Non-Polaris swap to/from Polaris seat re-assignment process?
#77
Join Date: Feb 2016
Location: Albuquerque
Programs: MileagePlus Gold, Marriott Platinum, AA Exec Plat
Posts: 14
Polaris 777-200 Seat Assignment Question- old seatmap
My wife and I are flying ORD-MUN next week. I have checked and all the flights for the last month have been retrofitted- true Polaris 777-200s. The current seat map of course shows the old 3 class seat map. I understand that a new seat map should show up 72 hours before the flight. We would like to be in Row 1 D,G or Row 9 D,G
Currently- we are in seats 8 K and J on the old seat map
Any idea where we will be moved in the new true Polaris seat map? Also, is there any way to move seats on the old seat map to make sure you end up in 1 D,G or 9 D,G when they change the seat map before the flight?
Thanks for the help
Currently- we are in seats 8 K and J on the old seat map
Any idea where we will be moved in the new true Polaris seat map? Also, is there any way to move seats on the old seat map to make sure you end up in 1 D,G or 9 D,G when they change the seat map before the flight?
Thanks for the help
#78
Join Date: May 2010
Location: AVP & PEK
Programs: UA 1K 1.8MM
Posts: 6,332
#79
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Oct 2001
Location: Austin, TX
Posts: 21,361
No.
No.
There's a board thread on this somewhere, but the general consensus is that you can end up absolutely anywhere. The best thing to do is to keep an eye on the seat map, starting from ~3 days prior to departure.
There's a board thread on this somewhere, but the general consensus is that you can end up absolutely anywhere. The best thing to do is to keep an eye on the seat map, starting from ~3 days prior to departure.
#80
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I think 1CH has a good chance of ending up in 1DG, but that's probably not helpful
Beyond that, it's a little bit more deterministic than the monkey and the dartboard, but not enough that anyone can give a really helpful answer unfortunately.
Beyond that, it's a little bit more deterministic than the monkey and the dartboard, but not enough that anyone can give a really helpful answer unfortunately.
#81
Join Date: Nov 2012
Programs: BA Bronze, United 1K, HH Gold, SPG Platinum, Marriott Platinum
Posts: 3,477
My wife and I are flying ORD-MUN next week. I have checked and all the flights for the last month have been retrofitted- true Polaris 777-200s. The current seat map of course shows the old 3 class seat map. I understand that a new seat map should show up 72 hours before the flight. We would like to be in Row 1 D,G or Row 9 D,G
Currently- we are in seats 8 K and J on the old seat map
Any idea where we will be moved in the new true Polaris seat map? Also, is there any way to move seats on the old seat map to make sure you end up in 1 D,G or 9 D,G when they change the seat map before the flight?
Thanks for the help
Currently- we are in seats 8 K and J on the old seat map
Any idea where we will be moved in the new true Polaris seat map? Also, is there any way to move seats on the old seat map to make sure you end up in 1 D,G or 9 D,G when they change the seat map before the flight?
Thanks for the help
The problem is when United does those swaps at the last minute and assigns all seats you just get what you get and there is no chances of getting better seats.
#82
Join Date: May 2010
Location: AVP & PEK
Programs: UA 1K 1.8MM
Posts: 6,332
Of course this requires the cabin not being full or not fully checked in/assigned, and some constant checking on what plane they are actually going to use.
Last edited by WineCountryUA; Aug 10, 2019 at 3:04 pm Reason: merging consecutive posts by same member
#83
Join Date: Nov 2012
Programs: BA Bronze, United 1K, HH Gold, SPG Platinum, Marriott Platinum
Posts: 3,477
On our flight to PVG in May where we had 4 plane types in the last 72 hours we managed to get extremely good seats at swaps #1 and #2 that happened at T-60 and T-48. I also improved my seat at check-in. Then at T-5, our luck turned sour.... In the First Class area, my wife had 2A and I had 2C. Very good seats, across the aisle from each other. Swapped to the pmCO. 2A remained as 2A. Just behind the toilet so noises.....and window with having to jump over the passenger in 2B. Not good. My seat 2C became 2D. At least it was an aisle seat but still too close to that toilet. Swap happened just when we had finished boarding our first flight and I had to close my phone. When we landed in ORD, we managed to switch to 3D and 4D. In a perfect world, we would have gotten seats xD and xE next to each other but there were no E seats left at that time. However, if we look at the glass being half full, we were more lucky than the couple who had 1C and 1H in the pmUA772 and got 1D and 1E in the pmCO 772...... And my wife did get a good ETC after she wrote to the 1K line. But we have no way to know how much of the ETC was due to the fact that the United agents at our home airport cannot through check luggage for UA-UA flights on different PNRs which was the second thing she complained about. In 40 years of flying as an adult, this is only the third time that she writes to complain to an airline which shows that she was really annoyed........
