Originally Posted by
cricketer
I'm what's considered a UA apologist around these parts. I liked the 2-4-2 IPTE because the bed was fabulous to sleep on. I even prefer the 2-2-2- to Polaris for the same reason. This has been discussed to death elsewhere.
But I'm currently booking any paid or upgraded business class travel on other airlines. My single consideration really is the sleep. I wish everyone had an Apex business class seat, but absent that, it's so nice to sleep on the TK 777 (sorry
MarkyMarc I'm the opposite of you here) and the LH J seats. No knee bumping issues to keep waking me up. But even then, Polaris with a bulkhead was my preference pre-pandemic. Slightly worse bed, but not terrible, and the privacy plus a decent mail plus the lifetime miles made it worthwhile. Now it's a no-brainer. TK or LH all the way for me. NH if I go the other direction. And on LH, occasionally I have a fare that will allow the possibility of an upgrade to F. There's just no reason to fly UA, and I've abandoned my 3MM goal as a result. Better sleep, better meals. Game over.
UA either needs to find the best bed in the sky, or the best soft-product. Both is good, but neither isn't viable in the long term.
I remember when IPTE launched--it was several international flights until I got a plane that had it and I was so excited. I too liked it, then. The big draw back for me was being in the middle of the 4 seats. There was nothing between the seats like the console to prevent someone from kicking you. I slept next to a kicker on a flight from HKG to ORD and think I may have slept for an hour the whole flight. After that, I really tried to get on the 2 seat side or the aisle of the 4 seats. I also did not like that all baggage had to be in the overhead bins for take off and landing. But, having a horizontal lie flat was awesome. It beat Singapore and Thai Airways angle lie flat seats by a mile.