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

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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, ....

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Old Apr 1, 2019, 7:42 pm
  #1591  
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The Polaris microsite says 788/9 start late this year, and the 764 start in 2020.

edit: I see someone else saw that at about the same time.
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Old Apr 1, 2019, 7:59 pm
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Originally Posted by PsiFighter37
The 78Js are already in service and just started doing international routes this past weekend. No idea when the 789s will start being retrofitted, although I would venture to guess that the 788/789 line will start once the 772s are done (doing the math, probably more likely a 2020 even).

Which routes though?

For instance I've been looking for awards in the fall and one possible TATL segment is SFO-MUC on a 787 (forget exactly which one).
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Old Apr 1, 2019, 8:21 pm
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Credit: A cleaned up screenshot of one of the various UA sites, hub.united.com I believe
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Old Apr 1, 2019, 8:38 pm
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Originally Posted by PsiFighter37
The 78Js are already in service and just started doing international routes this past weekend. No idea when the 789s will start being retrofitted, although I would venture to guess that the 788/789 line will start once the 772s are done (doing the math, probably more likely a 2020 even).
The 787s are scheduled to start their retrofit late this year
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Old Apr 1, 2019, 10:34 pm
  #1595  
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Originally Posted by mike2003242
The 787s are scheduled to start their retrofit late this year
Could be like 12/31/19 - starting ..........with first frame completed like 3-4 months into 2020 ... ? .......
(Sure hope not, though ...)
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Old Apr 2, 2019, 12:13 am
  #1596  
 
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Are there any information out about when they will start retrofitting the 772s stationed in IAH for South America?
With EZE, GRU, GIG, being on the longer end of UAs long haul service, they should have priority over the 767s for the relatively short east coast to europe services.
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Old Apr 2, 2019, 12:32 am
  #1597  
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Originally Posted by TopFlyer12
Are there any information out about when they will start retrofitting the 772s stationed in IAH for South America?
With EZE, GRU, GIG, being on the longer end of UAs long haul service, they should have priority over the 767s for the relatively short east coast to europe services.
The first priority was to retrofit all the 3-class aircraft which included 763s. There still some 3-class 772 to convert (little over half are done)
The first 2-2-2 772 has been retrofitted and a couple are in progress, 19 more to do -- the plan is to have all converted by end of 2020

https://sites.google.com/site/united...polaris-update
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Old Apr 2, 2019, 12:33 am
  #1598  
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Originally Posted by phkc070408


Credit: A cleaned up screenshot of one of the various UA sites, hub.united.com I believe
I thought most of the TATLs out of EWR or maybe IAD as well were all 767s?

So they get a brand new 787s for the short TATL hops?
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Old Apr 2, 2019, 12:52 am
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Originally Posted by wco81
I thought most of the TATLs out of EWR or maybe IAD as well were all 767s?So they get a brand new 787s for the short TATL hops?
TLV, CDG, BRU, DUB and seasonally FRA were / are 772s, which has a similar range and seating capacity. BCN and half of FRA are the only cities seeing capacity increases. Remember, the 10 doesn't have the range of the 8s and 9s.

My question: What's so important in BCN that would make them put the scarce (for now) Polaris and P+ seats on that route? I thought that was a mostly leisure market. While it's possible that ZHR / GVA are waiting for the High J 763, Mees thinks a city like MUC or AMS would be better fitted for the Polaris and P+ seats, along with the capacity increase.
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Old Apr 2, 2019, 12:56 am
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Originally Posted by wco81
I thought most of the TATLs out of EWR or maybe IAD as well were all 767s?

So they get a brand new 787s for the short TATL hops?
The 78J has always been set up for mostly TATL with EWR as the main base. There are plenty of 777 routes to Europe that can benefit from more in Y and the 78J provides that. Plus, with many of the 767s going High J with only 99Y, having a 78J on one flight per day on say EWR-LHR puts back some if not most of the Y capacity.
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Old Apr 2, 2019, 1:46 am
  #1601  
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Originally Posted by wco81
I thought most of the TATLs out of EWR or maybe IAD as well were all 767s?

So they get a brand new 787s for the short TATL hops?
It's a large aircraft with comparatively short range.
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Old Apr 2, 2019, 2:57 am
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Originally Posted by findark
It's a large aircraft with comparatively short range.
The 78J has a long range. UA has flown it on TPAC from SFO as a replacement in IRROPS. But not as long a range as the 789. UA has decided to base the 78J at EWR and fly mostly TATL. It's not just the range but the economics. Flying pax heavy TATL routes means reduced costs (CASM) and higher operating margins.
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Old Apr 2, 2019, 5:13 am
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Originally Posted by usbusinesstraveller
The 78J has a long range. UA has flown it on TPAC from SFO as a replacement in IRROPS. But not as long a range as the 789. UA has decided to base the 78J at EWR and fly mostly TATL. It's not just the range but the economics. Flying pax heavy TATL routes means reduced costs (CASM) and higher operating margins.
UA also flew it IAD-PEK...wonder if they will have found it efficient enough to fly TPAC from the East Coast at some point.
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Old Apr 2, 2019, 7:58 am
  #1604  
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Originally Posted by usbusinesstraveller
The 78J has a long range. UA has flown it on TPAC from SFO as a replacement in IRROPS. But not as long a range as the 789. UA has decided to base the 78J at EWR and fly mostly TATL. It's not just the range but the economics. Flying pax heavy TATL routes means reduced costs (CASM) and higher operating margins.
Other carriers are also using 781 as a regional aircraft, e.g., SQ.

Last edited by WineCountryUA; Apr 2, 2019 at 11:25 am Reason: snark removed
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Old Apr 2, 2019, 8:44 am
  #1605  
 
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Originally Posted by Kacee
Other carriers are also using 781 as a regional aircraft, e.g., SQ.
Boeing's published still-air range in typical 3-class configuration*:
787-8 7355 nm
787-9 7635 nm
787-10 6430 nm

Compare and contrast:
777-300ER 7370 nm

*Individual airline's configurations and load factors can vary these distances.
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Last edited by WineCountryUA; Apr 2, 2019 at 11:26 am Reason: quote updated to reflect Moderator edit
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