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[Rumor] More Polaris "Enhancements" coming May 1, 2018? ...

Old Mar 25, 2018, 4:42 pm
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Last edit by: WineCountryUA
Originally Posted by EWR764
Word is out on another site (not my post) regarding a company memo about the May 1 "enhancements".

POLARIS SERVICE ENHANCEMENTS
Frequently Asked Questions

1. When do the service updates go into effect?
A: The service updates are effective May 1, 2018, on all long-haul international flights.

2. Why are we making changes to our United Polaris® service?
A: Customers have positively received our United Polaris lounge, and this year we are opening more United Polaris lounges beginning this summer in San Francisco, Houston and New York/Newark and in the fall, Los Angeles. As we continue to add more lounges, we want to take into account the feedback that customers have given us — they’ve emphasized their desire to rest and relax during their journey, especially onboard. The updates to the service flow will allow us to continue providing a premium product with high-quality food, wine, amenities and more, but it’ll be delivered in a more efficient way.

3. What is the new international United Polaris meal service flow?
A: The meal service flow for both first and business class will be the same:
Pre-departure
• Pre-poured sparkling wine, orange juice and water offered from a silver tray, with other beverages available upon request.
Main meal service
• Hot towels
• Linen placement
• Pre-meal beverage cart
• Appetizer and salad cart
• Bread and beverage refills
• Entrées
• Bread and beverage refills
• Dessert and pre-plated cheese cart
• Individual water bottles with hang tags
Mid-flight service (when applicable)
• Display mid-flight snacks on console, self-service unit, fold-down trays or galley countertop.
• Heat and serve hot on-demand items (when applicable) upon customer request.
Pre-arrival service
• Hot towels
• Pre-arrival tray setup with entrée and choice of beverage
• Breads and pastries

4. Will we be able to offer other pre-departure beverages?
A: Yes, upon customer request fulfill other pre-departure beverages in accordance with each departure country’s pre-departure liquor procedures. Refer to the Flight Attendant Policies and Procedures Manual to determine if you are allowed to open beverage carts/carriers that contain alcohol on the ground.

5. Is there still a chocolate offered during pre-departure?
A: Pre-departure chocolates/dessert will be catered on the pre-arrival tray instead for customers to enjoy during or after their flight.

6. What’s changing with the Bloody Mary and wine specialty beverage carts?
A: Wines and Bloody Marys will continue to be available upon request, but the dedicated cart service will change. This was a common flight attendant suggestion for improvement. A new branded cart cover is being sourced to improve presentation in the aisle and will be available shortly after launch.

7. Can we still offer wine tastings?
A: Absolutely. Although the wine arches with the 3 tastings will not be boarded, we can continue to honor customers’ requests to sample select wines.

8. What about the United Polaris first class soup and salad course?
A: The salad and appetizer will be delivered at the same time on a tray setup, instead of having a soup course.

9. What about the turndown service?
A: We will continue to offer the turndown service upon request.

10. Will Express Dining continue to be offered?
A: Yes, Express Dining will continue to be offered and can be requested and delivered at any point during the flight.

11. Will we continue to offer the mini desserts and fruit and cheese?
A: The mini desserts will continue to be offered from the three-tier cart with the signature ice cream service. In addition, pre-plated cheese will be added to the dessert cart. To make room for the fruit and cheese on the dessert cart, the specialty tea box will be removed from the cart, although specialty teas will continue to be available from the galley.

12. Are there any updates to the mid-flight and pre-arrival services?
A: There will be a few updates to both the mid-flight and pre-arrival service.
Mid-flight service (when available) – While we’ll no longer have formal presentation of mid-flight snacks, snack provisioning levels will remain the same and will continue to be displayed near the galley as is done today. Hang tags advising the customers that mid-flight snacks are available will be added to the individual bottle waters distributed after the main meal service. Hot snack items, when available, will also be delivered upon request.
Pre-arrival service – We’re removing tray table linens to reduce trips through the aisle. The tray itself will continue to have a linen liner. The pre-departure chocolate/dessert will be catered on the pre-arrival tray for customers to enjoy during or after the flight.

