SuperFlyBoy

Yup! We were going to fly this as an award (for backup) in case our upgrades on UA49 didn't clear (and they didn't), but the representative made me cancel this award ticket (involving your flight) because the system was showing a double-booking and said that the system would auto-cancel both!

So when I was checking again, saw that there were Polaris seats - mostly all window ones....I think you even missed Row 9 - an awesome seat!

Silver Fox

watchitlikeahawk. It's an absolute PITA at the moment.

wco81

Cripes they changed it back!

So only on Sunday afternoon it was a 1-2-1 Polaris cabin.

Now it's back to 2-4-2 and I can't change seats. I went from a middle aisle on the original 2-4-2 to a window on the 1-2-1 yesterday and now I'm stuck in the middle interior.

No other seats available.

Maybe the 1-2-1 was never a real thing or they decided to deploy it for another flight.

kirkwoodj

StuckinITH

The one thing I know is that there are some passengers in Business Class that change their plans and some passengers miss their connection so keep checking. Ask at the Polaris Lounge and also at the gate.

wco81

Are there more or fewer seats in the 772 Polaris cabin vs. the old 2-4-2 cabin?

I would have assumed more in the 1-2-1 Polaris, if it's true that they deploy it more in the high season months of late spring through fall and revert to the old 2-4-2 for the winter months.

StuckinITH

The 2-4-2 772 has 48 seats (40 seats in the section with 2-4-2 and 8 in the former First Class in a 1-2-1 configuration). The polarized version of the 772 has 50 seats.

And, no, it has nothing to do with the season. It has to do with how many have been Polarized.

wco81

Eh so not much of an economic incentive for UA.

If they can keep selling seats on those 2-4-2 flights, why upgrade the seats?

In my case, I bought this on sale last summer and it was originally SFO-IAH-LHR (forget the planes) but there was a flight cancellation or change there and they opened up space on the nonstop.

StuckinITH

For some reason, I think that you are not aware of the news. All the pmUA 772s are being converted to the Polarized version. I would say that we are close to 50% of the planes already converted or in the process.

Edit: it seems that 20 are converted, 3 in the process and 10 not converted yet.

wco81

I know, but why do they bother from their POV?

They still sell those seats.

jsloan

Anybody can sell seats. The question is how profitably they can do so.

UA clearly believes that either (a) they will be able to charge a higher premium than their competition for these seats, or (b) that they are currently having to discount the old seats. Either way, they're not spending hundreds of millions of dollars on capital expenditures because they're nice.

roger.that

I don't think they're actually selling those all too well. There are some flights, especially popular routes e.g. EWR-SFO, where I notice 2-4-2 is instantly gone. On many other routes, esp long haul intl, I've seen them confirm like 18/20 people on the waitlist.

Funnily enough I actually had one of my favorite UA flights recently from SFO-NRT, which was the new 1-2-1 polaris and about 30% of the seats were empty. I actually had an empty business seat next to mine to throw my charger/laptop/bag/shoes etc. Clearly there are tons of flights where United isn't selling out and the antiquated business seats aren't helping them at all

StuckinITH

Sorry I had misunderstood your question. Yes, they sell those seats on the pmUA 772. I am a willing buyer of those seats for my TPACs or TATLs if I can find a P fare since this is the only plane type offered from ORD to my usual destinations (without having to do an additional connection). I do find the seats comfortable. Naturally it helps that in the past two years, I had an aisle seat 13 out 14 times. The one time that I had a middle seat in the group of four I had been upgraded after boarding the plane. My wife who was upgraded 20 minutes later ended up in the aisle next to me. It would have been the opposite, I would have given her my aisle seat anyways.

In the past two years, I flew 4 segments in coach in the pmUA 772 on TPACs. I worry that the P fares will be higher on the Polarized 772 as I don't think that I could survive the 3-4-3 configuration in Economy.

ChiefNWA

Are there any dedicated 767 Polaris routes?

JOSECONLSCREW28