UA Polaris was a big mistake
 

I'm on a codeshare AKL-SFO in the new UA Polaris and boy was this the wrong move..... Service is far inferior to NZ, FAs talking loudly near my seat throughout the flight (so much for sleeping), awful food for J. More space than NZ J but altogether a waste of money. Never again!

Are you referring to the true Polaris 777 product? I would imagine they still have the old seats on AKL-SFO route. That aside, the bedding is nice though

[QUOTE=samuelmehr;29459317]I'm on a codeshare AKL-SFO in the new UA Polaris and boy was this the wrong move..... Service is far inferior to NZ, FAs talking loudly near my seat throughout the flight (so much for sleeping), awful food for J. More space than NZ J but altogether a waste of money. Never again

Totally agree. As a Melbourne based flyer all my US travel is on Air NZ. Im not a drinker so can't comment on the wine but the food for me on NZ is far superior to UA's. I also prefer the seat on NZ, although i do think that a new J seat will be needed soon to keep up with the likes of Qatar and a couple of others. And don't get me started on the constant flight attendant LOUD chat throughout the flight. There's a reason my employer pays for me to fly Business and it's so I can get good rest before hitting the ground running. I don't want to be kept awake with Galley Gossip !!

SFO-AKL was upgauged to 77W with the 'true' Polaris

Yea, even in full Polaris this has been a huge waste of money. The seat and bedding is the only superior thing to NZ, but not really that useful without good sleep! I got maybe 3 hours instead of my usual 7-8. :(

fyi, one silver lining is that arriving SFO in Polaris gives you access to the UA Arrivals Lounge on the way to T3 where there are showers. As far as I know there is no access in NZ J, whether NZ*E or otherwise.

But even so ... not gonna do this again!

[QUOTE=Flyerholic;29459435]Whereas I enthusiastically partake in an inflight tipple or two, and I can confirm that NZ's wines are FAR superior to those on UA as well. On a recent SFO-SYD flight in UA J, they completely neglected to load any champagne, instead we were served sub-$10 and disgustingly sweet Asti Spumante. Of course, the Flight Attendants didn't even notice - in fact when I very politely asked one of them to check the bottle because I had severe doubts that what she'd served me was champagne, she made me feel like I was somewhere between pampered and delusional (OK, that may also be true :) ) as she insisted "no sir, this is champagne". At least she had the grace to be embarrassed and apologetic when she realised the mistake...

UA Polaris *does* have nice bedding. But I still think NZ's BP seat with the memory foam topper is even more comfortable as a bed. I find it more comfortable for sleeping than any other flat bed biz product I've tried.

Completely agree.

i foolishly thought it sounded great and tried it a couple of weeks ago

Never again. The service was appalling and food almost indelible.

Disappointed.

I wrote UA a rather direct message detailing my complaints. We'll see if they do anything about it -- in the past they've sent a voucher when something has gone wrong, but never more than a couple hundred $, which pales in comparison to what I paid for this..... sigh

Yes, they will send you a voucher, but it is only good on United flights, not code shares with NZ. So you'll feel tempted to try the service again, and likely experience another failure. Then they'll send you another voucher and the cycle will start again. I've been in this mode for > 10 years. Get out while you can! :)

Right you are, but thankfully in my case I can actually use the vouchers for domestic UA flights in the states, which I need to fly often for work. Paid domestic first class tix + vouchers covering most of the cost = fantastic earn rate for NZ status points....

samuelmehr - As a UA 1K member, it is amusing to read a NZ flyer's impressions of UA's new "Polaris" flights. It confirms what most folk on the UA board feel - the hard product, the seat, is fine, but the soft product, the wine, food and FA service, is substandard. You will just have to restrict yourself to flying NZ J AKL-SFO. :)

I'd take NZ PE over it any day. Maybe even Y if there's an open seat next to me. (I can rarely justify actually paying for J, which is another reason I'm so annoyed about this!)

Although I have taken a pause in flying UA I do think the UA J service is ok. For the last decade I have been a UA 1K flyer. I would say that 98% of my flights were on Y fares but 98% of the time I flew in J

If truly you prefer NZ Y over UA J then I guess the choice is simple

The sweet spot for me for a lot of my commuting is an NZ PE fare or a Y fare with an APD upgrade. The service is just so much better than what I've experienced on UA that I'm OK with not having a lie-flat seat; PE is plenty comfy for me!