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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 Mar 21, 2018, 8:16 am
  #871  
 
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Originally Posted by PsiFighter37
Out of curiosity, does anyone know if the 3 763s being acquired from HA are going to be retrofitted/completed this year, or is that a 2019 job?
Probably a 2019 service entry since they'll be delivered in the back half of 2018, and will require some induction work to sync up with the UAL maintenance program, plus the 76A interior mod.
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Old Apr 2, 2018, 1:47 pm
  #872  
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767 Tail Numbers

Is there a list of tail numbers for the 767's that have been retrofitted already?
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Old Apr 2, 2018, 1:51 pm
  #873  
 
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Originally Posted by jrzyshawn
Is there a list of tail numbers for the 767's that have been retrofitted already?
In service as of today:
N644UA
N646UA
N648UA
N649UA
N655UA
N656UA

In XMN mod line:
N643UA, should be out soon.
N651UA, will probably be out closer to late May or the beginning of June.

Not sure which tail will follow 6443 but only N641UA, N642UA, N647UA, N654UA, N659UA, N660UA remain with the IPTE configuration.
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Old Apr 2, 2018, 1:52 pm
  #874  
 
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Originally Posted by jrzyshawn
Is there a list of tail numbers for the 767's that have been retrofitted already?
This Google sheet is maintained by some FTers and has up to date information

​​​​https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1ZlYgN_IZmd6CSx_nXnuP0L0PiodapDRx3RmNkIpxXAo/edit?usp=drivesdk
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Old Apr 2, 2018, 1:53 pm
  #875  
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Thank you.
We have IAD-HNL and HNL-IAD in May and June, so I want to track them in the off chance they swap to the new configuration. I've been pleasantly surprised with last minute retrofitted 767 swaps on some domestic routes.
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Old Apr 2, 2018, 1:59 pm
  #876  
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Originally Posted by N104UA
This Google sheet is maintained by some FTers and has up to date information

​​​​https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets...t?usp=drivesdk
Originally Posted by EWR764
In service as of today:
N644UA
N646UA
N648UA
N649UA
N655UA
N656UA

In XMN mod line:
N643UA, should be out soon.
N651UA, will probably be out closer to late May or the beginning of June.

Not sure which tail will follow 6443 but only N641UA, N642UA, N647UA, N654UA, N659UA, N660UA remain with the IPTE configuration.
Thanks for the info ^
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Old Apr 3, 2018, 11:02 am
  #877  
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Originally Posted by DA201
. That gives 42 total aircraft.
Trying to determine the % of the total Polaris widebody fleet: 42 out of how many aircraft?
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Old Apr 3, 2018, 11:14 am
  #878  
 
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Originally Posted by cesco.g
Trying to determine the % of the total Polaris widebody fleet: 42 out of how many aircraft?
From the UA fleet site spreadsheet I count 159 widebodies in international configurations. So around 33%
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Old Apr 3, 2018, 11:43 am
  #879  
 
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Originally Posted by cesco.g
Trying to determine the % of the total Polaris widebody fleet: 42 out of how many aircraft?
I'd also expect 3 more 767-300ER (new to the fleet, ex-HA) complete by the end of 2018, so approximately 45 frames with the Polaris seat by year-end is a fair estimate. Compare to 17 frames at YE2017, and 22 at the moment (with 4 in the shop).

There is progress...
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Old Apr 4, 2018, 1:23 am
  #880  
 
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Originally Posted by amtrakusa
Y cabin on 767 is completely redone i think. That is why UA 767 is the best 767 to fly in the world now.
You mean to tell me that UA is actually the BEST at something???

Originally Posted by cesco.g
Trying to determine the % of the total Polaris widebody fleet: 42 out of how many aircraft?
That is 42 estimated in December 2018.

As of now, there are 15 77Ws (counting the one currently in Induction) and 6 763s.
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Old Apr 4, 2018, 3:50 pm
  #881  
 
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IŽd appreciate some input from the experts here - I am looking for Europe to US (OSL-LAS) travel in early November and cannot find a single aircraft with new business class seating (checking seat maps on UA site). What routes could I potentially look for retrofitted aircraft with new Polaris seat?

I was looking at LHR-ORD from reading this thread but seat maps were the old business class seat for my dates. Any other routes I could look at?
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Old Apr 4, 2018, 4:31 pm
  #882  
 
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Originally Posted by view
IŽd appreciate some input from the experts here - I am looking for Europe to US (OSL-LAS) travel in early November and cannot find a single aircraft with new business class seating (checking seat maps on UA site). What routes could I potentially look for retrofitted aircraft with new Polaris seat?

I was looking at LHR-ORD from reading this thread but seat maps were the old business class seat for my dates. Any other routes I could look at?
There aren’t really any guarantees given that the number of retrofitted planes is small. Why not fly a route that will definitely have it to SFO (eg LHR-SFO on the 77W) and backtrack a little to LAS?
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Old Apr 4, 2018, 7:10 pm
  #883  
 
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Originally Posted by view
IŽd appreciate some input from the experts here - I am looking for Europe to US (OSL-LAS) travel in early November and cannot find a single aircraft with new business class seating (checking seat maps on UA site). What routes could I potentially look for retrofitted aircraft with new Polaris seat?

I was looking at LHR-ORD from reading this thread but seat maps were the old business class seat for my dates. Any other routes I could look at?
The 763s with the new seats are not assigned to specific routes at the moment. Your best option would be to go for one of the 77W designated routes, specifically SFO-LHR or SFO-FRA. I'm assuming you can do a OSL-FRA-SFO-LAS route through UA, with OSL-FRA on LH and the rest on UA. Maybe UA will also let you book OSL-LHR-SFO-LAS, with OSL-LHR on SAS, but it would probably be more expensive.
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Old Apr 4, 2018, 7:17 pm
  #884  
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Originally Posted by view
IŽd appreciate some input from the experts here - I am looking for Europe to US (OSL-LAS) travel in early November and cannot find a single aircraft with new business class seating (checking seat maps on UA site). What routes could I potentially look for retrofitted aircraft with new Polaris seat?
FRA-SFO is the only reasonably sure thing right now.

There should be more info available in a few months, and it's still early to be buying tix for November anyway.
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Old Apr 4, 2018, 7:30 pm
  #885  
 
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The first 777-200 is rumored to begin mod any day now.
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