May 29, 2017, 1:21 pm
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, 4686 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
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
- 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
✨ Polaris (& PP) Retrofits: Schedule, ....
Jul 31, 2018, 8:28 am
#1156
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Jul 31, 2018, 8:30 am
#1157
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That has been discussed on here before. The 787s that United uses on these routes are the newest to the fleet, and thus their interiors are relatively new. While it would be easy for them modify one or two of them for AU service, operationally it would be a disaster. They would need to do a third plane just to have a "protect" in case one of the ones in service goes MX in order to guarantee Polaris service. Having a multi-million-dollar airplane sitting idle just doesn't work. Also, these planes wouldn't be available for any other routes if a plane on another route went MX.
Jul 31, 2018, 8:36 am
#1158
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The former three-cabin 767s are by far the most extensive mods. Once the current 76E two-cabin ships start going in, which should happen by 4Q (after the 3 remaining 3-cabin birds and ex-HA ships are completed), I wouldn't expect more than a month OOS per aircraft; possibly even less. Those aircraft already have the new interiors, IFE, Y seats, winglets and life extension mods, so it'll only be a matter of installing Polaris/PE seats, along with some cosmetic upgrades, and repitching Y to get them out of the shop.
Jul 31, 2018, 8:43 am
#1159
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The former three-cabin 767s are by far the most extensive mods. Once the current 76E two-cabin ships start going in, which should happen by 4Q (after the 3 remaining 3-cabin birds and ex-HA ships are completed), I wouldn't expect more than a month OOS per aircraft; possibly even less. Those aircraft already have the new interiors, IFE, Y seats, winglets and life extension mods, so it'll only be a matter of installing Polaris/PE seats, along with some cosmetic upgrades, and repitching Y to get them out of the shop.
Jul 31, 2018, 8:49 am
#1160
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I'm interested to see if the 77W PE work, which is even more limited in scope and should result in quick visits, takes the place of a 77E mod line. We'll know more in a week or so.
Jul 31, 2018, 10:01 am
#1161
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One isn't really to the exclusion of the other, since the 767 work is being completed by HAECO in HKG while the 777s are at HAECO (Taikoo) in XMN. I think three 777 mod lines are planned for the offseason, so we should see things move pretty rapidly once the summer schedule winds down in 6 weeks or so.
Jul 31, 2018, 10:30 am
#1162
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Jul 31, 2018, 10:34 am
#1163
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Jul 31, 2018, 11:22 am
#1164
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While the seat design might be 10+ years old, they are still new seats from a manufacturing and assest standpoint. UA is not going to spend the CapEx to upgrade assets that have not had a significant amount of depreciation applied.
Jul 31, 2018, 11:39 am
#1165
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As a paying J passenger that can vote with my feet...none of the "why" is really my problem. The non-bulkhead seats on the 787s just a mediocre seats that should have never been installed on a brand new plane in the first place.
Jul 31, 2018, 11:41 am
#1166
Join Date: Jun 2015
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Exactly. Your average J passenger wants a seat that's functional and comfortable. I've flown these to/from Asia with no problem at all.
Jul 31, 2018, 12:28 pm
#1167
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Posts: 55
Based on history, the 45 days or less is plausible. I recently found a Condé Nast Traveler article documenting the final 777 IPTE conversion in 2013. It says that retrofit, which seems just as extensive, got down to 40 days with the final ship. And for everyone here bemoaning how horrible IPTE is today, that means non-lie-flat barcaloungers were still flying less than six years ago.
Jul 31, 2018, 12:33 pm
#1168
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Jul 31, 2018, 12:56 pm
#1169
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Jul 31, 2018, 2:51 pm
#1170
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There are 142 (if my math is correct) 767s & 777s , although 19 772 are used mostly domestically, making 123 for international service
There are 37 787-8 & 787-9
With nearly 50 total aircraft with the Polaris version seat by end of 2018 and 50 each converted in 2019 and 2020 (one every 10 days), there will be 150+ of the present fleet so equipped plus some 20 more new aircraft in that timeframe
Last edited by WineCountryUA; Jul 31, 2018 at 2:58 pm
