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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 2, 2019, 8:48 am
  #1606  
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Originally Posted by wxguy
*Individual airline's configurations and load factors can vary these distances.
Yes, UA pushed the 789 beyond the published figure with LAX-SIN. Even SFO-SIN would not be viable if those were definitive (assuming you want cushion of at least 10%).
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Old Apr 15, 2019, 5:55 pm
  #1607  
 
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IAH-EZE POLARIS... How do I know if the aircraft I am flying has been retrofitted?

Currently planning to fly in Polaris in October, flight 819

How will I know if the aircraft servicing the route will have been retro-fitted?
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Old Apr 15, 2019, 5:58 pm
  #1608  
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Originally Posted by caseminole
Currently planning to fly in Polaris in October, flight 819

How will I know if the aircraft servicing the route will have been retro-fitted?
There's no way to tell this far in advance. The best that you can do is to speculate based upon the type of plane and the progress that they're making on that particular sub-fleet.
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Old Apr 15, 2019, 6:11 pm
  #1609  
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Originally Posted by caseminole
Currently planning to fly in Polaris in October, flight 819

How will I know if the aircraft servicing the route will have been retro-fitted?
As mention, there will remain some uncertainty during the transition.

If the business class cabin seats are blue on the seat map, the plan is for the new Polaris seats. If orange, the older lie-flat seats. If purple, you are seeing PremiumPlus (premium economy). As the retrofit progesses, more orange seats will change to blue.

It is known the 787-8 , 787-9 and 764 will be among the last to be converted and the pmUA 3-class 772 will be all converted by fall 2019. The conversion of 763 (40% done) and pmCO772 has started but will continue into 2020. The 77W and 787-10 come with new seats

and there are no plans for the 772HD / Hawaii aircraft.
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Last edited by WineCountryUA; Apr 15, 2019 at 6:37 pm
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Old Apr 16, 2019, 12:11 am
  #1610  
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Originally Posted by phkc070408
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 seem to recall that they (UA, others?) pumped capacity into BCN to counter TATL LCC competition (might have been WOW, Norwagian).
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Old Apr 17, 2019, 12:22 am
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I'm hoping this just an IT error, but N78001, after being in HKG for 2 months, currently scheduled on 896(18) HKG-ORD, is it is showing the old pmCO configuration. The fleet site did have a "?" after the words "Polaris/PE" in the status column, so this was always a possibility, but I was hoping that wouldn't be the case.
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Old Apr 17, 2019, 3:34 pm
  #1612  
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How many Polaris seats will be in the refitted 764,788 and 789?
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Old Apr 17, 2019, 8:45 pm
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Originally Posted by UA_Flyer
How many Polaris seats will be in the refitted 764,788 and 789?
at the very least, same number of business seats as before, if previous conversion is any guide. for 789, i think there is a small possibility that a subfleet can be created with more business class seats and less economy seats. both 788 and 789 should see premium plus, not sure about 764.,
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Old Apr 17, 2019, 10:49 pm
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N78001 confirmed in Polaris/PE.
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Old Apr 18, 2019, 3:05 pm
  #1615  
 
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Forgive me if this is answered upthread, but the Wiki says 14/38 of the 763s are converted, with the 76A ultimately to consist of only 14 birds. So do we know how many 76A birds are currently converted? Or put differently, how many of the current 14 are 76A vs 76L?
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Old Apr 18, 2019, 5:53 pm
  #1616  
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Originally Posted by EWR764
N78001 confirmed in Polaris/PE.

Which routes is that used for?
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Old Apr 18, 2019, 6:01 pm
  #1617  
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Originally Posted by st530
Forgive me if this is answered upthread, but the Wiki says 14/38 of the 763s are converted, with the 76A ultimately to consist of only 14 birds. So do we know how many 76A birds are currently converted? Or put differently, how many of the current 14 are 76A vs 76L?
United Mainline Fleet

And for Polaris-specific inquiries: Mainline Fleet: Polaris Update

btw, a huge thanks to those who maintain the fleetsite. what an awesome resource.
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Old Apr 18, 2019, 7:51 pm
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Originally Posted by wco81
Which routes is that used for?
No flights in particular... none of the sCO 777 routes are dedicated Polaris/PE service.
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Old Apr 18, 2019, 9:08 pm
  #1619  
 
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Originally Posted by st530
Forgive me if this is answered upthread, but the Wiki says 14/38 of the 763s are converted, with the 76A ultimately to consist of only 14 birds. So do we know how many 76A birds are currently converted? Or put differently, how many of the current 14 are 76A vs 76L?
Thw wiki is a little bit out of date. There are now 15 converted and in service. That’s all 14 76A and one 76L. The 76As were converted to 2 class (no Premium Plus). The 76L is the High J configuration with 46 Polaris, 22 Premium Plus, 47 E+ and 52 Y.

According to the Fleet website (and yes kudos and thanks to the authors for such a great job) there are 4x 763s in mod; 2x 76L and 2 of the used ex-Hawaiian birds. All will get the High J configuration.
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Old Apr 18, 2019, 10:13 pm
  #1620  
 
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Originally Posted by usbusinesstraveller


Thw wiki is a little bit out of date. There are now 15 converted and in service. That’s all 14 76A and one 76L. The 76As were converted to 2 class (no Premium Plus). The 76L is the High J configuration with 46 Polaris, 22 Premium Plus, 47 E+ and 52 Y.

According to the Fleet website (and yes kudos and thanks to the authors for such a great job) there are 4x 763s in mod; 2x 76L and 2 of the used ex-Hawaiian birds. All will get the High J configuration.
Will the high-density J 763s take longer given the amount of work that is needed?
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