13. Will there be any new service items introduced to support the new United Polaris service?
A: Yes, there are a few new elements that will be introduced, including:
Cart covers – Similar to some of our competitors, branded cart covers for both the half and full carts will be boarded for use in the aisle on both the beverage and meal tray carts. Cart covers will be available shortly after launch.
Hang tags – To be placed on individual bottle waters at the end of the main meal service to advise customers that mid-flight snacks are available.

14. Will we be changing the domestic meal service procedures to align with the new United Polaris service (e.g. pre-poured pre-departure beverages)?
A: We will continue listening to the feedback of our customers and our flight attendants and will adjust our processes where necessary to deliver the best service for our customers.
Some key points:

- Return of the salad/appetizer cart, although I suspect it's just going to be the meal cart with a fancy cover, to reduce the number of galley trips with hand-run trays
- Beverage carts coming back to the aisle (similar to DL and the former 3-cabin sUA business class service) with branded cart covers
- Soup is gone in Polaris First (so no more differentiation; the product isn't expected to last the full year, anyway)
- Wine tasting arches are gone
- No bloody mary carts (already announced)
- Hot bites will stay
- Bread refills to be offered (return of the bread basket?)
- Pre-departure chocolates returned to the pre-arrival tray

In many ways, this is going to look like the former three-cabin BusinessFirst service with nicer linens and serviceware. Overall, not the sweeping change (or depth of cuts) I was expecting. No word on provisioning of the other items (gel pillows, mattress pads, slippers, PJs, etc.)
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[Rumor] More Polaris "Enhancements" coming May 1, 2018? ...

Old Mar 25, 2018, 9:44 pm
  #421  
 
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Originally Posted by fumje
Reducing workload saves money by not increasing staffing.

It is common in many—most?, or at least East—Asian countries to remove shoes in 'indoor' spaces.
UA has reduced WB staffing, and the 77W, the 747 replacement at UA, has several fewer FA positions. So I'm sure this factored into the decision, rather than increase staffing to (gasp!) potentially improve customer service...
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Old Mar 25, 2018, 9:49 pm
  #422  
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Originally Posted by fumje
Reducing workload saves money by not increasing staffing.

It is common in many—most?, or at least East—Asian countries to remove shoes in 'indoor' spaces.
Was there serious talk to increase staffing? In my experience, one big factor in service quality is staffing/load. The FAs were telling me that 77Ws were not staffed as much and I thought that was the way it was going to stay - not more and not less?
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Old Mar 25, 2018, 10:05 pm
  #423  
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Originally Posted by username
Was there serious talk to increase staffing? In my experience, one big factor in service quality is staffing/load. The FAs were telling me that 77Ws were not staffed as much and I thought that was the way it was going to stay - not more and not less?
No. In fact, the company has told employees that they will be reducing staffing to match AA/DL. I'd imagine this round of Polaris cuts will be pretexts for those staffing cuts.
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Old Mar 25, 2018, 10:12 pm
  #424  
 
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Originally Posted by fumje
I might even write in about no slippers. I have never had a flight in BF/Polaris with no slippers.
So the FA telling me slippers are only for flights with pyjamas was not correct? I have always had slippers on all my previous (non-pyjama flights) and thought the stocking of slippers had changed with the new "enhancements".
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Old Mar 25, 2018, 10:16 pm
  #425  
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Originally Posted by Aussienarelle
So the FA telling me slippers are only for flights with pyjamas was not correct? I have always had slippers on all my previous (non-pyjama flights) and thought the stocking of slippers had changed with the new "enhancements".
Completely false. There is no link between the two.

SFO-NRT has always been a slippers flight (even before Polaris) but it is too short for pjs.
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Old Mar 25, 2018, 10:21 pm
  #426  
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Originally Posted by Kacee
Completely false. There is no link between the two.

