Good day from Hong Kong! I’ve made it to HKG after a 15-hour flight from San Francisco on United’s new 777-3ooER in Polaris Business Class.
The flight was good, for me at least. My friend John got sick just like I did on the Singapore flight. Hopefully he will recover quickly and I won’t experience Round 2…
Our flight from Burbank was delayed by nearly two hours. By the time we arrived in SFO, UA869 to Hong Kong was already boarding. That meant no unobstructed cabins shots, but I still managed a few decent shots.
I’ll mention these highlights about United’s new Polaris Class and my flight:
- I had a “true” window seat (17L) and enjoyed the privacy of the Polaris seat
- The seat does feel a little tight in upright mode, but very comfortable in lie-flat mode
- Hong Kong-based FAs were excellent
- One volunteered to make my bed without me even asking, something that is unfortunately fairly rare on United
- After John got sick, the crew took very good care of him, checking on him often and bringing him hot water and extra blankets (he also had the chills)
- Food was enjoyable – pork chop for the main course was flavorful and mid-flight snack of grilled cheese sandwich and hot tomato soup always hits the spot
- Despite 8pm arrival time, breakfast served before landing
- Internet was stable, but slow ($29.99)
- Moving map did not work, but over 200 movies to choose from in on-demand IFE system
- Lavatory is spacious, well-designed
I think United’s new Polaris seat strikes the right balance between comfort and maximizing a cabin for upgrades. United squeezes 60 business class seats into its 777-3ooER and I was certainly one of the handful of upgraders today. Had this been a more generous 1-2-1 reverse herringbone configuration I likely would have wound up behind the curtain.
Stay tuned for a full review in the days ahead.
“One volunteered to make my bed without… fairly rare on United.” It is unfortunate you felt this way. I think the FA’s watch you and make the observation when to ask. I travel with my grown daughter and they made her bed all the time… without being asked. I, on the other hand, do not like to lie flat and stay up even for the ultra long flight and yes, they seldom ask me.
Unfortunately, I am rarely asked if I want my bed made. I don’t think that constitutes “bad service” — rather, it is just a different service culture.
If you honestly don’t feel critical of the general service culture at United, please broaden your experience with flights on any major airline from Asia/EU/Middle East. I say this as a perennial 1K member flying business between HKG and EWR, who also flies Cathay, Singapore Airline, Korean Air and ANA on many intra-Asian routes. Octogenarian FAs protected by labor unions have zero incentives or energy to serve. Matt is on point about the unusually high density of seats in Polaris to squeeze revenue. Polaris is certainly a welcome renovation for the American international business folks stuck in aviation monopoly, but let’s not deceive ourselves into defending a lackluster airline.
That food looks pretty good!
Your impressions pretty well match mine. I was in a staggered window, where you do sacrifice privacy but enjoy oodles of space (probably why I didn’t feel the seat was tight in upright mode). It’s too bad the electronic gremlins still seem to afflict the IFE, though.
Thanks for the review. I agree it’s good they put so many business-class seats on the 77W, but disagree with the assertion that Polaris somehow achieves higher density than reverse-herringbone (“Had this been a more generous 1-2-1 reverse herringbone configuration I likely would have wound up behind the curtain”). United fits 26 J seats between the 77W’s front two door pairs, the exact same number Cathay Pacific has of their reverse-herringbone seats in the same space on the same aircraft (w/o first class). IMO the reverse-herringbone is a slightly better product so I’m not really sure why United went to the lengths they did to get this other product, other than to be different, at the cost of significant delays in rolling it out.
If that’s the case, I also have no idea why UA would not just go with traditional herringbone seating. These seats are more private, but not as comfortable.
So I’m a little conflicted. A week before MP devaluation, I tried bookiing a HKG-SEA award. UA agent messed up securing J space on HKG-TPE-SEA on BR. She pulled the space but then canceled the award before issuing ticket, the BR J space did not go back to inventory, unfortunately. I asked to speak to a supervisor and he was very apologetic and what the previous agent did. To make it up for me, he opened award space on UA metal, so he booked me HKG-SFO-SEA on UA’s 777W.
This is where I’m conflicted…i’m kinda excited to try UA’s 77W Polaris service since it’s new and UA rarely releases J space in advance. Also, since Polaris J is “only” a year old, it’d be cool flying it now before UA cost cuts the crap out of it. But also, I really want to try out BR J. Good thing about BR J is that space is readily available so I can fly then at a future date. So in that respect, I think maybe sticking to UA to experience polaris would be better. However, flying BR in the future will cost me 90k instead of 80k.
Also, I’m only in HKG two nights and I’d like to maximize my time there since I love it so much. I land at 7pm on a saturday night. The UA flight on monday would depart at 12:20pm and the BR flight via TPE departs at 7:30pm (which would allow me to spend the last day in HKG).
Idk, what would you guys do? stick with UA or fly BR?
Saw your post on Flyertalk. I think the BR experience is far better than the UA experience. But the UA experience is very nice and flying nonstop is also nice. All else equal, I think you got a special treat in flying UA J and should stick to nonstop. I think you’ll have a good flight.
But do try BR in the future…it is a wonderful experience.
I’m with Matthew in that BR is better than UA Polaris. Overall BR is one of the best. But BR has only 42 J seats on the 77W compared to UA’s 60.
And Polaris is very comfortable and ticks all the main boxes (all aisle access and not sacrificing upgrade ability). UA has done a good job.
On the day after Emirates unveiled its supa dupa new F on the 77W but still leaves J as 2-3-2 (with a lot fewer J seats compared to UA) that’s striking.
Is that basically the same Continental Pork Chop that has been on the menu basically nonstop for ~6 years now?
That’s right. Polaris Dining is really same + petit fours for dessert + hot mid-flight snack.
I count 28 seats on UA 77W, instead of 26. Beside there is a big galley in front of door 1 too, which is absent on CX 77W.
That’s in one cabin, there are two cabins for a total of 60 seats.
Are you staying in Hong Kong for a while?
Here for Cosmoprof till Friday morning.
You have a cosmetics business too? Good on you for balancing multiple industry jobs.
Thanks. Yes, I’m a busy man…hope to at least have a relaxing tea at the Peninsula this week.
Haha. My best friend from Bangkok is there for that.
You might go into more detail on the “true window seat” statement – I believe the odd numbered seats are “true window” seats as you say, and the even numbered Polaris seats are pushed towards the aisle.