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✨ Polaris (& PP) Retrofits: Schedule, ....

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Old May 29, 2017, 1:21 pm
FlyerTalk Forums Expert How-Tos and Guides
Last edit by: kirkwoodj
Check the current status of aircraft reconfigured (or delivered) with new Polaris seats: http://view.ceros.com/united/polaris...-desktop-4/p/3.

A Polaris Update and Polaris Mod Schedule to indicate the status of specific aircraft are maintained by those that manage the United Airlines Fleet Website.

Except for 773- and 781-operated flights, and those markets selling Premium Plus, Polaris-equipped planes have not been allocated to specific routes. You won't know until approx. 36-48 hours before departure if you'll have a newly reconfigured aircraft, and even then, it may be replaced with a non-retrofitted aircraft.

777-300ER - All 22 aircraft have Polaris (60 seats) and installation of Premium Plus cabins (24 seats) is complete.

767-300ER - As of September 2020, 31 of the 38 aircraft have been reconfigured with the Polaris seats.
- Retrofit is from 3-cabin to 2-cabin with direct-aisle-access seats. No 3-cabin 767s remain in service.
- 76A configuration is 30J/50Y+/134Y, total of 214; fleet to consist of 17 ships (former 3-cabin 767s).
- 76L configuration is 46J/22PE/47Y+/52Y; fleet to consist of 21 ships (18 former 2-cabin 76C and 3 used ships from Hawaiian).

767-400ER - [16 aircraft] None updated yet; modifications put on hold due to Covid-19.

777-200ER - As of September 2020, 46 of the 50 aircraft have been reconfigured with Polaris and Premium Plus seats.
- Configuration is 50 Polaris seats, 32 in the front cabin and 18 in the second cabin (behind 2L/R)
- Configuration is 10 across in economy, with 24 Premium Plus seats, 46 86 E+ seats and 156 E seats, with E+ in front economy cabin plus exit rows and bulkhead at 3L/R, i.e., almost the same as current pmCO planes, except with 4 seats in middle section.
- Seat map (v5) on united.com

787-8, 787-9 - As of November 2022, all 787-8/9 are converted or in mod. No chance of flying old configuration anymore.
- 788 configuration has 28 Polaris seats (20 in front cabin, 8 in rear mini-cabin), and 21 Premium Plus seats (2-3-2).
- 789 configuration has 48 Polaris seats (32 in front cabin, 16 in rear mini-cabin), and 21 Premium Plus seats (2-3-2).

787-10 - 13 787-10s have been delivered in 2020. All come with Polaris and Premium Plus cabins factory-installed. Another 19 should be added by 2024.

FAQ:
Q: Does a Polaris ticket mean the aircraft has the new Polaris seat?

A: No, Polaris is the label UA uses for long haul international business class. It is also the label UA uses for the new seats, so this does create some confusion.
All the 773s and 787-10s are 100% the new seat.
The rest of the long haul fleet in various stages of conversion, see http://view.ceros.com/united/polaris...-desktop-4/p/3

Q: How to tell if my aircraft is the new style Polaris seats?
A: If the unassigned business class section is showing orange seats or all the seats are side-by-side or there is a section for 4 adjacent seats in the middle, this is an old style lie-flat aircreaft
If the unassigned bussines class seats are dark blue seats or the all the seats appear to have direct aisle access, then you aircraft is the new Polaris seat.
You can also look at the FT maintained, United Fleet Site and crosscheck the tail number or check thePolaris Update tab

Q: How to tell if my aircraft has the new PremiumPlus (PP) / Premium Economy seats?
A: If the unassigned seats just behind business class are purple seats or the aircraft is 773 or 787-10, then yes. However, the purple color seat will only show on routes where PP is being sold.
Aircraft with PP seats are being used on some routes but are not being sold as PP. In those cases, the seats are considered to be a part of E+. In those cases, an indicator of PP sold as E+ will be if the first few rows of economy, there are just 2 seats on the sides (with the rest of E+ showing 3 seats).

Q: Will the aircraft I see at booking be the same configuration at flight time?
A: Unfortunately with the fleet in transit, aircraft swaps happen. UA tends to use placeholders until 2 days before travel and even after that last minute swaps do happen.

Q: My flight seat map shows 772 with polaris seats is it a retrofit?
A: Possibly. The flight status page shows the most accurate scheduled aircraft. If a 77W is swapped in, it will list the aircraft as 777-300ER. However, if the 772's seatmap shows blue rectangular boxes in the business class cabin instead of orange "pointy rounds", this would indicate that a retrofit aircraft has been swapped.

See also: United Future/Changed Routes w/ Polaris seats

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✨ Polaris (& PP) Retrofits: Schedule, ....

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Old Jan 8, 2020, 5:59 am
  #2101  
 
Join Date: Apr 2009
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Originally Posted by ainternational
Currently on board UA876, new 787-10 seat configuration in Polaris.
Different from Polaris seats on other equipment?
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Old Jan 8, 2020, 10:49 am
  #2102  
 
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Originally Posted by kirkwoodj
Different from Polaris seats on other equipment?
Having flown the Polaris hard product on both the 777-300ER (NRT-EWR) and the 787-10 (SFO-EWR), I can say for certain that the seats are tighter on the 787-10. In the odd-numbered window seats you sit much closer to the wall, and the whole "cubby" feels a bit tighter. I can't say the actual seat itself felt any narrower. The screen also might be a bit smaller.

