I had my first experience on Polaris SFO-PEK, and I was impressed at how well one of the FAs executed everything. The one FA made Polaris work in the upper deck while the other was mostly useless. The food was also decently good though the "asian fusion chicken soup" could have been done better as a thicker curry. After the lunch service I ended up starting the rush for gel pillows and PJs upstairs when I requested both after lunch. The gel pillow is as nice as advertised and I managed to get a few hours of sleep on the flight. Between the lunch service and the breakfast service (around lunch local time) the FAs both disappeared, though the good one would show up if the call button was pushed. This was my first flight on UA J and I like some of the noted changes, but IMHO the soft product still lags a bit, especially compared to OZ J and even CA domestic F.

And this is why we can't have nice things. People deciding to take reusable service items home with them.

How long before UA goes back to crappy generic duvets because people are taking the nice ones off the planes?

Worth mentioning the service guide specifically requests that you leave everything not in the amenity kit onboard (as if "don't steal service items" really needs to be explicit).

So I flew on a couple Polaris "enhanced" segments (SFO-SIN / HND-SFO) in the first couple weeks and here are my thoughts.

- The starter course is an improvement over the pre-Polaris starters.
- The entrees are a mixed bag. Yes it is nice to see some new entrees, but the end product seems to fall short. I inquired with the ISM and he blamed catering.
- There are a lot of desserts, which is a nice change, but my thought is maybe cater 2 great desserts vs. the ice cream and 4-6 mini items.
- The mid-flight snack of chicken rice bowl and soup/grilled cheese option is definitely an improvement. My only issue was that I believe the items had been sitting in the warmer as they came out within less than 2 minutes. NH which also has an extensive snack menu heats things up to order so they are fresh, and I am not sure if it is SOP on UA to have the stuff sit in the warmers for what could be hours.
- For the arrival service, it seems like they totally forgot about this as not much has really changed from pre-Polaris.
- The pajamas, gel pillow, and improved bedding is an improvement. The amenity kit is a bit bulky and doesn't promote reuse (i.e. Olympic tins).

As for flight specific issues on HND-SFO...The service took a LONG time. It was about 3 hours and 30 minutes after departure that the service finally finished.

United can spend all the money they want on the inflight product, but the big X factor is the crew. The FA working the aisle on my HND-SFO, really didn't seem interested in delivering the product. The whole side of the plane didn't get PDB except for 2 passengers. I know the stuff was catered as I saw the chocolates during boarding. After the meal service had ended I requested a mattress pad. This flight attendant said they were only catered for Global First. I then pressed the issue and said I flew Polaris Business last week (SFO-SIN) and they were readily available. The response I got was what I had on my seat was what was available.

So here is what was on my seat prior to departure.

https://photos.smugmug.com/photos/i-...-CBGtsQJ-M.jpg

When I woke up for the arrival service look at what mysteriously appeared between the seats.

https://photos.smugmug.com/photos/i-...-pjMXhvD-M.jpg

United has really hyped this Polaris product from the seats to all the improvements in catering, amenities, and lounges. I am not expecting the service one might expect on the highly lauded Asian carriers, but at the same time if you are going to hype this up as much as United, then they better deliver an improved product over the existing product. As consumers it's all about holding United accountable as if passengers just keep quiet about service lapses, then how can we expect them to get fixed.

As I deplaned I did bring up the issue with the mattress pad and lack of PDB with the ISM, and he mentioned to me that he has had issues with that particular FA on prior flights.

To you and to others with negative FA experiences, please WRITE IT UP. I submitted a Survey on the "You are one of our first Polaris" emails and got a personalized response from United that clearly reflected they took my feedback seriously and gave specific responses to my comments, not boiler plate verbiage.

My FA friends that work International also implored me to write things up, saying that those comments can and do make a difference.

I told the SO to ask the FAs kindly, and they obliged. Nobody stole anything, so it feels wrong (and slightly dirty) to be called a thief.

I guess the next time I'm given a free bottle of wine in F, or even few comped drinks in Y, I should decline it, because some people may label me a thief.!

You bet I wrote it up.

Of course not really their's (the FA's) to give away, obviously.

Flew yesterday FRA-EWR Polaris First and with the exception of check-in at FRA which was a real mess (and I'm super-spoiled by flying LH F out of FRA, but even without that impossible comparison, this was really bad,) enjoyed every aspect of the flight-- I was even tempted to steal one of the white duvets as well :D Food was very good.

FA, Warren, was absolutely amazing-- as good as almost any FA I've ever had. Overall I was pleased with the experience.

If you don't know the difference between drinking wine or cocktails and stealing blankets, there's no hope.

To be fair,

************************************************** **********

No stealing; permission was obtained. The request (which was granted) was decidedly gauche given the language clearly printed in the menu. I hope other FT'ers don't make this part of their "Polaris In-flight Experience", the topic of this thread, otherwise UA will start running out of blankets and the "Polaris In-flight Experience" will decline.

As someone else said, they are not the FA's to give away. I think it is dead wrong to take these off the planes, just as it's wrong to take headphones, cloth napkins, cutlery, etc.

Just arrived in Taipei on 781. It's my 3rd Polaris BF flight so I'm still adjusting. My biggest complaint is the breakfast eggs were not edible, the fruit on the other hand was much improved. I have been lucky to have been upstairs on 747's so storage of the seat full of amenities hasn't been a problem but it's a lot of stuff. No more Teddy Bears.

Flew LHR-IAH today, will post new menu & food plans can on other thread. I was pleased by our younger, smiling, attentive crew. ^^ (in contrast to many posts above)

It was gauche, I'll give you that. I don't think I've ever been in the FT hot seat, and damn is it hot! Can I do my best HRC debate "WHew" shimmy shimmy? I apologize to anyone I offended; I did not consider it stealing, and I certainly wouldn't want to put my partner on the receiving end of any sort of backlash from the crew if I had thought that's what the result would be.

I have/would never take headphones, cutlery, etc. I did bring up wine, because FAs do routineyly give away full bottles of wine, albeit not requested in an overt way from the receiving customer, mostly on p.s. . I always thought that was questionable.

You can rationalize anything, and looking back my thought was I have seen flyers take blankets all the time, in all cabins. I never thought about it until I saw the lovely picture of the white F blanket. Now it's tainted! Thanks FT! :p Perhaps I should arrange a give-back on my LHR F flight next month??? I'm actually serious.

I flew Polaris Bus SFO-PEK (12/31) and HKG-SFO (1/1). Nothing to write home about. Pretty much the same thing. I was going to ask for the PJs but just decided it was more of a PITA as the FAs had the usual UA attitudes. Both flights were the usual 747 long haul configurations.

The chocolate with the champagne when boarding was nice and being a wine lover, I liked the wine tasting option. That was kind of fun. The food was more or less the same as before...no major changes. The blankets/comforters/pillows seemed a bit nicer, but nothing worth getting excited about.

I didn't see any real changes in the service. In fact IMHO, its the service that is really going to differentiate the chaff from the wheat. UA needs to compete with Singapore Air, etc, if it wants to play in that sandbox. Based on thier appetite for cost-cutting, I won't hold my breath.