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

Old May 29, 17, 1:21 pm
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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, ....

Old Jun 12, 21, 3:32 am
  #2461  
 
Join Date: Jun 2014
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Originally Posted by uastarflyer
UA should just end the 789 conversions then. What’s the point of it.
I was writing specifically about the SFO-SIN route. Just about every other conceivable route is shorter (ie with higher utilization) and often has higher fares. This is why UA might be ignoring this one, at least in some persons’ eyes.
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Old Jun 12, 21, 8:23 am
  #2462  
 
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Originally Posted by JimInOhio
Do you think selling a PE seat for $1345 on a 17 hour flight looks all that attractive to UA? I can’t read their minds but I wouldn’t be surprised if it generated a collective “meh”.
That's discount PE, I'd imagine on SFO-SIN they could sell a fair amount of the higher fare buckets of PE. EWR-TLV has plenty of flights with no discounted PE.
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Old Jun 12, 21, 10:13 am
  #2463  
 
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Originally Posted by tjtg
I recently booked an award ticket from AMS-IAD in December. United.com is showing the old 767-300 seat map. I was curious how United.com reassigns seats when they transfer the bookings to a Polaris-equipped aircraft!
From my experience and what I've read, you'll probably be reassigned to another window seat. Unfortunately UA doesn't let you know if they do this so I'd check the flight every now and then to see if it happens and change seats accordingly
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Old Jun 12, 21, 5:35 pm
  #2464  
 
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Originally Posted by mike2003242
That's discount PE, I'd imagine on SFO-SIN they could sell a fair amount of the higher fare buckets of PE. EWR-TLV has plenty of flights with no discounted PE.
One market (SFO-SIN) is almost purely driven by high-yield business traffic, which is nowhere near back on any meaningful scale, while the other (EWR-TLV) is significantly more diversified, with almost limitless leisure (albeit high-yielding leisure) demand.

The other distinction is that the latter has been operating almost continuously through the pandemic, while the former has yet to resume.
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Old Jun 12, 21, 9:39 pm
  #2465  
 
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N20904 operating again...upgrade complete?

I see N20904 is back in operation and the seating chart is updated. Looks like the 3 787-8 that were in the shop are finished? Even though the United Polaris Tracker doesn't show it that way...?
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Old Jun 12, 21, 9:53 pm
  #2466  
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Originally Posted by Reborn58
I see N20904 is back in operation and the seating chart is updated. Looks like the 3 787-8 that were in the shop are finished? Even though the United Polaris Tracker doesn't show it that way...?
The UA site has not been updated in a year or longer.

The FT Polaris tracker, Polaris Update/ Mod Schedule - The United Airlines Fleet Website shows the last 787-8 is in the shop and the rest are fully converted.

Last edited by WineCountryUA; Jun 12, 21 at 9:59 pm
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Old Jun 17, 21, 4:27 pm
  #2467  
 
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Originally Posted by WineCountryUA
The UA site has not been updated in a year or longer.

The FT Polaris tracker, Polaris Update/ Mod Schedule - The United Airlines Fleet Website shows the last 787-8 is in the shop and the rest are fully converted.
Are all-but-two 767-300s converted to Polaris business class seats? It looks like both N657UA and N658UA do not have Polaris (661, 662, and 663 are parked), but I see a note above about a single 763 remaining without Polaris, and the United seatmaps for the 767-300 flights I am looking at for more than a couple days in the future are all non-Polaris (seat maps on the purchase screen for close-in flights are all Polaris seatmap). For context: on HNL-DEN, I am routinely seeing the 763-operated flight being ~$400 cheaper than the 772-operated flight (both overnight). I don't see a single time in the past 90 days that either 657 or 658 have flown HNL-DEN. Thank you.

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Old Jun 18, 21, 10:59 am
  #2468  
 
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Originally Posted by spartacusmcfly
Looks like the are Polarizing by country.

1. SA for technical reasons
2. BLR for technical reasons
3. Now Mumbai & Delhi routes
4. Israel has been Polarized for a while (ex SFO)
5. Now several Japan routes

1-4 make sense. Kicking wounded airlines while they're down. Air India, South African, El AL, are all either hemorrhaging or dead. Japan surprise me, as JAL/ANA is a tough fight to pick.

Given ANZ is in long-term hibernation, I understand deprioritizing those routes. But it surprises me they didn't attack Singapore. SQ has been crushed by the Pandemic. Singapore will be 100% vaccinated, right behind China, in the next 60 days and a US-SIN travel corridor will open.

