EWR764

The magic of corporate mergers...

With that said, reports of Lanson Black Label appearing in Polaris cabins makes for a favorable development. That is a quality pour and a reasonable price point for an international business class Champagne.

TonyBurr

They could be very true, but that says more about how bad the previous roll outs were handled.

EWR764

Perhaps, but can you give an example of a similar product roll-out that was completed faster than what United is doing with Polaris?

For all the hype of the Delta One Suite, it was announced only a few weeks after Polaris and is currently available on fifteen (15) ships... in other words, 1/3 of United's progress in virtually the same time period.

phkc070408

I agree, While converting the hard product on the plane and the lounges is a time consuming, drawn out process, UA jumped the gun on the announcement and maybe even the implementation of service date. They could have waited until the first 77W was about to go into service to make the announcement, or even done it at the same time.

Agreed as well. They might have been better off starting smaller and adjusting rather than starting big and adjusting. Adjustments are necessary as the learning curve is mastered, but to only adjust down does nothing but discourage.

uber1K_Flyer

narvik

Not sure I'd agree with that. In what way is it "behind"?

StuckinITH

I have used the ORD Polaris Lounge more than ten times. UA forced us to travel through EWR last month so went to that Polaris Lounge. Both my wife and I really disliked the EWR Polaris Lounge. I wrote a report in the appropriate thread about our experience there.

timezone_trooper

I'm a fan of the Polaris lounges (ORD, IAH, SFO so far) and I really do enjoy enjoy the 1-2-1 config on the 77Ws; with the extra footwell space in rows 1/9 I've found it to be a pretty comfortable experience. In-flight service varies, but that's nothing new.

cerealmarketer

Much better biz seat and bedding than before, lounge speaks for itself.

Catering is the let down - started interesting then regressed. And I mean quality of ingredients type stuff - not the presence of the mimosa cart or wine tray. Those were fluff items.

Artpen100

A couple of years a 1K, with about 10 international flights a year, and I have yet to see a new Polaris seat or Polaris lounge. The food seems a little worse since Polaris. In my view, it is a perfectly adequate business class product if you can get it at a discount. But the original ad campaign definitely overhyped it. Oddly, I have been looking at TATL travel in the first quarter next year, and UA seems way high compared to the competition on the dates I need - like 9K-15K compared to 3K-5K, and little PZ. I'm traveling about the same times I usually do. I see some lower prices here and there, but not when I need. I'm not loyal, just fly a fair amount, so will just buy on another airline. I wonder if UA thinks it can start getting a premium price for Polaris. Not sure that's gonna work.

SilverGoat

My experience was a disappointment. Shortly after announcing the launch of Polaris, we purchased tickets in January 2017 for EWR-ATH for travel in June/July 2017. In Jan. 2017 the EWR Polaris lounge was projected to open "mid 2017." It missed this goal by about a year. Meanwhile, the contracted lounge in ATH was changed from SwissPort (which was decent) to SkyServ, which was lousy. Meanwhile, the equipment was still a tired 767. Food on board was about the same as previous years when we flew Business to ATH. So the only tangible difference that we could identify was the Saks Fifth Ave. branded bedding.

In summary it was a satisfactory experience for J, but that's not the yardstick we're measuring with. For "Polaris" UA fell far short of the expectations they set. Too much hype and promise, too little delivered.

-Goat

Hipplewm

OK, so 2 years since Polaris lounge opened and 2.5 years since the announcement

LESS than 50% of the planes converted (I am counting 787 and 788 here)
LESS than half of the Polaris lounges finished 4/9 - and 4 of then haven't even started construction yet - or are very early on

There are several areas of devaluation or reduction in services since the beginning - wine flights, pillows (Although most of us liked this one) the whole ice cream mess

I would say it is an unmitigated disaster - so much so I have shifted as much of my travel to LH and EVA as possible. I even flew AC a few times to try it. In 2-3 years when they get everything close to done, I'll give it another shot.

IMO - they should have handled it more like the premium economy plus stuff - converted a bunch of planes, then started rolling it out
Polaris - they went nuts on advertising etc and still to this day if you fly out of IAD - you get no chance of a Polaris lounge and a really small chance of a Polaris seat - after TWO and a HALF YEARS

narvik

I see that quite differently.
For an airline as big as United to commit to retrofit almost all of its fleet in order to offer us decent, layflat, all aisle access seating in J is astounding, and I believe they did an excellent job so far without too much disruption. It's a mind-boggling task in my estimation.
Kudos to UA and all the staff for the effort to see this through!

Going 10-seat wide in Y on certain planes however seems something directly out of back-pain-hell schemed by the horned one himself. Just saying.

wanderingkev

I agree with most of comments on the updated hard product , it is a me too catch up product with many of the tier 1 airlines but at least UA has something to compete with.
For me the food/catering product is just awful and too slow to change. I dropped Polaris travel for is the reason and will not resume it until I see a much better offering

Kacee

It's a competitive product, whereas the old one was not. Notable also that UA has retained a premium heavy cabin as it retrofits (unlike DL and AA).