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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 Nov 8, 2017, 7:10 pm
  #676  
formerly FrequentFlyKid
 
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Originally Posted by DENviaLAX
Not sure where you're seeing that. According to FlightAware it's been flying nonstop and hasn't even been to MIA.

http://flightaware.com/live/flight/N644UA
I transposed the registration number and had been tracking N664UA and not N644UA. Oops.
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Old Nov 10, 2017, 12:50 pm
  #677  
 
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Auto reassigned. I was traveling alone so it wasn’t a big deal but a bunch of people were freaking out.

Originally Posted by FlyerTalkUserName
i got burned by this on SFO-AKL but that was a true equipment swap from 789 to 77W. Is the auto-reassignment happening on the 763’s as well? Feel like that’ll lead to a lot of complaints over the next few years.
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Old Nov 15, 2017, 10:06 am
  #678  
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The fourth 763 (N656UA) seems to have entered HKG retrofit facility to receive Polaris. The second 763 (N648UA) which has been in HKG since August 26, 2017 is still there, together with the third a/c (N649UA) which arrived on Sep 9.
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Old Nov 17, 2017, 9:20 pm
  #679  
 
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Originally Posted by UASleeper
The fourth 763 (N656UA) seems to have entered HKG retrofit facility to receive Polaris. The second 763 (N648UA) which has been in HKG since August 26, 2017 is still there, together with the third a/c (N649UA) which arrived on Sep 9.
Hopefully it means one of the aircraft that is there is about to be done! Looking forward to the new Polaris 767s.
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Old Nov 18, 2017, 7:57 am
  #680  
 
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Originally Posted by UASleeper
The fourth 763 (N656UA) seems to have entered HKG retrofit facility to receive Polaris. The second 763 (N648UA) which has been in HKG since August 26, 2017 is still there, together with the third a/c (N649UA) which arrived on Sep 9.
Certainly taking quite a bit longer than I would expect...are the retrofits intersecting with any heavy maintenance that needs to be done as well?
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Old Nov 18, 2017, 10:05 am
  #681  
 
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Originally Posted by PsiFighter37
Certainly taking quite a bit longer than I would expect...are the retrofits intersecting with any heavy maintenance that needs to be done as well?

AFAIK, the 767 are being converted at their heavy maintenance schedule
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Old Nov 18, 2017, 1:15 pm
  #682  
 
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Originally Posted by PsiFighter37
Certainly taking quite a bit longer than I would expect...are the retrofits intersecting with any heavy maintenance that needs to be done as well?
I believe they are doing additional maintenance as well to extend their life.
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Old Nov 18, 2017, 4:13 pm
  #683  
 
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Originally Posted by PsiFighter37
Certainly taking quite a bit longer than I would expect...are the retrofits intersecting with any heavy maintenance that needs to be done as well?
Not a standard C or D check, but these birds are also getting life-extension work, cockpit upgrades, winglets, and full cabin refits (not just seats) including the economy cabin.
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Old Nov 19, 2017, 12:44 pm
  #684  
 
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Now that they have three birds over there if they can get one completed a month, they could have the fleet done end of year 2018!
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Old Nov 20, 2017, 12:30 pm
  #685  
 
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Originally Posted by thejaredhuang
787-8 and 787-9 will be the last planes to get Polaris. As covered in this thread as well as the Fleet Update thread, even new delivery 789s are coming with the sCO seat. 787-10s will be delivered with Polaris
Any idea what the timeline looks like? 2020 or later? With 788 and 789 so popular on TPAC, I feel like I'll never get a chance at the Polaris hard product.
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Old Nov 20, 2017, 1:02 pm
  #686  
 
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Originally Posted by dmo580
Any idea what the timeline looks like? 2020 or later? With 788 and 789 so popular on TPAC, I feel like I'll never get a chance at the Polaris hard product.
You can already fly Polaris hard product on SFO-PEK/HKG/NRT/AKL/TPE (until March 2018). Of course the 787 are last on the firing order. There's also the chance to fly the reconfig 772.
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Old Nov 20, 2017, 4:34 pm
  #687  
 
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Unless you're flying out of DEN or LAX to Asia I don't see, as Hirohito888 said, it being that hard to get on a 773.
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Old Nov 20, 2017, 8:39 pm
  #688  
 
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Are they still flying the Polaris hard product on any of the domestic routes? I checked EWR - SFO and didnt see it anymore.
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Old Nov 20, 2017, 8:54 pm
  #689  
 
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Originally Posted by JVPhoto
Unless you're flying out of DEN or LAX to Asia I don't see, as Hirohito888 said, it being that hard to get on a 773.
you forgot IAH, IAD, ORD, EWR (Ex. TLV amd NRT). I would amend your statement as not hard out of SFO only.

overall 15 birds with new hardware... 355 days since polaris rollout and the 77w doesn't touch many hubs unless on special rotation.
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Old Nov 20, 2017, 9:08 pm
  #690  
 
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Originally Posted by PrivatePilot
Are they still flying the Polaris hard product on any of the domestic routes? I checked EWR - SFO and didnt see it anymore.
Not sure where all those 773 are going: from December 1 through January 17 they are also not flying SFO-PEK ( United 777-300ER Future Routes )
Is maintenance due already? How many 773 were doing EWR-SFO and SFO-PEK?

Added: Yikes, just saw the 772 seat-map with 3:4:3.
Just glad (for now) that the 77Y on EWR-PEK is one of the last ones to be retrofitted, or so it appears. Safe until 2020 or so?

Last edited by narvik; Nov 20, 2017 at 9:20 pm
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