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3-class F seat now sold as Domestic F/Polaris Bus,GS or J/C/D 1K? may select pre-OLCI

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Old Feb 5, 2019, 6:20 am
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Last edit by: Ari
As of Feb. 5, only Global Services are able to select FC seats. The ability for 1K to reserve seats was removed. Existing 1K seat selections appear to be kept. In June 2019, the advance access for 1Ks on J/C/D fares was restored. [It appears this is not the case.]

Ex-GlobalFirst seats are selectable for all confirmed business class passengers at check in, even if >24 hrs from flight with GF seats (in the case of positioning flights).

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3-class F seat now sold as Domestic F/Polaris Bus,GS or J/C/D 1K? may select pre-OLCI

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Old Dec 15, 2018, 3:43 pm
  #271  
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Don't all the 772ERs have pilot rest bunks? I'm not quite sure how that fits into all of this..
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Old Dec 15, 2018, 8:18 pm
  #272  
 
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I seem to recall the AA contract, back when they had the 777-200ER with first class, allowed for bunks and seats.
I'm sure UA has something similar.
The argument being some didn't like the bunks as they are too coffin-like. Also, if they didn't want to sleep there was no good place to eat, read or watch a movie.
This is all from memory so I could be wrong.
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Old Dec 16, 2018, 10:58 am
  #273  
 
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Originally Posted by bluepig1
As a GS, pretty happy with booking full fare Z and selecting seat 1H on ORD-NRT in two weeks.
Update: this flight switched to a Polarised 777-2 a few days before departure. I’m currently sitting in 8G - better than the odd numbered Polarised seats with super tight in/out access but probably not as nice as my formerly selected 1H old GF seat before the switch. Still showing 2L in an old GF seat on the return later this week but am checking regularly to see if it switches to Polarised as well.
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Old Dec 16, 2018, 12:11 pm
  #274  
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Originally Posted by findark
Don't all the 772ERs have pilot rest bunks? I'm not quite sure how that fits into all of this..
The seat just isn’t for sleeping...The bunks are just that—bunks. Any time I’ve been in 6A, with the pilot rest being 6B, they’ve only sat there to eat, and perhaps relax by watching the IFE—Never sleeping.
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Old Dec 16, 2018, 5:35 pm
  #275  
 
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Originally Posted by chuck1
I seem to recall the AA contract, back when they had the 777-200ER with first class, allowed for bunks and seats.
I'm sure UA has something similar.
The argument being some didn't like the bunks as they are too coffin-like. Also, if they didn't want to sleep there was no good place to eat, read or watch a movie.
This is all from memory so I could be wrong.
There are actually two sub-configurations of the 3-class 772 out there ... the 77J and the 77Q. The 77J doesn’t have the crew rest module, so the blocked seats are required for rest/sleeping, even on TATL with a single crew. As these are polarized (and converted to creation “77T”), crew rest modules are added. It was a requirement of the new JCBA (contract) that rest modules be added to all aircraft that don’t currently have them. As such, the blocks are not released on 6A (or now possibly 1A) until Ops assign the final tail # to the flight at around T-60.

Another requirement of the JCBA was that a Business class seat was to be booked for rest. On the old UA contract it was a First class seat ... this was normalized under assumption all First was going away. If it was TPAC with a relief crew, then both 2A and 2K would be blocked on a 77J. Now that the entire cabin is sold as J, it seems like the pilots have asked for the seat to be reassigned as 1A
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Old Dec 16, 2018, 7:01 pm
  #276  
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Originally Posted by greenpau
There are actually two sub-configurations of the 3-class 772 out there ... the 77J and the 77Q. The 77J doesn’t have the crew rest module, so the blocked seats are required for rest/sleeping, even on TATL with a single crew. As these are polarized (and converted to creation “77T”), crew rest modules are added. It was a requirement of the new JCBA (contract) that rest modules be added to all aircraft that don’t currently have them. As such, the blocks are not released on 6A (or now possibly 1A) until Ops assign the final tail # to the flight at around T-60.
Interesting. For some reason I thought all the 772 with no crew rest were the non-ER 77As that got converted into 77Gs. Didn't realize there will still some flying in the 3-class configuration. I assume the split is the same as N2xx versus N7xxUA?
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Old Dec 16, 2018, 7:20 pm
  #277  
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Originally Posted by bluepig1


Update: this flight switched to a Polarised 777-2 a few days before departure. I’m currently sitting in 8G - better than the odd numbered Polarised seats with super tight in/out access but probably not as nice as my formerly selected 1H old GF seat before the switch. Still showing 2L in an old GF seat on the return later this week but am checking regularly to see if it switches to Polarised as well.
So, when they switched you to a Polarized plane, they gave you a seat in Row 1 and then you switched yourself to Row 8? It's good that passengers have different preferences as it would open that Row 1 with the bigger footwell. Really Row 8 is the last row I would choose in the front cabin. And I would be unhappy if United assigned me a seat in that row.
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Old Dec 16, 2018, 11:57 pm
  #278  
 
