United Airlines new “Polaris” Business Class

[HardnThick]

Anyone familiar with United Airlines new “Polaris” Business Class between Europe and USA? How it compares with business class on other major carriers?

 

 

I’d appreciate your opinion. Thanks.

[Kevin Slater]

I flew Polaris class NYC to Buenos Aires and back. I think it may have only been a two class flight. Anyway, it was quite luxurious. As opposed to other business class I've experienced, the bed went completely flat. The service was more like first class.

 

Kevin Slater

[mike carey]

Don't know about UA's new business class but BA has had flat beds in business class for at least 10 years. It was a revelation the first time I used one. I had solid uninterrupted sleep on both legs of the flight from London to Sydney. Trans-Atlantic flights (from the east coast anyway) are comparatively short, and you can probably get a daylight flight, so perhaps the level of pampering is more important than whether the seat folds flat.

[+ BenjaminNicholas]

Polaris has a good hard product. The seats are comfortable. Big bathrooms. Cowshed amenity kits. Sexy blue cabin lighting.

 

The dedicated Polaris lounge at ORD is nice. The experience is better than Delta One, but still just a little below the flagship J service on AA's 777.

[EZEtoGRU]

http://view.ceros.com/united/polaris-business-class/p/1#

 

My understanding is that the new Polaris cabin has only been installed on a few of the aircraft so far. I have not experienced it yet but the seat layout is sure an improvement over the prior UA offering as it is a 1-2-1 configuration on 777 aircraft. Seems that UA copied what AA introduced 2-3 years ago.

[EZEtoGRU]

Don't know about UA's new business class but BA has had flat beds in business class for at least 10 years. It was a revelation the first time I used one.

 

US carriers have had angled flat seats or real flat seats for years also. What has changed is that the new layouts offer all aisle access due to the 1-2-1 configuration (on a 777). Whilst BA was indeed a trendsetter with the flat seats 15 years ago, they are sadly behind today with their current offering: Still 8 across in business class with half the cabin being those dreaded backward facing seats. The hard product offered by the US carriers is generally considered superior to the BA product today. The soft product

(level of service, quality of food & beverage, etc) will be variable on the US airlines.

[mike carey]

The hard product offered by the US carriers is generally considered superior to the BA product today.

I'm not surprised. BA is a shadow of its former self on so many levels. I haven't done much business class travel in recent years except domestically on QF. I inferred from Kevin's comment that flat beds were not common.

[+ FreshFluff]

I haven't tried Polaris. But I tried a competing J product, Delta One. The soft product was great, but the seat was really uncomfortable. It was an angled lie flat , made even less comfortable by the fact that, when reclining, half of you ends up in some tube.

[fedssocr1]

Don't be fooled. The new business class seats are only installed on a couple of their new 777-300ERs flying SFO-HKG and EWR-TLV. They're trying to trick everyone into thinking that those seats are already on all of their planes. While you get "polaris" food and supposedly improved service, that's it. The old 777s still have their abominable 2-4-2 "business" class seats. Or you get their 2-2-2 layout on some aircraft (I think primarily out of Newark).

 

I detest UA with pretty much every fiber of my being and avoid them completely. Most foreign carriers are far superior to all of the US carriers, especially on longhaul flights.

 

From the pointsguy blog

 

Despite issues and delays with its Polaris seat manufacturer Zodiac, United’s new Boeing 777-300ER’s continue to be rolled out on the airline’s international routes. The aircraft is already flying between San Francisco (SFO) and Hong Kong (HKG), and United previously confirmed the launch of 777-300ER flights between Newark (EWR) and Tel Aviv (TLV) starting May 5.

 

We now know the next city pair for the 777-300ER — San Francisco and Tokyo/Narita (NRT). Starting June 14, the new United aircraft will replace the 747-400 currently flying on the route. The schedule shows the flight, designated as United 837, departing daily from San Francisco at 11:45am and arriving at Narita Airport in Tokyo at 2:35pm the next day.

 

The return flight, numbered as United 838, departs Narita at 5:10pm and arrives back in San Francisco at 10:55am. Since it’s highly unlikely the airline would be able to turn the same plane around for the 11:45am flight back to Japan in just 50 minutes, it seems the actual 777-300ER planes will rotate between the Tokyo and Hong Kong routes out of SFO.

[+ glutes]

Don't be fooled. The new business class seats are only installed on a couple of their new 777-300ERs flying SFO-HKG and EWR-TLV. They're trying to trick everyone into thinking that those seats are already on all of their planes. While you get "polaris" food and supposedly improved service, that's it.

.

 

Perhaps Untied (sic) got their marketing by some selected escorts.

[swallows22]

If you live in OZ, you would not even consider UA.

[mike carey]

If you live in OZ, you would not even consider UA.

... Unless it has 'flight operated by Air New Zealand' in parentheses.

[body2body]

... Unless it has 'flight operated by Air New Zealand' in parentheses.

A few years ago I was planning a trip to London, a client of mine who was doing several projects there that had him flying there twice a month told me to fly Air New Zealand. I took his advice. The service was superb, the food was wonderful, and every staff member I had contact with was friendly and helpful. Their Business Premier service is flat bed in a herringbone layout ( which I know some do not like ). I have used them several times since and have been quite impressed. They only fly to LHR from LAX.

[+ FreshFluff]

A few years ago I was planning a trip to London, a client of mine who was doing several projects there that had him flying there twice a month told me to fly Air New Zealand. I took his advice. The service was superb, the food was wonderful, and every staff member I had contact with was friendly and helpful. Their Business Premier service is flat bed in a herringbone layout ( which I know some do not like ). I have used them several times since and have been quite impressed. They only fly to LHR from LAX.

 

I just took a look. Very impressive. I would have thought it was F.

[+ occ3672]

Go to www.seatguru.com which will compare seat types on every airline

[Bargara Leatherboy]

My total fav is Business on Garuda Indonesia or Singapore Airlines. I try very hard to time my flights for day flights as I find that's best for jet lag. Between Australia and Europe, I overnight on the way normally in Singapore.

[mike carey]

While I can't argue about Air New Zealand from LAX to London (Australian and Asian airlines fly via Asia, whereas ANZ's London flights are via the US. I have seen SYD-LHR flights with AA, using BA from LAX, but never reasonably priced), I had forgotten about BA all business flights between JFK and London City. They use A318s with 38 seats using the old Concorde flight numbers BA1-4. West-bound flights stop at Shannon and use the opportunity for pax to clear US customs and immigration while they refuel. https://mrsoaroundtheworld.com/reviews/airlines/flight-british-airways-ba1-london-city-jfk/

 

There are few routes in the world where an all-J flight makes sense, certainly none from Australia. Our busiest domestic route, Sydney to Melbourne, has QF flights every 15-30 minutes all day, so there are plenty of J seats on them. If I were flying between the US and the UK, I would be tempted to use that BA flight for the novelty, although not at any cost.