotels, and restaurants from a real family traveler's point of view.

1 comment

  1. I use this club all the time, it’s one of my favorites, if only it had runway views then it would be a 10/10 in my book.

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