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Originally Posted by StuckinITH
So, when they switched you to a Polarized plane, they gave you a seat in Row 1 and then you switched yourself to Row 8? It's good that passengers have different preferences as it would open that Row 1 with the bigger footwell. Really Row 8 is the last row I would choose in the front cabin. And I would be unhappy if United assigned me a seat in that row.
I read him to mean that he was in Row 1 before but got randomly switched to 8 when they changed aircraft type.
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Old Dec 17, 2018, 4:14 am
  #279  
 
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Nope, when they switched me, they automatically put me in 1G. Given the option, I switched myself to a window (all aisle access) and even numbered seat. I didn’t mind row 8, as it’s probably nearly equally close to the galley/lavatories as row 1.
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Old Dec 17, 2018, 4:51 am
  #280  
 
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Originally Posted by findark
Interesting. For some reason I thought all the 772 with no crew rest were the non-ER 77As that got converted into 77Gs. Didn't realize there will still some flying in the 3-class configuration. I assume the split is the same as N2xx versus N7xxUA?
There are only 3 of the 77J still flying: N206UA, N795UA, N798UA ... the rest have been converted to Polaris 77T. They’ve been flying mainly ORD-PVG/GRU/NRT it seems. I was on N206UA on SFO-LHR recently. Like the 77G, it has two forward lavs - one on the left and one right.

The 77J used to exclusively have the 27XX tail number you’d see in the app, and the 77Q used 20XX and 28XX. The 12 772s that have been Polarized are a mix of 20/27/28XX.
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Old Dec 17, 2018, 3:59 pm
  #281  
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Thinking back to that discussion about not letting "paid first" sit in the first two rows, I'm looking at some SFO-IAD travel in January (pretty far out for me doing business travel) and there sure seem to be a lot of GS/1K already booked. All the 772 flights I would consider are 8/8 in the GF seats, so I guess I'll have to hope for a Polaris swap after all
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Old Dec 19, 2018, 7:41 am
  #282  
 
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Originally Posted by bluepig1


Update: this flight switched to a Polarised 777-2 a few days before departure. I’m currently sitting in 8G - better than the odd numbered Polarised seats with super tight in/out access but probably not as nice as my formerly selected 1H old GF seat before the switch. Still showing 2L in an old GF seat on the return later this week but am checking regularly to see if it switches to Polarised as well.
Update #2, NRT-ORD switched from 3 class to Polarised and my 2L was auto transferred to 2G. I switched to 2A as again, I prefer the even number window with aisle access. Bummer to not have a chance to fly old GF seats one more time, but I’m not unhappy with the Polarised seats - although I concur with others that those darn seat controls are a PITA.
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Old Dec 19, 2018, 3:23 pm
  #283  
 
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Just used a GPU for a 777-200 flight from MUC to IAD in January. The agent who helped me with the upgrade (The website kept giving me an error for some reason) originally assigned me a seat in the middle (with the dreaded 4-across). When I went online to change the seat myself, I noticed I was able to reserve an open seat in Rows 1 & 2 in Global First. So I grabbed the nicer seats up there. Hopefully the seat holds (I am a Premier 1K member), but this is at least a small way to make up for a truly horrible Biz Class products on those older planes.
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Old Dec 19, 2018, 6:05 pm
  #284  
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Originally Posted by ChewInRI
Just used a GPU for a 777-200 flight from MUC to IAD in January. The agent who helped me with the upgrade (The website kept giving me an error for some reason) originally assigned me a seat in the middle (with the dreaded 4-across). When I went online to change the seat myself, I noticed I was able to reserve an open seat in Rows 1 & 2 in Global First. So I grabbed the nicer seats up there. Hopefully the seat holds (I am a Premier 1K member), but this is at least a small way to make up for a truly horrible Biz Class products on those older planes.
Welcome to FlyerTalk and especially to the United threads!

I had the same problem with the website giving me the error message for the GPU upgrades yesterday. So, like you, I had to call.

Yes, 1K and GS passengers can select seats in the former First Class area. What row did you choose? I don't know too much about the MUC-IAD route so don't really know if sometimes that route gets the Polarized planes. However, from my experience on another route, when I chose 1K and got a Polarized plane I got 1L. My wife who was in 2K got 2L which is not as nice as an odd number seat. Maybe like the rest of us, you'll have to babysit your reservation, especially in the last 60 hours before the flight, to see that you still have the seat that you would like the best.
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Old Dec 19, 2018, 6:11 pm
  #285  
 
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I'm on UA930 tomorrow SFO-LHR and had seat 1K. Yesterday it was Polarized and I was moved to 2L I managed to get 15L and that's stuck through OLCI, so overall okay, though I'll miss the old GF cabin.
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