Ilove2fly

Flew NZ bz for the first time. I am totally blown away by both hard and soft products. The bed is more comfortable than Polaris or LH lay flats. The food was delicious. Reminded me of the old Continental Bz first food where very few items were over heated or drawn in mystery sauces. Aside from perfectly heated food, I was encouraged to customize my meals. It was the first time I ever had perfectly poached eggs in flight. Incredible.

HaleiwaFlyer

I guess one of the reasons for Flyertalk is to get the most value for the least amount of spend. If there is a “better” product for similar cost, would be worth it no? You never know, you might just find something you like better, and is part of the fun in flying, otherwise, we would all just fly ULCC. A personal example, I tried Cognac a few times, and was never a fan, until I redeemed an Emirates award F flight and tried the Hennesy Paradis; now my bank account and liver hates me.

Duke787

Give me Polaris hard product over the herringbone NZ J seats any day. Service and food is a different story but on pure hard product I’ll take UA over NZ, LH, LX (old), OS, TK. I would even argue that the hard product is more comfortable than SQ J (just hard product, soft product is a completely different story for all of these)

UAL250

Seat and IFE are the two most important factors for me so Polaris is a big winner in my books. I've usually had pretty good service too. The food isn't great, agree, but that's not a deal breaker for me. The seat is. Agree TATL eastbound is where it really shines.

1P

Yes, and yes. If only they hadn't abandoned the LHR-LAX segment!

kabroui

AA Exec Plat here that just recently tried my first Polaris Flights IAH-MUC-DEN with connections to/from Phoenix and I was very pleased. Hard product was excellent, FA's very attentive, food was barf but AA isn't anything to write home about either. Really the only negative of the trip was connecting in DEN. What a total mess that place is. I can't remember the last time I had to walk so far to a connecting gate and the TSA checkpoint is a disaster and takes forever. I guess that is offset by being able to fly in and out of T3 in PHX which is so much nicer than the AA terminal.

Certainly was impressed enough to book my winter flight to SE Asia on Polaris SFO- SIN since OW schedules through HKG still seem to still be in a state of confusion and flying through Japan is just an exhausting trip. Last year I flew SG and have to agree with some of the previous comments on their J seat. Who on earth designed those things?

zombietooth

In the last 12 months, I've been buying many J seats on other carriers because upgrading on UA has become so difficult, and I think that NH's "The Room" is the best, while DL's seats on the A350 are better than UA's. Soft product and service are much better on NH and DL.

Polaris is great if you can get an UG, but buying P+, applying PlusPoints, and not getting the UG isn't worth it. P+ is a bad product. I am still booking UA P+ and trying to burn some of my >1,000 PPs but, if I don't get an UG on UA by OLCI, I usually cancel for FFC and take another carrier because I am no longer willing to fly in P+.

seanp7

Seat: Reliable and great.
Service: Highly variable, and it shouldn’t be.
Food & Wine: Rubbish.
Operational Reliability: Pretty good.

I liked the launch gimmicks: Champagne flute with chocolate, mimosa cart, etc, .... I’m glad the tower
of bedding has remained.

malgudi

Curious ... what's wrong with the seat? I liked the SQ space beds, not nearly as cramped as Polaris coffin beds.

jcturnbull

How are you doing this because aren't walk up J fares prohibitively expensive? Booking two in advance?

zombietooth

Yes, if I am waitlisted for Polaris with PPs, I'll either buy a backup, refundable J-fare months ahead, or get an award (I'm sitting on a ton of miles). As an example, I have a trip later in the year (to TYO) where my UA P+ ticket cost 2.2k and my DL backup cost 6.2K for DL1, fully refundable (5.6K for the non-refundable ticket). If I don't get the UG by around OLCI on UA, I will cancel the P+ ticket for FFC and fly the DL ticket.

Duke787

I’ve never encountered an SQ bed (in J or even on the 3 SQ A380 F flights I took one time) that was comfortable for sleeping. They are all hard as a rock — and this from someone who prefers mattresses that are more on the firm side.

caseminole

Boones Farm Apple Wine and Boones Farm Tickle Pink

kb1992

+1

Two major flaws RE: SQ J seats

1) Hard as a rock
2) It takes efforts to make the bed if you are not familiar (FAs do this for you). Not convenient as Polaris seats as you only need to push the button for various positions.

caseminole

Enjoyed my first Polaris flight in a while yesterday EZE IAH

We had flown Polaris a few times, but the aircraft seats were never the TRUE Polaris seat, and I believe the Polaris lounges were all under construction

The seat was very comfortable. Im 6'2 200#, was plenty spacious lengthwise although if i were a couple of inches taller, not so much

Aisle access was fine and once I was in a slumber i didnt notice any foot traffic.

I thought the service was good the FA smiled every time and we had a nice rapport.

I thought the food was excellent

I had a four hour layover in IAH the PL was pretty crowded for 645am.

First wanted a shower was told the wait was 45 minutes but in reality was 15

Finally I skipped the buffet opting for the restaurant instead and the food was well prepared and excellent service.

Feel like the $2000 price was a steal (pricing now $2500-$9100 one way)