Originally Posted by
UAEWR
I see that sometimes United uses planes with the Polaris hard product for short flights between EWR and ORD or between various other hubs. I would guess these are repositioning flights?
Like today, UA977 was operated with N792UA which is retrofitted with the Polaris hard product.
Any tricks to finding these flights without having to manually search and look at seat maps? Maybe a master list of all the planes with Polaris seats?
I UA Gold and would like to book an economy seat on one of these flights with the chance of an upgrade.
Thanks to anyone who responds! Please point me in the right direction if this has been discussed elsewhere. Happy New Year!
no real way to search, as UA doesn’t sell Polaris domestically. Sometimes, they send long-haul aircraft on domestic routes, but it’s still marketed as F. Even then, if you are looking for the new biz seats - aircraft are still in conversion, and so you luck out with what you get, which won’t be known until close to departure time. Sometimes, a swap happens even day of, so there’s no real way to tell, even when the seatmap shows it at booking.
Anything on a 77W only has the new seats. Everything other wisebody (IIRC) is really a gamble at this point, at best. PMCO 777, and 787s all have lie-flat, but none with the new hard product. All 752 also have lie-flat, but again, it’s the CO product that’s been flying for years.
Also note when these birds are running, note they are there for a reason - while attempting to upgrade one of these flights, note they are put there at peak times because the capacity is needed, and lots of people jump at the opportunity to book these flights, either paying for F or hoping for an upgrade. So they may have more F seats than domestic aircraft, but don’t mistake that to assume you’ll have a better chance of an upgrade. They are out there for positioning, yes, but also often because they need the capacity for those that need hub-hub connections. So you may find, for example, they are connecting with a lot of international flights, and there are likely more folks traveling on premium international fares who will already be booked in these seats.
You don’t mention a specific route you are looking for. I’d say if you are looking to book a flight specifically to upgrade with a CPU, then you are likely going to be disappointed. If you’re ok with that, then that’s fine. I’d say for me personally, if I was flying and noticed one of these on a reasonable route I might take to get where I’m going anywag. or on my own and know I could go a bit out of my way, and it wasnt too much higher a fare, then I’d go for it. If I was doing an end of year MR, and it made sense to try, then again, I would. But I would never book something like this for fun, expecting an upgrade -especially a CPU. If you want to try the seat, then either book directly into F when you see what you want, or with a paid upgrade with PZ space at booking. Otherwise, you’re just bound to be disappointed.