SFO-NRT has always been a slippers flight (even before Polaris) but it is too short for pjs.
Sometimes NRT-SFO is too short even for the Japanese meal! (Cf previous discussion of staffing levels. )
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Old Mar 25, 2018, 11:14 pm
  #427  
 
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Sent in a note noting no slippers and FA informed me it was because it was a non-pyjama flight. I also mentioned the lack of hot bites as a disappointment. However, I also did compliment on the many positives associated with the flight (as there were many). Not really into complaining but the lack of slippers and hot bites were disappointments to me.
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Old Mar 26, 2018, 6:32 am
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Originally Posted by fezzington
No. In fact, the company has told employees that they will be reducing staffing to match AA/DL. I'd imagine this round of Polaris cuts will be pretexts for those staffing cuts.
This makes perfect sense.
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Old Mar 26, 2018, 6:45 am
  #429  
 
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Originally Posted by Aussienarelle
Sent in a note noting no slippers and FA informed me it was because it was a non-pyjama flight.
That's BS. Ignorant or lazy FA. I've heard them say that before on IAH-europe, and I've let them know it's just not true. Lo & behold, slippers appear...
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Old Mar 26, 2018, 3:50 pm
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Originally Posted by Aussienarelle
Just got off UA901 (SFO-LHR).

No hot bites. No full body red wines (i.e. cabernet, shiraz). No slippers.

We were given PDB and chocolates although would rather have the sweet treat to take with me at the end of the flight and be given something savoury at the beginning of the flight. Did get the gel pillow (love this aspect of Polaris so wonder how long it will last).

Did use the SFO "international lounge", and found it disappointing. It was a much better GF lounge for food and drink selection. I asked about apple juice and was told there was none available.

People were great from check-in staff to lounge staff to FAs.

I paid for this Polaris experience it was not a GPU flight (not that this should matter).

Not enjoying the "enhancements", or what I would consider degradation of the Polaris soft product.
​​​
We were on UA 901 a few days before you .Slippers were provisioned at every seat but we had to request PDB and a dinner wine refill both of which were delivered at last possible moment (in the case of dinner glass was refilled as desert service was underway!!). The inconsistency is disappointing as is the fact that after 16 flights we have yet to "enjoy" the full polaris experience and they are now cutting it back!!
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Old Mar 26, 2018, 4:15 pm
  #431  
 
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So will the pdb champagne be the nice stuff? Or sparkling wine they currently serve pub.
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Old Mar 26, 2018, 4:27 pm
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Originally Posted by EWRMAN
So will the pdb champagne be the nice stuff? Or sparkling wine they currently serve pub.
I doubt it will be Champagne. They should call it what it is: sparkling wine (if it's the Italian stuff: Prosecco, If it's the Spanish stuff: Cava, etc.....)
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Old Mar 26, 2018, 9:03 pm
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Originally Posted by StuckinITH
I doubt it will be Champagne. They should call it what it is: sparkling wine (if it's the Italian stuff: Prosecco, If it's the Spanish stuff: Cava, etc.....)
Yes I agree. Call it what it is. Prosecco. Sparkling wine and cava are nothing to be embarrassed about. I actually prefer the Californian Louis Roeder to moet and many $40 champagnes
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Old Mar 26, 2018, 9:42 pm
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Today (3/26) I was on UA33 (NRT-LAX) and on top of the pillow/blanket/duvet pile was a pair of slippers. PDBs were offered, however, they were served on a silver tray. In the air, the wine cart had been enhanced with the full complement of liquors and soft drinks. What it looked to me was that the cart had all of the beverages on offer, but there was a cart next to 2L and 2R that had spares. After that, the trays were distributed with appetizer and salad course, but bread was handed out of the basket, snd luckily it was nearly all garlic bread . The dessert cart had the cheese plate, ice cream, pastries, and liquors, but then again, it seemed like a majority of passengers were passing up on the cheese plate.

For the pre-arrival service, they were distributing the trays from carts stationed in both C galleys, so I would gather that it was a hybrid experience.

Note: NH provided slippers on MNL-NRT (3h20m) as well as CX on HKG-CEB (2h30m)

Another note: PR was able to complete a full meal service on CEB-MNL, which is a 45m flight and was a A333.
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Old Mar 26, 2018, 11:14 pm
  #435  
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Originally Posted by fgirard
Today (3/26)
Another note: PR was able to complete a full meal service on CEB-MNL, which is a 45m flight and was a A333.
The way I read UAs (and AA, DL etc) offerings on short haul flights, it points to cost savings vs. being able to provision a full meal in a timely manner.
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