• United Polaris 777-300er
• United Polaris Planes
• United Polaris 777 Vs 787
• United Polaris 777 Review
• United Polaris 777-200 2-2-2
• United Polaris Seats

United is rolling out the 777-300ER to its fleet. These planes will be the first to feature the new Polaris business class seating, with direct aisle access. Information about the plane from the United website is here The plane features 60 Polaris class seats, 24 Premium Plus seats, 62 Economy plus seats, and 204 Economy seats.

1. The aircraft is primarily used on United's international flights to and from the USA. The version is configured with 60 United Polaris open-suites, 24 recliner-style United Premium Plus seats, and 266 standard Economy Class seats which include 62 Economy Plus seats that feature additional legroom.
2. United’s first Polaris aircraft will begin service between Newark and San Francisco on Thursday. It is one of 14 777-300s that United will add to the fleet this year.

United Airlines Polaris class merges previously separate First and Business cabins into one upper class flight experience on most transatlantic and transpacific routes. Pros: Excellent award availability through United Mileage plus reward program, true 180 degrees lie flat bed, Wifi onboard. Cons: service average at best, run out of food choices during dinner, 19” wide seats in 2-4-2 configuration are one of the narrowest in the business. Bottom line: good choice when redeeming miles and looking for direct flights with lie flat bed, not so much if you want a memorable luxury flight experience.

Booking

For our return flight from touring Iberian peninsula, I chose Turkish Airlines Business class Booking through United Mileage plus reward site is a breeze and after deduction of 140000 miles and $106, my wife and I had a reservation taking us from Barcelona to Istanbul, Houston and Jacksonville.
About 1 month before our travel, United changed timing on the Houston connection, and rebooked us in Polaris cabin from Barcelona to Newark, NJ, lowering the cost of the tickets to 60,000 points per person and $48.16 in taxes. ( I had to wait till trip was completed to get back 20,000 United Rewards miles).

Full price

I wasn’t completely disappointed, since I did want to review Polaris Class, and it got us home few hours earlier.

Checking-in

Barcelona International airport is very well organized. Check in and security was as easy as it gets, and unlike some other airports that do double screening of travelers flying to US on American based airlines (Dublin, Toronto etc.), here everything was super smooth. In less than 30 min we were entering VIP lounge.

Lounge

VIP Lounge Barcelona

VIP lounge at Barcelona airport serves most Starwood Alliance flights as well as some other non-affiliated airlines. It is spacious, has a good choice of food and drinks, both alcoholic and non. I has a shower facilities and quiet are as well.

VIP Lounge Barcelona

Boarding

welcome drink

Boarding took place on time, and B777 has separate walkways for Polaris class and economy. This way boarding was completed relatively fast. Champagne, water and snacks were served upon seating. Flight attendants seemed stressed and overworked.

Seats

United_Airlines_Boeing_777-200

United Polaris Class on B777-200 utilizes 2-4-2 layout as comparing to 2-3-2 layout for airlines outside US and Great Britain. By squeezing an extra row, seat width is reduced to 19”. This can be narrow for a full size person these days, especially if you tend to sleep on your back. Seat cushion, however, was very comfortable and sleep quality once the bed was in full flat recline was great.

Polaris-B777-200-seats

As far as storage goes, these seats are not most generous. Fortunately there is plenty overhead bin space to use in the premium cabin, so for take-off and landing I just stored our things there. Seat controls are easily accessible and straight forward.

Entertainment

I’m not a big consumer of the in-flight entertainment opting instead for good book or audiobook. For the purposes of this review, I tested the system. Noise canceling headphones worked great. 19” tv screen provided plenty of viewing area, and choice of movies and TV shows was very good.

United Polaris 777-300er

united-airlines-boeing-777-polaris-business-class-

United Polaris Planes

Polaris-B777-200-seats

You can also use Wi-Fi for free in combination with United App for more in flight choices of entertainment. There are USB ports and electric plugs easily accessible.

Amenities

United-777-200-Business-Class-

The seats were stocked with a full-size pillow, a thick rolled-up blanket (from Saks Fifth Avenue) , an amenity kit and noise-cancelling headphones. The amenity kit contained a face mask, socks, a plastic-wrapped toothbrush and toothpaste, plastic-wrapped ear plugs, lip balm and face cream. No thrills.

Food and Service

As I stated before, during dinner service, flight attendant informed us that they run out some menu choices. Neither my wife nor I consider airline food a must have experience, even if it is a first class flight, however, this can be very annoying for most travelers paying full price for a business class seats and experience. Big no no. Flight attendants were also unfamiliar with their wine choices, again not a good “Polaris” experience.

salad

Food that was served, however, was very good. Nice touch was a dessert tray with cookies and ice cream as well as selection of cheeses passed with after dinner drinks.
Between meals a snack bar with serve serving drinks was set up in the front galley.

self-service-bar

Arrival

We arrived at Newark Liberty International airport ahead of schedule after little over 8.5 hrs in the air. Polaris class was first to disembark and thanks to our Global Entry Pass, we were through Immigration and Customs in no time, easily catching our connecting flight.

Bottom line:

United Airlines Polaris (B777-200) class is a good option when redeeming reward miles and looking for most direct flight. No thrills upper class experience with comfortable lie flat bed.

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Trans-Pacific air travel has seen national carriers and low-cost airlines alike fight tooth and nail for the strong market between the USA and Australia. In economy class, we’ve seen prices drop well below the $900 mark, proving that a captive audience is willing to shop around for the best deal when playing half-a-dozen airlines off against each other.