Also, Bamboo Airways, Vietnam Airlines, and Starlux are close to launching new APAC-US routes. Bamboo and Starlux have very wisely status-matched all UA elites (with no near term travel requirements). Does UA really want to offer a 10+ year old product against a fleet of brand new A350s with beautiful interiors?

Come on Kirby. Get SFO-SIN Polarized!
​​​​​
Non-Polarized 789s are used at least some of the time for SFO-TLV. Tonight, for example, plus some earlier days this week.
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Old Jun 18, 21, 1:47 pm
  #2469  
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Bumping the earlier question Re 763s. Which categories exist and what is their fate?

1) High J with Prem Plus
2) High J w/o Prem Plus? Non-existent?
3) Polaris, no PP - will it get PP?
4) Polaris + PP but not High J - Non existent?
5) CO Biz class seat and no PP - what is the path?
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Old Jun 18, 21, 2:33 pm
  #2470  
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Originally Posted by uastarflyer
Bumping the earlier question Re 763s. Which categories exist and what is their fate?
1) High J with Prem Plus
5) CO Biz class seat and no PP - what is the path?
There is the normal Polaris (no PP), High J with PP and unconverted (5 total) are the present three 763 configurations
3 unconverted, slated for "normal" Polaris are parked
2 unconverted, slated for High J appear to be operating (increase from 1 previously)

Originally Posted by uastarflyer
3) Polaris, no PP - will it get PP?
UA has not stated PP will ever be added
Originally Posted by uastarflyer
2) High J w/o Prem Plus? Non-existent?
4) Polaris + PP but not High J - Non existent?
correct

resourse like Polaris Update/ Mod Schedule - The United Airlines Fleet Website (google.com) make this information readily available

An interesting question is the fate of the 764s, original believe to be slated for decommissioning but with the 772PW issue, 3 are now in operation (unconverted to Polaris)
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Old Jun 19, 21, 11:00 am
  #2471  
 
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/rant on

We we’re initially scheduled HNL-DEN on the CO 767. Aircraft changed to Polaris 767 a couple of days ago. Wake up to find out it’s back to the CO 767. But because of the seat changes, our family is no longer sitting together. Get it together, United 😡

/rant off
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Old Jun 19, 21, 11:03 am
  #2472  
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Originally Posted by frankmu
... But because of the seat changes, our family is no longer sitting together. ...
Single or multiple PNRs?
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Old Jun 19, 21, 12:09 pm
  #2473  
 
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Originally Posted by frankmu
/rant on

We we’re initially scheduled HNL-DEN on the CO 767. Aircraft changed to Polaris 767 a couple of days ago. Wake up to find out it’s back to the CO 767. But because of the seat changes, our family is no longer sitting together. Get it together, United 😡

/rant off
Had this happen a couple of years ago when they were transitioning 772s with 2-4-2 J to 1-2-1 Polaris J. Seats together in old J got updated to seats together in Polaris J when aircraft was initially assigned several days before departure. Then the assigned aircraft got swapped back to one with old J config about 24 hours before departure, with both assigned seats scattered across the cabin, and by that time the cabin was booked full so there was no way to get seats together. Really annoying. Same PNR.
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Old Jun 19, 21, 2:27 pm
  #2474  
 
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Originally Posted by WineCountryUA
Single or multiple PNRs?
Single. To add injury to insult, the original itinerary was HNL-SFO-PDX before a schedule change last month. Oh well, we’re still in lie-flats on a red eye.
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Old Jun 19, 21, 5:06 pm
  #2475  
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Originally Posted by frankmu
/rant on

We we’re initially scheduled HNL-DEN on the CO 767. Aircraft changed to Polaris 767 a couple of days ago. Wake up to find out it’s back to the CO 767. But because of the seat changes, our family is no longer sitting together. Get it together, United 😡

/rant off
As an aside, my wife enjoyed the Polaris isolated solo odd window seat on the HNL outbound (I was 2 rows back, kids 2 rows ahead) and was a bit miffed I got us the Polaris middle cozy pair on the return. Should I read anything into that?

Originally Posted by WineCountryUA
An interesting question is the fate of the 764s, original believe to be slated for decommissioning but with the 772PW issue, 3 are now in operation (unconverted to Polaris)
With UA logic, the 764s will jump the line for Polaris/PP leaving my future 15+hr SIN travel stuck with CO product and no PP.
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