#84
Join Date: May 2010
Location: AVP & PEK
Programs: UA 1K 1.8MM
Posts: 6,332
Ah! I think you are absolutely correct and that is INDEED the crucial factor! ^
At least UA made up for it (with the ETC) in your case/your wife's case. Nice.
#85
Join Date: Nov 2012
Programs: BA Bronze, United 1K, HH Gold, SPG Platinum, Marriott Platinum
Posts: 3,477
I have to say that now we don't have any long haul international flights for a very, very long time. We can wait until United starts selling PP out of ORD......
#86
Join Date: May 2007
Programs: UA 1K, Hyatt Globalist
Posts: 5,447
Is this a regular occurrence? I thought they haven't started freely swapping pmCO and pmUA planes, which is to say that a pmUA IPTE plane should only get swapped to a pmUA Polaris plane, and vice versa. To be clear, I'm talking about "regular" frame swapping in the T-3d window that is the main topic of this thread, not advanced schedule changes or last-minute IRROPS when they just find any available plane and send it out (either of which could have been you). Just trying to clarify under what circumstances this happened.
#87
Join Date: Mar 2015
Location: NYC (Primarily EWR)
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I feel like the process from swapping on 777s is going to be easier than 767s. Earlier this year on MAD-EWR, we got swapped from a legacy 2-class 763 to a Polaris-outfitted 763. I didn't mind - I looked at the seat map and got us a middle and aisle seat. Then, shortly thereafter, they swapped us to a 764, none of which have been retrofitted. In that case, I really wanted our original seat assignments, but I couldn't get them - and now the seat map was in total disarray. I think we ended up in row 7 or row 8 instead, as in the old 2-1-2 config, I wanted us to be sitting window/aisle - but I didn't want to be too close to the galley separating J and Y.
We got punted from a 78J to an sCO 772 earlier this year, but because we had picked middle seats, they kept that (which I appreciated). But since 2-1-2 v. 1-1-1 is quite different, those can be quite frustrating to deal with. That said, it is a temporary (if multi-year) problem that J passengers will have to deal with.
We got punted from a 78J to an sCO 772 earlier this year, but because we had picked middle seats, they kept that (which I appreciated). But since 2-1-2 v. 1-1-1 is quite different, those can be quite frustrating to deal with. That said, it is a temporary (if multi-year) problem that J passengers will have to deal with.
#88
Join Date: Nov 2012
Programs: BA Bronze, United 1K, HH Gold, SPG Platinum, Marriott Platinum
Posts: 3,477
Is this a regular occurrence? I thought they haven't started freely swapping pmCO and pmUA planes, which is to say that a pmUA IPTE plane should only get swapped to a pmUA Polaris plane, and vice versa. To be clear, I'm talking about "regular" frame swapping in the T-3d window that is the main topic of this thread, not advanced schedule changes or last-minute IRROPS when they just find any available plane and send it out (either of which could have been you). Just trying to clarify under what circumstances this happened.
#89
FlyerTalk Evangelist
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I think the final straw for the sCO/sUA swaps was the movement of some of the sCO frames to ORD in order to get PE-equipped birds into EWR (and make sure ORD retained its crown of consistently the worst UA hard product in the fleet )
#90
Join Date: Nov 2012
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To go back to the subject of this thread, I have one data point for what seat you get if you chose seat 20J on the pmUA 772. On the Polarized version, I got 20F. Makes sense as the computer knows that a J seat is supposed to be a middle seat. My wife, who had the window seat 20K on the pmUA 772, got the window seat 20L. The rest of Row 20 was empty so I got back a seat next to my wife: 20K. We got upgraded 25 hours later so I would have escaped anyway from seat 20F if I had not been able to change it.