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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 16, 2018, 7:32 pm
  #1051  
 
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On Polaris Tracker - Desktop it reads IAH to South America. Why don't they define where the destination is exactly? Does anyone have the routing for 767-300s that have the new polaris seats? If they show up in the seat selection as side-by-side lie-flats, those aren't the upgraded 767s?
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Old Jun 16, 2018, 8:11 pm
  #1052  
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Originally Posted by dnotes
On Polaris Tracker - Desktop it reads IAH to South America. Why don't they define where the destination is exactly? Does anyone have the routing for 767-300s that have the new polaris seats? If they show up in the seat selection as side-by-side lie-flats, those aren't the upgraded 767s?
UA is still not dedicating the 763 Polaris to specific routes. If the seat map is showing unassigned seats in business as blue, it is the Polaris, all aisle access seat. If orange, it is the older seat
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Old Jun 16, 2018, 8:33 pm
  #1053  
 
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I have a EWR - HKG flight at the end of December 2018. Seat map is still "orange". Any chance this may change to the new Polaris business class by then?
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Old Jun 16, 2018, 8:54 pm
  #1054  
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Originally Posted by PrivatePilot
I have a EWR - HKG flight at the end of December 2018. Seat map is still "orange". Any chance this may change to the new Polaris business class by then?
Not likely. That's an sCO 772 route, and those are not going to be retrofitted until UA has completed the sUA 772s.
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Old Jun 24, 2018, 9:56 am
  #1055  
 
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2020

Originally Posted by sbm12
The plan was absolutely yes. Those aircraft are due to be in the fleet another 5-10 years and keeping the old product is not viable. AFAIK the contracts for the seats and the retrofits were signed so it is a done deal in that context. This was part of the plan when the 2-cabin mods started early last year; there was always a pause scheduled to wait for the Polaris announcement and then the remaining aircraft would be in that config.
If the plan is to retrofit by 2020, one could easily imagine last retrofits happening in 2022. That leaves at most 5 years of use for some of the 767’s. For an 8 hour flight max, I think current product is plenty good. 789 product is not that bad either. Get those damn 777-200’s done first and then reassess. The world could change between now and 2022.
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Old Jun 24, 2018, 11:33 am
  #1056  
 
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Originally Posted by tryathlete


If the plan is to retrofit by 2020, one could easily imagine last retrofits happening in 2022. That leaves at most 5 years of use for some of the 767’s. For an 8 hour flight max, I think current product is plenty good. 789 product is not that bad either. Get those damn 777-200’s done first and then reassess. The world could change between now and 2022.
The 10+ year old J seat being installed in brand new 789s that fly premium business routes (PVG, SYD) is not acceptable in my mind. Especially the non-bulkhead seats.
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Old Jun 24, 2018, 2:45 pm
  #1057  
 
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772 which routes?

Which routes are getting priority for the sUA 772 retrofits? I have a business class flight booked sUA MUC-ORD on Nov 4th. What are the chances to see new Polaris seats on this route/date?
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Old Jun 24, 2018, 3:00 pm
  #1058  
 
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Originally Posted by pnsnkr
Which routes are getting priority for the sUA 772 retrofits? I have a business class flight booked sUA MUC-ORD on Nov 4th. What are the chances to see new Polaris seats on this route/date?
It can happen on any route. Two days before our May 15th ORD-MUC flight, they assigned us the one sUA 772 that was reconfigured. That plane was coming from PVG to ORD. On day of departure, we got switched back to the normal sUA 772. On May 29th, we got the reconfigured sUA 772 on MUC-ORD. End of April or beginning of May, that plane was assigned on the FRA-ORD route but that flight was cancelled. In May, there was only one reconfigured plane. Now, it seems that there are 3. By Nov.4th, I guess there will be some more reconfigured sUA 772s, slightly increasing the odds of getting one.
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Old Jun 24, 2018, 4:36 pm
  #1059  
 
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Originally Posted by pnsnkr
Which routes are getting priority for the sUA 772 retrofits? I have a business class flight booked sUA MUC-ORD on Nov 4th. What are the chances to see new Polaris seats on this route/date?
You can track progress of the equipment upgrades here: Polaris Tracker - Desktop. Likely, there won't be dedicated routes until a large percentage of planes are retrofitted. If United can complete two 772s per month (an estimate on my part), then there will be approx. 10 to 12 refitted planes in November, so optimistically there's a 20% chance of getting the new Polaris seats.
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Old Jun 24, 2018, 4:54 pm
  #1060  
 
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Originally Posted by FlytheTail
You can track progress of the equipment upgrades here: Polaris Tracker - Desktop. Likely, there won't be dedicated routes until a large percentage of planes are retrofitted. If United can complete two 772s per month (an estimate on my part), then there will be approx. 10 to 12 refitted planes in November, so optimistically there's a 20% chance of getting the new Polaris seats.
Is it true that the sUA 772s (33 of them, correct?) will be converted ahead of the sCO ones?
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Old Jun 24, 2018, 7:03 pm
  #1061  
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Originally Posted by pnsnkr
Is it true that the sUA 772s (33 of them, correct?) will be converted ahead of the sCO ones?
Yes. They want to get rid of the defunct Global First cabin as soon as possible.
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Old Jun 24, 2018, 7:16 pm
  #1062  
 
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Originally Posted by pnsnkr
Is it true that the sUA 772s (33 of them, correct?) will be converted ahead of the sCO ones?
The correct number is 55 sUA 772s.

In my previous post, I incorrectly stated that there was a FRA-ORD flight on the reconfigured 772 that was cancelled. The correct flight that was cancelled was FRA-IAD on the reconfigured 772 on May 5th.
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Old Jun 24, 2018, 7:53 pm
  #1063  
 
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Originally Posted by pnsnkr
Is it true that the sUA 772s (33 of them, correct?) will be converted ahead of the sCO ones?
It makes sense if they do. sCO 777's aren't world class, but they're better than the 2-4-2 junk.
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Old Jun 24, 2018, 8:43 pm
  #1064  
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Originally Posted by StuckinITH
The correct number is 55 sUA 772s.
Correct for what? AFAIK, they are not reconfiguring the 77As (77G in UA-speak). That's 19 aircraft.
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Old Jun 24, 2018, 11:17 pm
  #1065  
 
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Speaking of which, for those who prefer the rear facing seats, the Domestic 772s will be the only planes to have such by the time this is all done with.
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