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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 Mar 4, 2022, 5:52 pm
  #2581  
 
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Originally Posted by uastarflyer
5.5 years after introduction and we’re still dealing with this SMH
It's not like there wasn't a global pandemic that started 2 years ago that gave the airline industry a financial heart attack or anything...
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Old Mar 7, 2022, 9:03 am
  #2582  
 
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Does it seem possible that perhaps the 3 lines of operation at XMN for 787 Polaris updates might begin to slow down and close one or two lines for the last few airframes that have yet to get the mod? I ask because I don't see any flights going into XMN in the coming days, yet it was expected that two frames were to be done today and tomorrow?
Or do others feel its just that these are taking a bit longer than originally expected?

RE: https://sites.google.com/site/united...s-mod-schedule
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Old Mar 7, 2022, 9:17 am
  #2583  
 
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N220UA (former IPTE frame converting to domestic) has been in HKG for about 5 weeks, so we should expect it to emerge in the next week or two. I am curious to see if it has the same configuration as sister N219UA, which came out in early 2020 with AVOD in Y and a 32-seat J cabin using the old IPTE flat bed seats. The J product is crappy but the AVOD in Y is much preferable to the BYOD/streaming on the rest of the domestic 777 fleet.

Originally Posted by rizrizriz
Does it seem possible that perhaps the 3 lines of operation at XMN for 787 Polaris updates might begin to slow down and close one or two lines for the last few airframes that have yet to get the mod? I ask because I don't see any flights going into XMN in the coming days, yet it was expected that two frames were to be done today and tomorrow?
Or do others feel its just that these are taking a bit longer than originally expected?

RE: https://sites.google.com/site/united...s-mod-schedule
It's always +/- a few days. The challenges of operating in China (avoiding crew layovers) complicate the logistics of getting airplanes in and out of XMN. United's public statements on completion of 787 mods by the summer seems to hinge on 3 mod lines with aircraft coming in basically nose-to-tail.
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Old Mar 7, 2022, 2:21 pm
  #2584  
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Originally Posted by EWR764
N220UA (former IPTE frame converting to domestic) has been in HKG for about 5 weeks, so we should expect it to emerge in the next week or two. I am curious to see if it has the same configuration as sister N219UA, which came out in early 2020 with AVOD in Y and a 32-seat J cabin using the old IPTE flat bed seats. The J product is crappy but the AVOD in Y is much preferable to the BYOD/streaming on the rest of the domestic 777 fleet.
.
Crappy is relative. Give me “crappy” lieflat over the 737MAX all day. As that is the alternative on SFO/LAX-HNL to the 777HD. Not 78J Polaris.

Now it would be even better if that frame comes out of HKG with PP installed (and more lieflat)
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Old Mar 7, 2022, 9:25 pm
  #2585  
 
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Originally Posted by uastarflyer
Crappy is relative. Give me “crappy” lieflat over the 737MAX all day. As that is the alternative on SFO/LAX-HNL to the 777HD. Not 78J Polaris.

Now it would be even better if that frame comes out of HKG with PP installed (and more lieflat)
I am comparing apples to apples, it's a widebody at UA, and compared to the others in the fleet (or other widebody premium products at competing airlines), it's a substandard, outdated seat. Hence the use of "crappy," which I stand behind. I know some have strong feelings for the product, but for a widebody flat-bed business class seat in 2022, it's pretty poor.

Until international (especially Asia) substantially comes back, which is years away, I suspect we will be seeing Polaris widebodies on Hawaii routes for some time to come.
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Old Apr 12, 2022, 4:07 pm
  #2586  
 
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New 767-400 configuration will be 34 Polaris, 24 Premium Plus, 48 E+ and 125 Economy for total of 231 seats. Retrofits to start this spring.
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Old Apr 12, 2022, 5:47 pm
  #2587  
 
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Originally Posted by EWR764
New 767-400 configuration will be 34 Polaris, 24 Premium Plus, 48 E+ and 125 Economy for total of 231 seats. Retrofits to start this spring.
5 less J seats, but probably a reasonable comparison to the 30J configuration on the 763. Curious how they end up with 34 seats given the 1-1-1 configuration.
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Old Apr 12, 2022, 6:33 pm
  #2588  
 
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Originally Posted by PsiFighter37
5 less J seats, but probably a reasonable comparison to the 30J configuration on the 763. Curious how they end up with 34 seats given the 1-1-1 configuration.
12-10-12
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Old Apr 13, 2022, 12:17 am
  #2589  
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Originally Posted by EWR764
New 767-400 configuration will be 34 Polaris, 24 Premium Plus, 48 E+ and 125 Economy for total of 231 seats. Retrofits to start this spring.
Good to see that UA follows thru with retrofitting Polaris into the 764 as well.
PP seems to be 4 rows @ 6 seats.
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Old Apr 15, 2022, 11:50 pm
  #2590  
 
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Originally Posted by EWR764
New 767-400 configuration will be 34 Polaris, 24 Premium Plus, 48 E+ and 125 Economy for total of 231 seats. Retrofits to start this spring.
Any word on when they will add Premium Plus to 30J 763s?
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Old Apr 15, 2022, 11:51 pm
  #2591  
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Originally Posted by mike2003242
Any word on when they will add Premium Plus to 30J 763s?
UA will add PP as soon as it can. By when will the task be done for the 763 fleet is really the question.

ETA: Since the ceros site (https://view.ceros.com/united/polari...-desktop-4/p/3) and the Fleet website (https://sites.google.com/site/unitedfleetsite/) show that all of the 763 Polaris conversions are done, then that would mean that all of the ships that are going to get PP seats now have them. Whether UA charges for them, such as on international flights versus domestic, is that the question?

David

Last edited by DELee; Apr 15, 2022 at 11:59 pm
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Old Apr 16, 2022, 1:11 am
  #2592  
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Originally Posted by DELee
... Whether UA charges for them, such as on international flights versus domestic, is that the question? ....
Believe the question was if UA would add a PremPlus section to the Polaris 30J 763 which was converted without a PremPlus section.

No aware of any rumors that is planned perhaps UA intended the 30J 763 for domestic only service (preCOVID)???
PostCOVID???
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Old Apr 16, 2022, 5:14 am
  #2593  
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Looks like 14 763 with 30 Polaris and no PP. hope those get done

10/14 have been painted in Evo Blue though
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Old Apr 16, 2022, 3:16 pm
  #2594  
 
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Andrew Nocella announced last October that the 30J Polaris would be receiving Premium Plus. The question. Is when they will recieve the seats. The entire 767 fleet will have both true Polaris and Premium Plus seats.
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Old Apr 20, 2022, 4:53 pm
  #2595  
 
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So I was able to snag one of those 60k Award Flights from WLG-SYD-LAX, and noticed that the SYD-LAX flight is showing OLD/Fauxlaris seating, but what's odd is all the outbound LAX-SYD's the same week of my flight all show true Polaris. The only other 787-9 flying to Sydney seem to come from IAH, but those outbounds are also showing True Polaris. Is this just a temporary seat map/plane scheduling thing? Do we anticipate it'll update eventually to true Polaris? (SYD-LAX is on Feb 26th).
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