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How to tell if your plane will feature United’s New Polaris Business Class Seat

a seat and a chair in a plane

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How to tell if your plane will feature United’s New Polaris Business Class Seat

I think there is some confusion as to what United is doing with Polaris. Will the plane have it, will it not? Just to clarify…United is offering the Polaris soft product now; however, United will start flying the 777-300ER featuring their new Polaris business class seat in February. Initially it will run between EWR and SFO, and then starting March 25, it’ll be used on the SFO to HKG route. For the time being, the 777-300ER will be the only plane in the fleet featuring the Polaris hard product, it’ll also be featured on the 787-10, and the A350-1000, as well as retro-fits on the 777-200 and 767-300, but this could take years. Clearly…if you’re on the 777-300ER between SFO and HKG you’re going to have the new Polaris business class seat and all of the soft product amenities. But, United will roll out more 77Ws this year and use them on various routes and to avoid any confusion…here’s how to tell if your plane will feature United’s New Polaris Business Class Seat.

Per the United press release:

With the flight schedule update this weekend, United will offer one round trip six days each week between Newark Liberty International Airport and San Francisco International Airport between Feb. 16 and May 4. The airline expects to begin 777-300ER intercontinental service between San Francisco and Hong Kong on March 25, with the aircraft replacing a Boeing 747-400 currently being used on the route. Flight and aircraft schedules are subject to change.

United expects to place into service all 14 aircraft in its 777-300ER order in 2017.

If you want this:

courtesy of united.com
courtesy of united.com

Look for this:

Here is what the new product, Polaris, seat map will look like on the 777-300ER ( 77W )Screen Shot 2017-01-28 at 8.50.17 PM

If you see this…

it’s the old hard product, BusinessFirst. If your business class  (BusinessFirst) looks like those orange seats, You will get the Polaris soft product ( including PJs on flights over 12hours), but not the hard product. Same with First Class (Global First). Meaning…the old seat, not the new.Screen Shot 2017-01-28 at 8.52.10 PM

You’ll still get this:

If you’re interested in their First Class( GlobalFirst)…I enjoyed my time on it from LHR-LAX in 2015 and it didn’t even offer all the new swanky Polaris soft product amenities. It’s definitely worth the extra 10k points on trips to North and South Asia!

United Global First

Just to recap:

  • If you’re flying on a new 777-300ER – it will feature the Polaris seat and service
  • If you have any doubt…check the seat map

*feature image courtesy of United.com

Opinions, reviews, analyses & recommendations are the author’s alone, and have not been reviewed, endorsed or approved by any of these entities.

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2 Comments

  • Erik January 29, 2017

    Any chance that equipment changes will occur for bookings well in the future, since we don’t know what additional routes those new 77Ws will be on?

    • Miles January 29, 2017

      Erik – Thanks for reading! I think you can count on equipment changes going forward. Where and when…not sure – but, my money would be on hub routes where United is currently fly multiple times a day and offering a subpar product.

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