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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 Jun 27, 2017, 2:10 am
  #361  
 
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First polaris 763 has been pushed back a bit...now due out 2nd half of August.
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Old Jun 27, 2017, 4:10 am
  #362  
 
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Originally Posted by JOSECONLSCREW28
First polaris 763 has been pushed back a bit...now due out 2nd half of August.

Any idea what route it will be assigned to?
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Old Jun 27, 2017, 7:30 am
  #363  
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Originally Posted by oopl
The 772 map is interesting.

http://imgur.com/V1MgISP

So UA will fly the 772 out of DFW, BFL and other smaller airports?
Originally Posted by N104UA
Why would UA fly out of DFW and BFL?? They will continue to fly these on routes that UA currently flies from their current hubs, I doubt that BFL or DFW will ever become a UA hub.
Naw. This is unfortunately an artifact of whichever graphic artist's limited skillset and/or limited capabilities of the the underlying animation toolbox - note again the location of TPE in the Indian Ocean.

It's meant to wow you and be pretty. Accuracy - meh.

David
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Old Jun 27, 2017, 9:18 am
  #364  
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Originally Posted by DELee
Naw. This is unfortunately an artifact of whichever graphic artist's limited skillset and/or limited capabilities of the the underlying animation toolbox - note again the location of TPE in the Indian Ocean.

It's meant to wow you and be pretty. Accuracy - meh.

David
It failed. Horrible design.
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Old Jun 27, 2017, 9:31 am
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No retrofit on the 764?
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Old Jun 27, 2017, 11:22 am
  #366  
 
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Originally Posted by JOSECONLSCREW28
First polaris 763 has been pushed back a bit...now due out 2nd half of August.
Any information about the dimensions (footwells, length; width) of the seat in these smaller planes? Will it follow a similar trend as the current flatbeds?
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Old Jun 27, 2017, 11:49 am
  #367  
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Originally Posted by JOSECONLSCREW28
First polaris 763 has been pushed back a bit...now due out 2nd half of August.
Jose: Thank you for the update. Do you have any info about the reason for the push back is? Zodiac delivery problems for this version of the Polaris seat, fitting problems, ...or all of the above?
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Old Jun 27, 2017, 12:14 pm
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Originally Posted by UASleeper
Jose: Thank you for the update. Do you have any info about the reason for the push back is? Zodiac delivery problems for this version of the Polaris seat, fitting problems, ...or all of the above?
The first ship takes a long time (months) to fit out, certify and return to service.
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Old Jun 27, 2017, 12:35 pm
  #369  
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Originally Posted by EWR764
The first ship takes a long time (months) to fit out, certify and return to service.
Thanks, EWR. So it's just that the first bird takes longer. Once fitted and certified, the following birds should be converted faster. Any chance UA can bring in more than one bird at a time to speed up the conversion process?
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Old Jun 27, 2017, 3:11 pm
  #370  
 
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Originally Posted by UASleeper
Thanks, EWR. So it's just that the first bird takes longer. Once fitted and certified, the following birds should be converted faster. Any chance UA can bring in more than one bird at a time to speed up the conversion process?
Yes, that's process. N644UA entered HKG on May 8th. 3 months is about average the first one to be done and certified, so the new August target sounds right. Then the pace will ramp up after that. Wouldn't be surprised to see two being converted at a time, as long they have the slack this fall/winter. With only 14 3-class frames, it could theoretically be done one at a time, but that seems too slow for getting these done and eliminating F class. It would take well over a year to get them all completed that way.
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Old Jun 27, 2017, 3:26 pm
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We're very shortly going to be entering a several-year period where you might book Polaris J only to find yourself in an older seat. Won't be quite as bad as the barcalounger days, but....

Unless they have a way of converting Polaris routes like they are now with the 77W?
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Old Jun 27, 2017, 5:10 pm
  #372  
 
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Originally Posted by minnyfly
Yes, that's process. N644UA entered HKG on May 8th. 3 months is about average the first one to be done and certified, so the new August target sounds right. Then the pace will ramp up after that. Wouldn't be surprised to see two being converted at a time, as long they have the slack this fall/winter. With only 14 3-class frames, it could theoretically be done one at a time, but that seems too slow for getting these done and eliminating F class. It would take well over a year to get them all completed that way.
I wouldn't be surprised if soon UA stops selling F on all 763s and just gives the F seats to 1Ks and GS when they use a 3 cabin ac
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Old Jun 27, 2017, 5:55 pm
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Originally Posted by N104UA
I wouldn't be surprised if soon UA stops selling F on all 763s and just gives the F seats to 1Ks and GS when they use a 3 cabin ac
Nah - they'll do the same stupid program they did when they were running 3-class 777s SFO-EWR and have marketing allocate them to the chagrin of other HVFs on the flt.
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Old Jun 27, 2017, 6:12 pm
  #374  
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Originally Posted by aCavalierInCoach
Nah - they'll do the same stupid program they did when they were running 3-class 777s SFO-EWR and have marketing allocate them to the chagrin of other HVFs on the flt.
As best I could tell, those upgrades were by status and fare class, with a heavy focus on GS. At a minimum, GS were added to the upgraded standby list.
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Old Jun 27, 2017, 6:51 pm
  #375  
 
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With Zodiac involved you can't count on anything being on time. Why do you think they had to put brand new 77W's in to short term storage? Yep, late seats from Wales.
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