New message today from UAL stating upgrade to Polaris confirmed. Huh?
 

In March I booked a saver award ORD-DEL for late January with a UAL ORD-PEK as the first leg. After that is Air China to DEL and Air Canada all the way back. Just today there is a message saying upgrade to Polaris confirmed. Why? it was Polaris all along as I check nearly daily for any changes. I no longer receive UAL emails about schedule changes but that's another matter. Does this mean they will not switch to a non-polaris biz class?

Perhaps it is a confirmation that your aircraft has been Polarized.

I hope so. The original booking was a 2-2-2 but it was changed to a 2-4-2 which is the older configuration. The seat map still shows the seats as orange or the older biz seats. I hope they go blue to indicate the new Polaris seats.

...or maybe it's another wonky UA email.

All hard product INTL service Biz class is called Polaris, whether IPTE or ex CO or “real Polaris seat”

+1 for wonky email

I know, but I think we all knew what I meant! But I do get a lot of stupid emails from UA as well, including one recently where I was offered a chance to upgrade my 2L seat SFO-FRA to presumably something much better for the attractive price of USD 9,550.

I hope they are not using the 2-4-2 layout for TPAC!

They are indeed. Booked on a similar ORD-PEK flight for mid-December and I am on a 2-4-2 flight. If you check the flight status of UA851, the planes vary between 2-4-2, 2-2-2, and real Polaris!

It was actually not an email. It was own their website as I was checking the ticket status.
I had not been getting emails from UAL for schedule changes anymore despite them telling me this issue was fixed.

Exactly.
We flew Polaris 2-4-2 last year ORD-PEK on a 2-4-2. I booked a 2-2-2-this year but it was switched to the 2-4-2.
The good thing is the Polaris lounge in ORD is way better than the United Club.

BTW, there's only 5 planes with 2-4-2 left currently. By end of Jan it might be down to 3 or 4.

I hope we R switched back to the 2-2-2 originally offered.
It is my understanding that the 2-2-2 has the newer Polaris seats which are a bit more comfy.

And ORD will see all four of them :D

It does not. This is the pmCO B/E Diamond seat.

Ok. It is also my understanding that if the plane has the newer seeds the color of the seat in the seating chart on the website is blue. If the color is orange it is still the old seats. Is that your understanding too?

This is correct.