In the business class game, however, the range of prices has remained fairly stable, meaning it generally comes down to either airline loyalty preference, or splitting hairs over the product on offer. It’s no secret that United Airlines’ Polaris business class is one such product that doesn’t usually tickle the fancy of Australian travellers.

On a recent trip to Salt Lake City from Sydney, we thought we’d give United the time of day they perhaps deserve to deliver a comprehensive verdict on the ‘Polaris’ experience in both their Boeing 787 and 777 cabins.

Top Line Verdict: United’s 777 cabin is the far superior experience for both product and service. It’s worth noting this cabin will soon replace all services across the ditch in the near future.

SYD to LAX – Boeing 787

On the ground

United Polaris 777 Vs 787

Check-in was a seamless process and allowed for two checked-in bags per business passenger, as most J-Class flyers would expect.

Lounge access options for Star Alliance travellers in Sydney, of which United Airlines slots into, are unfortunately slim pickings. Between the Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer lounge and the Air New Zealand lounge, we’d recommend the latter. You really can’t go past a perfectly made flat white before your 12-hour-long slog that has an 11 AM departure time.

Before even setting foot on the plane, the biggest gripe I had with the 787 Polaris cabin was the 2-2-2 configuration that restricts passengers in a window seat from unobstructed aisle access. You know the kind – old school.

Unless you’re in the middle bank of seats, passengers on either side of the windows either have to climb over someone else, or be climbed over. I hadn’t experienced this since Thai Airways’ 747 upstairs business class service to Bangkok a few years prior.

In the air

In short, the service aboard the 787 matched the ageing product. On arrival I was offered juice, water or champagne. Nothing amiss there. But when I enquired what the grape of choice was for the latter, the answer was simply “nothing special.” I’ll put this down to a veteran flight attendant on autopilot trying to maximise her retirement fund, which can be forgiven.

The Saks Fifth Avenue amenities kit was stacked with a blanket, two pillows, mattress bedding and slippers. Pyjamas were available upon request.

The seat itself was lie-flat, but was rather slim in width even for a lanky lad like myself, meaning if you run larger than the average joe, you could be on for a slightly uncomfortable journey.

To their credit, the infotainment system is one of the best I’ve come across and is peppered with an equally impressive catalogue to match. I was, however, confronted with a courtesy message that I’d never once seen in my decades of flying;

“Be mindful of those around you, if you feel that others might find this offensive, please choose another title.”

Only in America, I suppose, and fair enough. But if I’d paid upwards of $10,000 to have a child sitting next to me dictating what I could or couldn’t watch, I’d be pretty annoyed. This unfortunately all comes down to the lack of privacy with such a cabin configuration.

The food was respectable and tasty but nothing to particularly write home about. United’s icecream sundae station was a real treat though, just when I thought the service was over.

United Polaris 777 Review

The mid-flight service was actually the most consistent of the entire experience, with the grilled cheese sandwich a standout.

The verdict

Not my favourite business class ever, to say the least. At the time of flying, this particular flight was the most expensive, and not enough boxes were ticked to justify United’s 787 Polaris business class over the competition.

Just before landing, the cabin service director did come over and thank me for flying with them before advising me as to the gate number of my SLC connection, which was a nice touch.

The 777 offering, however, was an infinitely better experience entirely…

SFO to SYD – Boeing 777

On the ground

United Airlines’ recently-opened two-level San Francisco Polaris lounge was actually quite refreshing, considering American airports aren’t exactly known for their lounges.

Within the massive 28,120-square-foot space, it was the in-house dining restaurant (similar to most of the world’s first-class lounges) that I was most excited for. Given the late-night flight time to Sydney, it made sense to skip the onboard dinner and load up prior to boarding.

Despite being informed that one entree and one main meal was not available, I thought the menu was quite well balanced. As I washed down a sourdough caprese bruschetta and creamy pesto cheese tortellini with half-a-dozen glasses of Piper Heidsieck, the overall service experience that I observed in the dining room was pleasantly reactive but hardly ever proactive.

I didn’t try any of the cocktails but did take solace in the fact that the drinks list was an extensive one – enough to make up for any dishes that aren’t available. Plus the selection of cheeses with a drizzle of honey was simply scrumptious.

United Polaris 777-200 2-2-2

In the air

Naturally, I hadn’t set the bar particularly high for my return journey given the first leg of the trip, but I was excited to hear that the 777 offered the latest generation of United’s Polaris business class seat.

It was a great first impression. A warm, attentive greeting by cabin crew, the privacy of a direct-aisle access lie-flat bed and a much more sophisticated product overall. United have finally pulled their weight in line with the global standard for long-haul J-class.

In addition to the Saks Fifth Avenue bedding, this flight included an actual amenity kit complete with the regular lineup of moisturiser, lip balm and a toothbrush.

United Polaris Seats

Given the timing of the flight, I didn’t wait around for service to start before I immediately went horizontal and copped a juicy seven hours sleep – their much-lauded pillows are some of the comfiest I’ve ever come across at 38,000 feet.

The Verdict

The 777 Polaris cabin finally allows for the United Airlines J-class offering to compete with its competitors back and forth across the ditch. The service in both directions, while kind-natured and accommodating, just isn’t as proactive as other offerings. Even the previous generation 787 product could have been made enjoyable with a more finely-tuned approach to hospitality.

My advice would be to sit tight for the Boeing 777’s ‘new’ Polaris business class rollout worldwide, which is already on its way, and you should definitely be excited about.

The author travelled as a guest of United Airlines en route to Salt Lake City.