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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 Nov 20, 2017, 9:41 pm
  #691  
 
Join Date: Jul 2013
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Originally Posted by Halo117
you forgot IAH, IAD, ORD, EWR (Ex. TLV amd NRT). I would amend your statement as not hard out of SFO only.

overall 15 birds with new hardware... 355 days since polaris rollout and the 77w doesn't touch many hubs unless on special rotation.
LOL ya I did...for whatever reason I thought the OP was on the West Coast.
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Old Nov 21, 2017, 3:15 am
  #692  
 
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Originally Posted by PrivatePilot
Are they still flying the Polaris hard product on any of the domestic routes? I checked EWR - SFO and didnt see it anymore.
There are no more domestic 77W since Oct 28 when EWR-NRT started. The plane used to go SFO-EWR-TLV and back, now it goes SFO-NRT-EWR-TLV and back.
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Old Nov 21, 2017, 9:01 am
  #693  
 
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Originally Posted by narvik
Just glad (for now) that the 77Y on EWR-PEK is one of the last ones to be retrofitted, or so it appears. Safe until 2020 or so?
Maybe not that long . . . but once they start retrofitting is there any plan to continue the pmCO/pmUA divide in service? Seems like if they have enough 777-200 with Polaris they could decide to base those planes out of EWR (or another hub) and move the remaining pmCO to another base.
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Old Nov 21, 2017, 9:31 am
  #694  
 
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Originally Posted by drewguy
Maybe not that long . . . but once they start retrofitting is there any plan to continue the pmCO/pmUA divide in service? Seems like if they have enough 777-200 with Polaris they could decide to base those planes out of EWR (or another hub) and move the remaining pmCO to another base.
I believe the pmCO/pmUA 772's have different engines, which would probably impact any decision to merge the fleets. Not sure if that alone would be enough to keep it from happening though.
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Old Nov 21, 2017, 10:12 am
  #695  
 
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Originally Posted by drewguy
Maybe not that long . . . but once they start retrofitting is there any plan to continue the pmCO/pmUA divide in service? Seems like if they have enough 777-200 with Polaris they could decide to base those planes out of EWR (or another hub) and move the remaining pmCO to another base.
I recall an earlier post mentioning the sCO 772s will be rotated through ORD once there is a critical mass of sUA 772s with the new Polaris hard product - implying EWR may see more of these birds.

Originally Posted by FlyerTalkUserName
I believe the pmCO/pmUA 772's have different engines, which would probably impact any decision to merge the fleets. Not sure if that alone would be enough to keep it from happening though.
The sCO 772s are on average newer, and have the GE90 engines, which are slightly more capable than the sUA 772s which are P&W powered, but the primary reason for converting the sUA 772s first is to have a consistent two-class longhaul fleet.
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Old Nov 26, 2017, 9:57 pm
  #696  
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N649UA just finished it’s second test flight in HKG. Time to rejoin the fleet as the second polarized 763!?
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Old Nov 26, 2017, 10:00 pm
  #697  
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Originally Posted by UASleeper
N649UA just finished it’s second test flight in HKG. Time to rejoin the fleet as the second polarized 763!?
A mere 18 months after Polaris was announced. At this rate, the long-haul fleet should be fully converted by about 2027.
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Old Nov 26, 2017, 10:08 pm
  #698  
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Originally Posted by Kacee
A mere 18 months after Polaris was announced. At this rate, the long-haul fleet should be fully converted by about 2027.
I'll take the over.
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Old Nov 26, 2017, 11:58 pm
  #699  
 
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When are they going to start sending 777's for retrofit?
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Old Nov 27, 2017, 1:18 am
  #700  
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Originally Posted by warrenw
When are they going to start sending 777's for retrofit?
According to UA, soon. Q1 2018
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Old Nov 27, 2017, 5:35 am
  #701  
 
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Originally Posted by WineCountryUA
According to UA, soon. Q1 2018
Translation: sometime in 2019.

Just kidding.

(but partially serious)
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Old Nov 27, 2017, 5:58 am
  #702  
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As long as I avoid ua legacy 2-4-2 and fly co planes just have the Polaris lounges ready soon . I personally think the new seat is overrated vs the co 2-2-2 . It’s a shame they are getting rid of first as I see zero incentive for people to reach global service or shift business to United .
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Old Nov 27, 2017, 6:22 am
  #703  
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The 2class 772s don't seem to be getting any routine mx on the LFBF seats to replace damaged screens, worn through seat covers, etc. I guess just letting them degrade while they wait years for Polaris?
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Old Nov 27, 2017, 8:15 am
  #704  
 
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Originally Posted by mduell
The 2class 772s don't seem to be getting any routine mx on the LFBF seats to replace damaged screens, worn through seat covers, etc. I guess just letting them degrade while they wait years for Polaris?
At the very least one would think they'd standardize seat covers across the various J products. It would be a pretty inexpensive fix since they are regularly swapped anyway. Then again, it took years to get new seat covers in Y on the WB fleet, and plenty of Airbii still have the non-standard generic grey, so...
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Old Nov 27, 2017, 11:40 pm
  #705  
 
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Originally Posted by UASleeper
N649UA just finished it’s second test flight in HKG. Time to rejoin the fleet as the second polarized 763!?
I sure hope N648 is not too far behind it. It has been in HKG for over three months now!
mike2003242 is offline  


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