WineCountryUA

While any swap is possible, UA appears to be selling PP on only some routes and not offering PP on routes that might have some PP aircraft. It has been speculated on FT, this means swaps to non-PP on routes selling PP would be highly unlikely.

As I have paid PP flights in the future, I also hoped UA prioritizes aircraft for those routes.

findark

I would not. While anything is possible, UA is guarding heavily in the opposite direction: flying aircraft equipped with PE on routes where they don't sell it. They will only sell PE when they are confident they can deliver it.

StuckinITH

Yes, one way United is protecting the PP routes is by not selling those yet out of or into ORD. From time to time we do get a plane with PP.

fumje

I definitely wouldn't be buying the P+ seat instead of Polaris in that direction.

TomA

I'm 1K.
When I search a flight for HKG (for next week) and look at the seat map, it shows former Global First seats open.
If it shows them available and I book that ticket can I choose those seats at booking?
If so, would you chose those over new the Polaris seats on a different routing?


(United does say that “to provide the best experience for all our customers, a dedicated team will monitor flights and may assign former Polaris first class seats to Premier 1K and other high value customers closer to departure when the actual aircraft is assigned and most accurate seatmap is confirmed.”)

SFHokie

Short answer is "No" to both of those questions. Longer answer is that you'll likely enjoy the new Polaris seat if you can get it. However, if you do choose the flight with the GF seats, you might be able to swap to one of those seats during OLCI (online check-in) at ~T-24 hours if they're still available.

TomA

Pretty awful (and kind of false advertising) of them to show the seats as available on the map, if they are not selectable after purchase.

Yes, I like the Polaris seats very much, but never tried a GF seat, so I was wondering if it was worth a shot. (But fail and you end up in 2-4-2.)
When I've had a chance to fly first I always choose an Asian or European carrier. (

schley

Data point ORD-LAX is 777-200 with GF greyed out still after purchasing a D fare for this 1k. Been 48 hours now and still can't select a GF seat. Is this an actual policy that 1k desk would actually know or help with?

Thanks.

Ari

I am changing the Wiki back. I think the 1K J/C/D seat selection ability is FAKE NEWS. My mother on a D fare (1K) cannot select a row 1/2 seat on a legacy 777 either. I did several test bookings on another 1K account; no dice. A single anecdotal post does not a rule make.

onthesam

Same thing for me ORD-LAX on a D fare. Could not select.

Ari

Those are frequently Polarized, FYI.

StuckinITH

My understanding is that the 1K on J/C/D fare cannot select those seats. The 1K on J/C/D fare might get an invitation from United to enjoy those seats once the United computer figures that the flight will have a low number of GS. Those who get such invitation get an email from United that their seats have changed.

pk12

Why not? Unfortunately it's already purchased.. the price difference between the legs was too much. It would cost me an extra $500 to switch the classes to the opposite legs.

fumje

OK, fair enough if there was a price difference and all you want is to try both. The advantage of the J seat is laying flat, so that you can sleep deeply, and the US-Eur flight is the one on which you want to sleep. Coming back it's better to be mostly awake, maybe with a little bit of napping which is fine in the P+ seats.

StuckinITH

ORD-PVG. My wife's seat was 7H, my seat was 7C. Both 1Ks upgraded to PZ one month prior to the flight. The night before check-in only seat 1H was still available in the former First Class area.

My wife had booked the first flight out of our small airport so she did her check-in at T-30 of the ORD-PVG flight. Her first attempt failed as she got to the end of the process without the page for seat selection appearing. Moments of panic but a second attempt at check-in was successful and she got seat 1H. Thirty minutes later, seat 2A became available. She was very tempted to switch seats but she worried that something would go wrong in the process. The outfit that purchased my ticket had booked me on the second flight leaving our city so I could only do the check-in at T-28. By that time, seat 2A was taken but seat 6B had opened. So, I took 6B.

We kept checking the seat map every so often but failed to see that seat 2K had opened at some time between T-24 and T-22.5. The only person that was on the upgrade list that morning got upgraded and appeared in the upgrade list in seat 2K. At T-14, we noticed that that passenger was now seated in seat 7C but seat 2K was occupied. So, maybe a second time that we failed to see that a seat had become available.

At boarding, my wife gave me her seat as she really likes row 6 in that plane (She regretted that as seat 6A was occupied by the neighbors from Hell, the key part being the "s").

My wife did ask the passenger in seat 7C how come his seat was changed. He said that he was summarily ejected from that seat and reassigned to 7C. Happened automatically with no reason given. He assumed that the seat was given to a higher status passenger.