With all that, I still prefer it over the old 2-2-2 configuration since I'm a window-seat person and no longer have to step over someone to get to the aisle.
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Old Jan 8, 2020, 11:11 am
  #2103  
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Originally Posted by flynnr
I can't say the actual seat itself felt any narrower. The screen also might be a bit smaller.
The seat is absolutely narrower, per UA's own numbers - 20.5 vs. 22 inches. That is a significant difference. The video screen is definitely smaller as well - that's a consequence of the narrower seat.

But we were reacting to OP's reference to a "new" Polaris configuration on the 781. That's a head scratcher, b/c to my knowledge all the 781s have precisely the same configuration.
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Old Jan 8, 2020, 11:21 am
  #2104  
 
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Originally Posted by ainternational
Currently on board UA876, new 787-10 seat configuration in Polaris. Nice to see new seats but they are:

- Tiny, cramped, narrow and short
.
781 polaris seats have a lot of good reviews. maybe you are just too long for the seat.
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Old Jan 8, 2020, 11:27 am
  #2105  
 
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It's narrower, but I still strongly prefer it to the Diamond seat. In an ideal world, UA would have gone with the alternating 1-2-1/1-1-1/1-2-1 configuration that was mocked up (before any plans to put it in the 787) but that would have hurt density quite a bit.

I'm 6'2" and found the length just fine (767 is shorter) but I can imagine larger pax in any dimension might find it uncomfortably tight.
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Old Jan 8, 2020, 11:48 am
  #2106  
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Originally Posted by EWR764
It's narrower, but I still strongly prefer it to the Diamond seat.
Agree. But while I find Polaris on the 777s roughly competitive with other state of the art all aisle products, I would rate the narrower 781 seat a level below those.
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Old Jan 8, 2020, 12:59 pm
  #2107  
 
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First modded B788 is ship #3908 . Currently inbound from XMN now (as of 2000z 8 Jan) as UA2738. Then immediately flows to UA 1912 SFO-IAD.

Biggest issue I can see is only 28 J Polaris seats vs 36 in the previous config. Real estate went to P+ seats.
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Old Jan 8, 2020, 2:25 pm
  #2108  
 
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Originally Posted by Kacee
The seat is absolutely narrower, per UA's own numbers - 20.5 vs. 22 inches. That is a significant difference. The video screen is definitely smaller as well - that's a consequence of the narrower seat.
I also noticed the narrower seat on the 763, with 20.6" width. It felt more snug in the shoulders as well as closer to others. It's also 3" shorter than other Polaris seats but is still much better than the previous seats.
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Old Jan 8, 2020, 2:28 pm
  #2109  
 
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Originally Posted by gmt4
First modded B788 is ship #3908 . Currently inbound from XMN now (as of 2000z 8 Jan) as UA2738. Then immediately flows to UA 1912 SFO-IAD.

Biggest issue I can see is only 28 J Polaris seats vs 36 in the previous config. Real estate went to P+ seats.
If you check the flight status of UA B788 routes (I checked IAD-PEK), the upgrade standby list says "36" seats, but on the booked tab it s the actual number of sold seats + 8 blocked. So, if you fly the new Polarized bird, your chance of upgrade will be greatly reduced. On the other hand, if you fly the old bird, your chance of upgrade will be much higher because of the 8 blocked seats.
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Old Jan 8, 2020, 2:57 pm
  #2110  
 
Join Date: Dec 2016
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Originally Posted by Kacee
The seat is absolutely narrower, per UA's own numbers - 20.5 vs. 22 inches. That is a significant difference. The video screen is definitely smaller as well - that's a consequence of the narrower seat.

But we were reacting to OP's reference to a "new" Polaris configuration on the 781. That's a head scratcher, b/c to my knowledge all the 781s have precisely the same configuration.
Thanks for confirming that. I'm not surprised. It definitely felt tighter, but I'm on the slim side so it didn't bother me much. I didn't have any issue with the length at 6'1".
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Old Jan 9, 2020, 7:49 am
  #2111  
 
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Originally Posted by gmt4
First modded B788 is ship #3908 . Currently inbound from XMN now (as of 2000z 8 Jan) as UA2738. Then immediately flows to UA 1912 SFO-IAD.

Biggest issue I can see is only 28 J Polaris seats vs 36 in the previous config. Real estate went to P+ seats.
Predictably, 3908 crapped out at SFO and UA1912 took a 7h delay after sourcing a different bird in the old configuration. Trying again this afternoon, SFO-CDG as UA990.

If I ever find myself on an airplane's first scheduled flight after a major mod, I will be prepared to find alternate plans!
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Old Jan 9, 2020, 8:08 am
  #2112  
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Originally Posted by EWR764
Trying again this afternoon, SFO-CDG as UA990.
Still showing old seat map, but "upgrades" shows booked 20 + 8 blocked, with capacity of 36. UA's created a bit of an interim revenue hit for itself with the cabin downsize and slow pace of mods.
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Old Jan 9, 2020, 8:17 am
  #2113  
 
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Originally Posted by Kacee
Still showing old seat map, but "upgrades" shows booked 20 + 8 blocked, with capacity of 36. UA's created a bit of an interim revenue hit for itself with the cabin downsize and slow pace of mods.
Oops... misread the date. Saturday 11/11 SFO-CDG. Showing cap of 28.
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Old Jan 9, 2020, 9:12 am
  #2114  
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Originally Posted by EWR764
Oops... misread the date. Saturday 11/11 SFO-CDG. Showing cap of 28.
Curious then they already have the 8-block on for 990 today.
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Old Jan 10, 2020, 6:46 am
  #2115  
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Looking at the seat map for 990/11Jan/SFO-CDG, it looks like we need to be careful on recommending odd or even window seats in Polaris. In the mini cabin behind Door 2, row 6 is the seat near the cabin wall, and row 7 is the seat angled toward the aisle.
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