EWR764

There is a *rumor*, and I stress *rumor*, that United is working on a Polaris mod for the 777-222 domestic fleet, which would be installed with an embedded AVOD system in Y and Premium Plus cabin. UA is obviously seeing great NPS scores to Hawaii with all the Polaris 767/777s in use, and they would like to continue to cultivate the high-yield premium segment, just using a platform for more appropriate F cabin capacity. The volume is also highly desirable in the hub-hub domestic network.

Micp3208

If United is really considering this then those 777-222s are going to certainly generate more money when headed to Hawaii. I never see Delta or American wide body aircraft being from New Jersey, but I have seen plenty of articles about the various cabins amongst similar aircraft types. Outfitting the Hawaii fleet (and hopefully the 767-400s) with Polaris would certainly move United up in the leader board.

PenaltyBox

If the Hawaii demand is that great, could we see 777s replace all the narrowbodies to HNL from all the UA hubs or is the current Hawaii demand going to be short-lived when other leisure markets open up again? What's the current gate availability in HNL these days?

uastarflyer

The domestic 777s sure can use PP and more lie flat seats. Perhaps 60 lie flats per 777 is overkill but I wouldn�t complain!

48 is reasonable - 6 rows of IPTE C ?

EWR764

Aside from a few off-hour SFO and LAX, plus SNA (performance-limited), UA is pretty much all widebody to HNL this summer anyway. I am interested to see if that level of capacity continues given recent attempts to curb tourism (cutting off one's nose to spite one's face? but I digress...).

If we are to see the Polaris product on the domestic 777s (this is by no means confirmed, and a very low-level rumor... but syncs with some comments made by management over the last few weeks) then I would speculate the same A-zone footprint as the Polaris 777s (32 seats), plus 24 PE, and somewhere in the ballpark of 290Y (mix of E+/standard). That would get to around 340-350 seats, which is probably what management is looking for.

Bunky

The problem with 32 in Zone 1 is the Polaris config has no lav in front of Door 2 and galleys are different. Moving lavs would lose at least 4PP seats behind door 2 and add to the negatives of cost of Polaris seats and lav movement. That would leave 32F, 24PP and maybe 40E+ while retaining 234Y.

Another option:
To cut cost and weight, maybe UA could use Diamond seats, which are much better than the front/back facing seats. I'm not sure how the footprint fits, but clearly 26 Diamond seats can fit in Zone 1 and that includes 3 lavs and a closet.
https://www.seatguru.com/airlines/Un..._777-200_6.php

Since the 772As have lav(s) by the cockpit, using the old CO config as a template, maybe 2 more Diamond seat would fit on one side, equaling the 28F (same as forward/back seats). Note that the mid galley on the old CO config is father back, so it's possible adapting that to the 772A could lose a set of middle seats in Y/PP.
I'd think it could fit 28F Diamond, 20PP, 40 E+ and 234 Y= 322. Maybe an extra row of E+ or Y could fit bring it to 330 total. From photos it looks like you can't place the first row of E+ simply 35 inches behind PP. I'm guessing most of a whole row is needed, which could affect E+/Y split or lose and entire row.

Estimated seat loss. 1 middle row of 4 PP seats for galley, 50 E+ converted to 20PP.

IAHMCI

While I prefer the Polaris seats to the Diamond seats, I have to think that for a plane that will do a lot of flying to Hawaii, the Diamond seats would be preferable. The Polaris cabin is not optimal for couples. It would be interesting to see the feedback from passenger surveys from this summer with a lot of the fights having the Polaris seats.

uastarflyer

Having consistent Polaris and PP gives the aircraft more route optionality. Hope they realize this and go 48 Polaris. Lots of folks will spend $1500+ RT to Hawaii.

If they can resurrect the PMUA 3x3x3 Y with AVOD that would be even better!

Unitedloyalflyer

One thing I'd like to see on the long haul Hawaii flights is for UA to brand them as Polaris flights. AA is now branding their long haul flights to HI as Flagship Business now (including Flagship Lounge access when open and DL brands them as Delta One. , also with lounge access). UA is somewhat non competitive by simply branding them as First without any lounge access for the premium passengers.

Being in Houston, I'll of course still fly UA, but as one who is willing to pay for premium leisure travel, I'd gladly pay a few hundred more to include Polaris Lounge access to match AA

EmailKid

I think UA has seen the error of their ways and are bringing back AVOD, but the 3x3x3 is not coming back. I think DL may be the only one that still uses that.

EWR764

DL has now retired all 777s, so 3-3-3 777s are dead at the US3...

Bunky

Let's try some math.
18 seats behind Door 2 on the Polaris 772 at $1,500 is $27,000. Is $1,500 a high or low average for something like IAH-HNL?
$27,000 divided by the 72 E+/Y seats that fit into the same space comes out to $385 per ticket. I'm not sure if that's a high or low average price.
I wonder how many would be paying $1500 on a 48 seat Polaris flight to/from HNL and the mainland?
HI is heavily vacationers who usually are looking for Y services and many times take children along. I'll bet UA would have to offer lower priced cash upgrade opportunities or take FF mile for a lot of those seats.
The same applies to heavy TATL markets that rely on vacationers, Spain especially.

I like the 24Polaris or Diamond idea with diamond allowing couples an opportunity to fly together. Only 12 of 50 Polaris seats on the 772 are "together" - another 12 have a sliding window, but the seats are far apart and angle away from each other. Between Door 1 and 2, there are 8 together seats of 32.

It maybe should be noted the 767 has zero couple seats as the center section has only one module instead of two. Maybe the 764 going Polaris would mean it should be moving off HI routes.

Unitedloyalflyer

I have tickets for December to the islands and they were running about 2K for the round trip. Z fare. IAH-HNL. I've usually seen 1700-2200 for IAH-HNL.

Not all travelers are looking for a Y experience to Hawaii. There is a premium leisure market. People like myself are willing to pay up for something much better than a Y flight. Already, there are 12 seats sold on the outbound trip. 14 sold for the return.

28 seats up front may not be enough demand up front given the advance sales so far for December flights

econ

Note that pre-Covid, the domestic 772 often flew routes like SFO-ORD, SFO/LAX-EWR where many of those passengers would prefer the Polaris seats.

Don't really see this happening at all. Not even the premium transcons get PL access.

And if even if they just did UC access, I'd imagine the HNL lounge would be packed.

Unitedloyalflyer

Even now that AA now includes Flagship Lounge for long haul HI flights? (I think they just started offering that on Sunday, rebranding those flights from First to Flagship Business). It leaves us as the only carrier not to include lounge access for premium cabin passengers on long haul flights