While United already has Boeing 787-8 and 787-9 aircraft in their fleet, later this year they’ll be taking delivery of their very first 787-10, of which they have 14 on order. The 787-10 is the highest capacity and shortest range plane of the “family.”
United 787-9 at SFO
Up until now United hadn’t officially published which routes will be operated by the 787-10. We do know that United plans to open a 787 pilot base at Newark Airport by next summer, though there was no indication of which variant of the plane that would be for.
Now United has revealed the first routes to be operated by this plane. Specifically, United’s first 787-10 routes will be as follows:
- Newark to Los Angeles daily from January 7, 2019, and two times daily from February 14, 2019
- Newark to San Francisco two times daily from February 14, 2019, and three times daily from March 8, 2019
My general assumption is that United is just operating the 787-10 on transcon routes as they take delivery of the planes and work out any kinks. They did the same thing with the 777-300ER when they first took delivery of it.
However, the fact that they’re looking at offering 2-3x daily flights in the markets suggests this is more than just a short-term commitment.
I’d also emphasize that this remains highly subject to change, both in terms of when the airline takes delivery of the planes, and what routes they’ll put them on.
United’s 787-10 aircraft feature a total of 318 seats, including 44 business class seats, 21 premium economy seats, and 253 economy seats. There are a couple of things that are interesting about the configuration:
- The 787-10 will be the first 787 variant to feature the new Polaris seats
- These will be among the first United planes to feature premium economy, known as Premium Plus
United’s new Polaris seats
These flights will be a great opportunity to try United’s new premium seats. There are $659 one-way business class fares between Newark and Los Angeles. Furthermore, based on the seatmap it looks like premium economy seats are being treated as Economy Plus seats on this flight, so being able to select one of those seats is potentially a great deal.
Anyone plan to fly United’s new 787-10 on a transcon?
Hey there. FA here. For the confused, per the FAA, new aircraft have to fly domestic for 6 months before flying any international.
There have been some interesting rumors with United's 787-10's. Routes I've heard rumors of are:
SFO-HGH
SFO-BKK
LAX-FRA
IAH-DXB
SFO or LAX-BNE
IAH-PVG
IAH-PEK
EWR-GIG
EWR-JED
EWR-IST
There's another one about an IAH-JNB and IAH-CPT but that seems unlikely.
@Melissa, it appears that's the 787-8 not the 787-10 with Polaris seats. Interesting though that they'd be flying this on DEN-IAD.
We're flying a 787 route from DEN-IAD in Polaris in December. It looks like that route will start using the 787's late this month ...
Just booked this flight with my dad, gonna be our first Inaugural flight! really excited
Any word when or even if the existing -9's will get true Polaris? UA's progress board shows https://view.ceros.com/united/polaris-tracker-desktop-4/p/1 NONE!. Ironic even the Website is messed up. Kinda sad UA's longest flights such as IAH to SYD still have 2-2-2 in biz and yet a transcon -10 hop gets real Polaris..UA management needs a shuffle..
Wow. American will probably suffer greatly with this. Why would anyone pay more $$ to fly their mediocre First when you get the same (or even better) individual seat for less....
Looks like UA has these 781 flights set up to feed their international flights out of LAX/SFO - so makes sense to keep it permanent.
Does regular econ have IFE or is this a downgrade from the 757s?
Based upon my reading of the UA press release, this is a long term play on the transcon market to compete with B6, AA, and DL and not just for training flights.
Unbelievable. They can't get real Polaris on most of the overseas routes but they manage to put it on transcon? Bizarre decision. I guess enough people are tolerating the old 2x4x2 business class to Europe etc, to make it worth not replacing... Wish someone would do an article on this farce that is Polaris in only about 20% of their planes after how long?
Ben from the time you posted a picture of that seatmap above, UA has actually updated the seat map on their website for that flight to reflect the new Polaris seats, premium plus seats location and normal economy plus seats location. Check it out! Cheers!
@ RD -- Thanks for the heads up, updated the post to reflect that!
I just tried a dummy booking and the first 8 rows of econ are marked as Economy Plus.
The 787 cabin is significantly narrower than the 777 cabin, and they are retaining the 4 abreast configuration in Polaris. It is already slightly cramped in the 777 so I have no idea how they will make this work and am worried about the space.
So they are going to fly Polaris transcontinental when they still have international routes with the old seats. Strange!
Per UA, this aircraft will have 54 Economy Plus seats.
Talk about timing. UAs recent announcement of capping RPUs and eliminating unlimited RPUs for 1Ks before announcing this rollout shouldn't be a surprise.
With the upcoming introduction of Premium Plus, can we expect booking premium econ on United tickets aboard other other Star Alliance metal to open up as well?
There is already a 777-200 with Premium Plus. Last I checked it was flying EWR-CDG.
Booked an award ticket on the first flight LAX-EWR. I picked a seat at the front (of economy), so hopefully that sticks as economy plus.
@lucky - United does have 5 aircraft with premium plus seats, they're just being sold as economy plus right now.
How comical that the seat map has to show the fuselage getting wider at the start of Economy (to accommodate 9-across seating). LOL
Also, premium plus seats are not showing on the seatmap. They will be sold as economy plus on these domestic routes.
According to the original United seatmap from the FA manual, there will be economy plus seats. Those show up as regular economy seats on the map because it has not been updated yet, but if you are not an elite and you go to select those seats, you will be unable to do so.
Economy plus will be the first 5 rows of the economy section.
Weird that they blocked out the "middle" seats on the outsides of premium economy, rather than actually showing it as 2-3-2.
there actually is a refitted 772 going around with polaris and premium plus
Great product for transcon. That’ll give American a run for their money