While United introduced their Polaris service as of December 1, 2016, up until now the only planes that have actually featured the Polaris seats are their newly delivered 777-300ERs, of which there are 14. For most passengers there has been quite a stark contrast between the Polaris service that the airline has been advertising, and…
Continue reading: United’s First 767 With Polaris Seats Enters Service Today
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what a waste to install new polaris seats on the 767 when there are still many 787's flying around w the old biz class seats.
@nathan I agree. Isn't the average age of these 767's like 25 years? I can't figure out the logic investing in these while their 787's remain unchanged and non competitive with other airlines (especially on the ultra long haul routes).
Polaris is a joke. The club is jam packed in Ord. The food iffy. And FAs who chat and slam doors all night on an overnighter. I'm done
@Tyler While the 767 is quite old, the biz product represented one of the worst in the fleet, so since they plan to keep these birds around a while longer, it makes sense (from a product perspective) to do these first and quickly, since there's only around 14 frames that need conversion. I suspect the equally bad 2-4-2 will go after the 3-class 767's. The seats in the Dreamliner are not ideal, but still represent an improvement over what's currently flying.
Now why UA didn't try harder to get the Polaris seats installed as they take new deliveries of the 787...that is a question I don't know the answer to
" Isn’t the average age of these 767’s like 25 years? "
Actually, a good deal of the United 767 fleet is fairly new - including deliveries post-9/11. Further, United has historically flown their 767-300s on reasonably long sectors without much integration into domestic flying, with the exception of the newest aircraft. As such, they aren't cycle heavy and still have competitive efficiency. They should get, at least, 5 years out of even the oldest aircraft.
"Now why UA didn’t try harder to get the Polaris seats installed as they take new deliveries of the 787…that is a question I don’t know the answer to"
That is more of an issue, and one that there are two likely answers to.
1) Their aggressive expansion, combined with their retirement of 747 aircraft at a less than 1 to 1 ratio with the 77W introduction, means they need 789s in the fleet more quickly than Zodiac can deliver seats.
2) They still have seats contracted to take delivery of from B/E.
"since there’s only around 14 frames that need conversion. "
No, all 35 of them need conversion. While the more newly converted 2 class aircraft are in a 2-2-2 configuration, that is still the uncompetitive B/E Diamond.
What about the 767-400's? I fly out of IAD and they use that a lot. No Polaris at all for these birds?
Tyler,
767's are actually still being built, although not a lot of them, and mostly for freight or military versions.
At the same time some of them are 30 years old, are as some 737's, 747's, 757's and MD-80's/717's.
But putting Polaris in a 767 rather than a 787 still strikes me as odd
I think the future of B/E diamond (not superdiamond) is in narrowbodies. It's an uncompetitive product on widebodies.
Once again, an epic fail as United just announced Houston-Sydney on its horrible 787 product. Why United didn't come out with a Polaris-esque product when it rolled out the 787 is beyond me. Even three or four years ago, its business-class product was bad. Then again, this is the airline that still hasn't completed its merger with Continental.
Regardless, I'm curious to know how United kept its seat count in business-class the same when it reduced the foot print to a configuration of 1x1x1. What am I missing here?
Let's not forget that United itself says a majority of its long-haul fleet won't have the "new" Polaris seats (they will hardly be "new" then) until 2021. That's almost 5 years of flying a crappy product.
I would never fly United because I wouldn't want to fly an old and knackered 767 long-haul. It's wrong.
I love the 76. Best in trans atlantic turbulence. with new seats wouldnt hesitate to fly over UA 78X product.
Looks like a great product and looking forward to trying it. For anyone who is flying domestically, it looks like you can experience Polaris right now from EWR to SFO. I was surprised to see it, so went ahead and booked.... UA 497 @ 8:05AM (773). Not sure of the frequency, except it's definitely going this week. JD1