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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 Aug 8, 2019, 8:03 am
  #1876  
 
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My November IAH-GIG has just switched from 763 to 764, a route I do 3 times a year, so not a frequent flyer. I was enjoying about a 50% hit rate with Polaris seating, now more like 0% if the equipment holds. A question for regular Rio flyers, do you think 764's will likely be the norm?
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Old Aug 8, 2019, 10:34 am
  #1877  
 
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Originally Posted by zackery149
My November IAH-GIG has just switched from 763 to 764, a route I do 3 times a year, so not a frequent flyer. I was enjoying about a 50% hit rate with Polaris seating, now more like 0% if the equipment holds. A question for regular Rio flyers, do you think 764's will likely be the norm?
GIG has jumped around a lot over the years from 772 to 764 to 763 and back, depending on time of year and strength oil-biz travel. If the shift you're seeing in November is not a one-off, then I would expect the 764 to stay on the schedule for awhile. But I'm speculating.
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Old Aug 8, 2019, 12:27 pm
  #1878  
 
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Originally Posted by zackery149
My November IAH-GIG has just switched from 763 to 764, a route I do 3 times a year, so not a frequent flyer. I was enjoying about a 50% hit rate with Polaris seating, now more like 0% if the equipment holds. A question for regular Rio flyers, do you think 764's will likely be the norm?
No way to tell, but the pool of 763 30J is shrinking. There are around 30 763 with 30J, which will shrink down to 21. So it just depends if UA wants to rotate a 763 or 764 down to GIG. I suspect that UA will keep 763 with 30J flying out of ORD/EWR/IAD and maybe 1 rotation ORD-IAH-LIM and a IAH-GRU-IAD. GIG (and SCL) are a bit of an outlier since they're only served by IAH and both are scheduled later this year on 764.
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Old Aug 9, 2019, 6:54 am
  #1879  
 
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Routes for 767 that won't get Polarized retrofit??

Does anyone know the routes that will get stuck with the old version? (Sorry if this was already posted... hard to search 121 pages...)

Originally Posted by Kacee
I think you mean the sUA 763s with the B/E Diamond seat

They've already started mods. Seven of them will not be Polarised.
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Old Aug 11, 2019, 9:55 am
  #1880  
 
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Originally Posted by clintonuws
Does anyone know the routes that will get stuck with the old version? (Sorry if this was already posted... hard to search 121 pages...)
Eventually there will be no old versions. EVERYTHING is going to be Polaris equipped. As for the 763s that are in question right now, if they don't go Polaris, they will probably be retired from the fleet. It's just a matter of a few more years.
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Old Aug 11, 2019, 10:03 am
  #1881  
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Originally Posted by phkc070408
Eventually there will be no old versions. EVERYTHING is going to be Polaris equipped.
77Gs will not be converted and those are being used on TATLs.
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Old Aug 11, 2019, 12:57 pm
  #1882  
 
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Originally Posted by Kacee
77Gs will not be converted and those are being used on TATLs.
What are 77Gs? Are they identifiable on the fleet list?
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Old Aug 11, 2019, 1:33 pm
  #1883  
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Originally Posted by FlyingHighlander
What are 77Gs? Are they identifiable on the fleet list?
Yes, they're the ones listed under the header "77G." Mainline Fleet
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Old Aug 11, 2019, 3:03 pm
  #1884  
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Originally Posted by Kacee
77Gs will not be converted and those are being used on TATLs.
Aware of EWR-MAD, what others do you see?
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Old Aug 11, 2019, 3:34 pm
  #1885  
 
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Originally Posted by WineCountryUA
Aware of EWR-MAD, what others do you see?
AFAIK that's the only TATL 77G route this summer, but they were used on EWR-BCN and EWR-DUB (and maybe others) last summer.
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Old Aug 12, 2019, 1:14 am
  #1886  
 
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I thought the 77Gs are only being used TATL because of international equipment being out of service for Polaris upgrades.

Of course nothing is stopping them from continuing to use them TATL, but I would think that they would want to associate Polaris Equipped Aircraft with Polaris Service. Right now there is no harm in using the 77Gs in Polaris Service because sCO and sUA IPTE seats can still be expected on Polaris (service) Flights.
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Old Aug 12, 2019, 6:12 am
  #1887  
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I am scheduled to fly EWR-DEL in October (after the restarting of service in September 2019). Currently, I see the 2+2+2 config in the J cabin of 772.

is there a possibility of getting a retrofit Polaris cabin on this route?
washingtonian_2017 is offline  
Old Aug 12, 2019, 6:25 am
  #1888  
 
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Originally Posted by washingtonian_2017
I am scheduled to fly EWR-DEL in October (after the restarting of service in September 2019). Currently, I see the 2+2+2 config in the J cabin of 772.

is there a possibility of getting a retrofit Polaris cabin on this route?
This is serviced by the 77Y pmCO of which 14 are currently still in the 2+2+2 config, 2 are in retrofit and 6 have been converted (by tomorrow).
By Nov this will likely be: 12 not converted, 2 in mod, and 8 converted.

EWR-PEK uses the same type and sees a polarized version maybe one-out-of-10 flights, currently. (guesstimation)
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Old Aug 12, 2019, 7:03 am
  #1889  
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Originally Posted by phkc070408
I thought the 77Gs are only being used TATL because of international equipment being out of service for Polaris upgrades.
I'm not aware of any basis for that conclusion. UA has used them on seasonal TATL leisure routes for two summers now. If UA has an aircraft shortage right now, it's narrowbodies.
Originally Posted by phkc070408
I would think that they would want to associate Polaris Equipped Aircraft with Polaris Service.
One might think many things, but that hasn't stopped UA from putting lipstick on that pig for over three years now
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Old Aug 12, 2019, 7:36 am
  #1890  
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It's definitely uncertain whether 77G will continue on the TATL routes once the 781 and new low-J 788 configs are fully available. It has an even worse premium ratio than either of those a/c but they do offer some lower-premium fleet options without going whole hog.
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