Which Routes Offer the New United Polaris Seats?

United received it first 777-300ER earlier this year, with its first flight taking place on February 16th, 2017 between New York-Newark and San Francisco. This aircraft represents a milestone for the airline, as it is the first plane to fly with the brand new Polaris business class seats. The airline is slated to receive 14 of these -300ER aircraft.

While United now refers to all of its business class products as Polaris, only a handful of the aircraft actually have the new seats (all 777-300ER’s and a small number of 767-300ER’s). The complete retrofit of the airline’s entire long haul fleet will take years and to some, referring to every seat as Polaris is a bit misleading. Personally, I would be pretty upset if I thought I was paying for this…

And ended up receiving this…

Or even the this dreaded 2-4-2 layout.

As you can see, the old business class represents a huge step down from the new Polaris seats. For starters, the seats are arranged in a 2-2-2 or even 2-4-2 configuration, instead of a 1-2-1 layout in Polaris. This means that passengers seated in window seats (or in the middle on aircraft with the 2-4-2 layout) lack direct aisle access, which can be extremely bothersome when you need to exit your seat to use the restroom or stretch your legs. Add in the fact that your neighbor may have their seat in the lie-flat position and be in a deep sleep, and it gets a whole lot more difficult.

So until United can retrofit its entire long haul fleet, here is what most business class passengers can expect to see when flying Polaris in the next 3-5 years.

The old hard product (seat), with the new soft product (amenities). Even when flying the old seats, business class passengers will still receive the new Saks Fifth Avenue bedding and enhanced food and beverage options.

So, Which Routes Have the New Polaris Seats?

As of the date of this post, the following routes have the new Polaris Seats (I believe this is it, although please let me know if I am missing any and I will update the list):

• San Francisco (SFO) – Beijing (PEK) UA888: 777-300ER
• San Francisco (SFO) – Tokyo (NRT) UA837: 777-300ER
• San Francisco (SFO) – Frankfurt (FRA) UA58: 777-300ER
• San Francisco (SFO) – Hong Kong (HKG) UA869: 777-300ER
• San Francisco (SFO) – Taipei (TPE) UA871: 777-300ER
• Newark (EWR) – Tel Aviv (TLV) UA90: 777-300ER
• Newark (EWR) – Tokyo (NRT) UA79: 777-300ER

United also offered a 777-300ER domestic service between Newark and San Francisco, although upon double checking, it looks like they have pulled this aircraft off of the route. It probably has something to do with this…

United Will Be Adding Its 8th 777-300ER Polaris Service Between San Francisco and Auckland.

This route is seasonal, and operates from October 29th, 2017 until March 22nd, 2018. Between October 29th and December 17th the route operates 6x weekly (everyday except Monday’s). From December 18th, 2017 the route will become daily until it ceases service in mid-March 2018.

To the Point!

United’s new Polaris product looks fantastic, and is finally coming up to par with fellow U.S. competitors American and Delta. Unfortunately for them, it will be quite some time before the retrofit of their entire long haul fleet is complete. This will leave some business class passengers disappointed, as they will be stuck with the old hard product.

Until then, passengers can enjoy the enhanced airline’s enhanced soft product (including Saks Fifth Avenue bedding) and refurbished Polaris Lounge in Chicago. Additional Polaris lounges in San Francisco, Newark, and London are slated to open in 2018.