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✨ Polaris (& PP) Retrofits: Schedule, ....

Old May 29, 2017, 1:21 pm
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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, ....

Old Aug 18, 2018, 3:34 am
  #1216  
 
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Originally Posted by mike2003242
I believe for now that's how they all are. Anytime Sunday you will be able to see if it's the Polaris bird because at that point it will have been designated a specific plane.
True, but aircraft substitutions are not unusual even within 2 days of scheduled departure. My 763 was recently subbed for a 764 because of a mechanical delay 2 flights (15 hours) before mine.
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Old Aug 18, 2018, 11:29 am
  #1217  
 
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Originally Posted by FlytheTail
True, but aircraft substitutions are not unusual even within 2 days of scheduled departure. My 763 was recently subbed for a 764 because of a mechanical delay 2 flights (15 hours) before mine.
yes, maintenance and other delays can cause an equipment swap. ORD is also notorious for changing equipment several times on the day of departure.
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Old Aug 18, 2018, 3:35 pm
  #1218  
 
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Search ORD-HKG for early next year. The B777 seat map looks like a broken ship; a narrow head corresponding to Polaris First cabin, a wide cabin marrying the ITPE seat map in Polaris business (8 cross) and Polarised economy cabin with 10-cross but row H is blocked for seat selection. Interesting idea, but I wish that they match the width of Polaris First cabin with the rest of the plane in this graphic map.
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Old Aug 19, 2018, 1:09 am
  #1219  
 
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UA 896

On the HKG - ORD flight tomorrow - August 20th. Incoming aircraft coming from Xiamen. Has been up there for a couple weeks. I've checked in and seat still showing old configuration so not sure what to expect when I arrive tomorrow......any insight?
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Old Aug 19, 2018, 1:49 am
  #1220  
 
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Originally Posted by hkamy
On the HKG - ORD flight tomorrow - August 20th. Incoming aircraft coming from Xiamen. Has been up there for a couple weeks. I've checked in and seat still showing old configuration so not sure what to expect when I arrive tomorrow......any insight?
According to https://sites.google.com/site/united...fleet-tracking, it's likely gotten the new Polaris seats.
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Old Aug 19, 2018, 4:51 am
  #1221  
 
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On my recent flight from LIS-EWR, we had a equipment swap to a retrofitted 767. Made a comment on how much nicer the seats are to the FA, and he mentioned that al the FA hate them because of how narrow the aisles are and that they have actually paused retrofitting additional 767s because of complaints. Not sure if this was true or another reason...anyone hear anything similar?
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Old Aug 19, 2018, 7:48 am
  #1222  
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Originally Posted by pnt1
and that they have actually paused retrofitting additional 767s because of complaints.
There are two being retrofitted at HKG right now. Only three of the 3 class 763s left after that.
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Old Aug 19, 2018, 8:18 am
  #1223  
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How long do the retrofits take, a couple of weeks?
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Old Aug 19, 2018, 8:54 am
  #1224  
 
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Originally Posted by wco81
How long do the retrofits take, a couple of weeks?
One every 10 days if you believe UA

In all seriousness, it seems to take at least a couple months, from what I can tell - but I have not been paying too much attention. I do think there has been a bit of a lull in the pace of retrofits...probably has to do with peak utilization of widebodies over the summer. I would hope / imagine that we will see a speed-up in the number of planes going in once the end of September rolls around (which is when I think many of the summer seasonal flights end around).
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Old Aug 19, 2018, 12:48 pm
  #1225  
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Originally Posted by PsiFighter37
One every 10 days if you believe UA
Oh, come on. UA never claimed that it took 10 days to retrofit a plane, only that they'd be adding Polaris planes to the fleet at a rate of about once per ten days. They have several simultaneous mod lines, and they're also expecting new deliveries to come online with Polaris already installed.
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Old Aug 19, 2018, 4:13 pm
  #1226  
 
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Originally Posted by mike2003242
I believe for now that's how they all are. Anytime Sunday you will be able to see if it's the Polaris bird because at that point it will have been designated a specific plane.
No luck for me. Appears to be N661UA, which according to the fleet site won't ever get retrofitted.
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Old Aug 19, 2018, 7:47 pm
  #1227  
 
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I am trying to find the "one every ten days". It does not look like the number of refits has really grown that much lately.
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Old Aug 21, 2018, 12:21 am
  #1228  
 
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Originally Posted by FlytheTail
According to https://sites.google.com/site/united...fleet-tracking, it's likely gotten the new Polaris seats.
Originally Posted by hkamy
On the HKG - ORD flight tomorrow - August 20th. Incoming aircraft coming from Xiamen. Has been up there for a couple weeks. I've checked in and seat still showing old configuration so not sure what to expect when I arrive tomorrow......any insight?
I saw this as well. I saw this happen about a month and a half ago. Something tells me that there is another "line" going on in XMN with the 772s that does not involve a Polaris / PE retrofit. The last time it was close to a 6 week turnaround, the same as it was this time. I believe that's why the admins on the fleet site put the "?" after the word "Polaris" over in the status column.
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Old Aug 21, 2018, 1:31 am
  #1229  
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Originally Posted by phkc070408
I saw this as well. I saw this happen about a month and a half ago. Something tells me that there is another "line" going on in XMN with the 772s that does not involve a Polaris / PE retrofit. The last time it was close to a 6 week turnaround, the same as it was this time. I believe that's why the admins on the fleet site put the "?" after the word "Polaris" over in the status column.
Some speculation in the fleet thread that some of the frames are just getting C checks.
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Old Aug 21, 2018, 5:31 am
  #1230  
 
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Originally Posted by hkamy
On the HKG - ORD flight tomorrow - August 20th. Incoming aircraft coming from Xiamen. Has been up there for a couple weeks. I've checked in and seat still showing old configuration so not sure what to expect when I arrive tomorrow......any insight?
Originally Posted by FlytheTail
According to https://sites.google.com/site/united...fleet-tracking, it's likely gotten the new Polaris seats.
Originally Posted by phkc070408
I saw this as well. I saw this happen about a month and a half ago. Something tells me that there is another "line" going on in XMN with the 772s that does not involve a Polaris / PE retrofit. The last time it was close to a 6 week turnaround, the same as it was this time. I believe that's why the admins on the fleet site put the "?" after the word "Polaris" over in the status column.
Originally Posted by findark
Some speculation in the fleet thread that some of the frames are just getting C checks.
I watched this flight and the seat map never changed to the Polaris configuration -- so must not have been modified yet and was in for maintenance.
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