I’ve got to hand it to the crew of UA892, my 787-9 flight from Seoul to San Francisco in Polaris Business Class. It was one of the best United flights I have ever flown. Let’s unpack what made this flight so excellent.
United Airlines Business Class 787-9 Review (ICN-SFO)
Flying United home was not my first choice. Instead, I was hoping to fly Korean Air in first class, a bucket list flight experience, particularly on the 747-8, that has long eluded me.
But alas, that space never opened. So the day before, I booked a premium economy ticket on United for $1282 (Seoul – San Francisco – Burbank) and my upgrade cleared to Polaris Business Class at just under 24 hours before departure.
Arriving at Seoul Incheon around 70 minutes before departure, I picked up my boarding pass and headed through security…the check-in lines were virtually empty.
Typically I will board first, but the trip to Incheon took longer than I expected (due to traffic) and I wanted to photograph both the Singapore Airlines SilverKris and Asisna lounges. Thus, I was the very last passenger to board this flight.
United Airlines 892
Seoul (ICN) – San Francisco (SFO)
April 2024
Depart: 4:50 PM
Arrive: 11:30 AM (same-day)
Duration: 10hr, 40min
Distance: 5,658 miles
Aircraft: Boeing 787-9
Seat: 6D (Business Class)
As I entered the plane, a flight attendant named Deon welcomed me onboard. He was a South African national and we had a great chat. Then Michelle, the purser, came around to introduce herself to each passenger and warmly thanked me for being a 1K and MillionMiler.
Yoichi then stopped by to take my dinner order and was also so kind and gracious (he managed to get me my first choice even though I had neglected to pre-order, which I appreciated – sometimes flight attendants do not sort meal preferences by MileagePlus status).
This set the tone for the flight. The service was consistently friendly, attentive, and engaging.
But it got even better.
Captain Leo Sherman, a gregarious Lousiana man with a booming voice, came out and introduced himself to the cabin and made small talk before proceeding to the rear business class cabin and doing the same (he was out of the flight deck to take a look at a lavatory issue).
Service
The service on this flight was simply perfect…every interaction with every flight attendant (and pilot) was worthy of a first class experience.
Before lading, I received a thank you card signed by Michelle, Yoichi, and Captain Leo. Michelle had a stack of them she was handing out to 1Ks and Global Services members onboard. What a lovely touch…FAs are not paid extra for this.
Seat
United’s Polaris seat is based on Safran Optima platform, with four-across seating in a 1-2-1 configuration. Every seat has direct aisle access. Each seat converts into a 6′-6″ lie-flat bed.
Tip: choose a bulkhead seat (rows 1 and 9) for a wider footwell on United’s 787-9
Bedding remains excellent in Polaris, with a large pillow, cooling gel pillow, duvet, and day blanket. Matres pads are available on request. I slept very well on this flight.
Unfortunately, even out of Seoul the ground staff did not do a great job of cleaning the aircraft. As I’ve come to expect on United, there were crumbs all over the place.
Food + Drink
Water or sparkling water were offered prior to takeoff.
A menu for the flight including food and beverage options had already been placed on the seat.
Service began shortly after takeoff with a hot towel followed by a choice of beverage and warmed mixed nuts. I tried the Whispering Angel Rosé which is far from my favorite rosé, but acceptable.
United has reintroduced menus with regional specialties out of its stations in Asia and Europe and I ordered the Korean BBQ chicken for my main course. When ordering, I was wavering between beef or chicken and Yoichi strongly recommended the beef. I went with the regional item instead.
Well, the choice was fine, though not my favorite sauce:
It was served with two sides: a romaine and kale salad and buffalo mozzarella with tomatoes, olives, and basil.
But when I finished that, Yoichi proactively brought over a leftover beef for me to try (apparently several passengers skipped the meal). First, what a nice gesture! Second, the beef short ribs were extremely tender and lean…a very good and superior choice.
I rounded out the meal with an ice cream sundae topped with strawberry sauce, shaved almonds, whipped cream, and a cherry.
Snacks were available in the galley between business class cabins, including leftover cheese plates and cherry tarts from the main meal service. Whole fruit was also available as well as grilled cheese toasties and potato leak soup (on request).
I slept for about six hours and awoke about 90 minutes outside of San Francisco for the pre-arrival service.
Again, I ordered the local option–Gochujang chicken pancakes with sesame seeds and chili sauce. They were…okay? Actually, the sauce was quite spicy but the flavors worked fairly well together. It’s not a dish I would ever eat at home, but I was happy to have tried it. It was served with a fresh fruit bowl and croissant on the side (and the croissant was much better than the faux croissant served on flights departing from the USA).
But after finishing that, Yoichi proactively brought me over the crepes to try. It’s as if he could read my mind! What a lovely touch. Over the years, I have been served many second (and third) meals based on my request, but this was the first time a second meal has been proactively offered to me.
By the way, the apple crepes were the more delicious choice (served with caramelized peaches, caramel drizzle, and topped with waffle crumble and toasted hazelnuts). Everyone around me slept through breakfast so I also appreciate that I was able to contribute to reducing food waste!
Amenities
An Away-branded amenity kit was placed at each seat as were slippers in the footwell.
IFE + Wi-Fi
Wi-Fi was available for purchase at a cost of $23.99 for a flight pass. Messaging was free for all passengers and T-Mobile customers could enjoy either one-hour free wi-fi or a complimentary flight pass, depending upon their mobile plan.
Meanwhile, hundreds of movies nad TV shows plus games and audiobooks were offered via the seatback screen or streaming via intranet on your mobile device using the United app.
I watched a movie called Origin which was very thought-provoking and recommended…
Lavatories
The Polaris cabin features one lavatory between the two cabin areas and two in the front of the aircraft (one of those two in the front are sometimes reserved for crew use). Lavatories feature hydrating mist and hand creme from Therabody.
CONCLUSION
This will go down as one of my best United flights ever (which makes it all the more tragic what United is doing to MileagePlus). I don’t know what to do when it comes to continuing to earn 1K status…but I do know this was objectively an excellent flight and I so appreciated the excellent crew onboard.
The constantly dirty planes are just disgusting and so typical of UA
Typical indeed. I do not understand why it is so hard to clean planes. I mean, I vacuum at home. It’s tedious, but it has to be done…
This little failure is to be expected and such a silly way to annoy customers (especially on what was an otherwise rather extraordinarily positive flight)
United serving seoul. interesting route? Is there any demand to ICN?
ICN is skyteam hub
They went to double daily from SFO so there must be some demand. Would love to see LAX-ICN, especially if OZ leaves Star Alliance.
With a limited lifespan on the 747-8i at KoreanAir, would you eventually cave & just pay cash for the one-way ticket? If so, around what price point?
Yes. Next year if I cannot use my Chase-era miles before they expire this year.
Any good deals you see? I think ex-BKK is okay. I’d like to fly on A380 and 747-8 on one trip.
I haven’t kept track but lmk when you search & I can poke around a bit
I just spent an hour searching…certainly cheaper (by a huge margin) originating outside the USA, but I still don’t see a one-way for less than about $6K…that’s quite a bit of cash…
I wouldn’t describe a room temperature cup of water prior to departure as “first class” service. I’m glad you enjoyed your flight, and a good crew can certainly make a difference, but flying a US carrier back from Asia really is a drag. Hopefully you’ll find some way to get on KE soon enough.
It was such a pleasure having you onboard and spending time with you on this flight. Thank you for the wonderful feedback- I’m glad to hear you enjoyed your time onboard as much as we did with you! I look forward to seeing you again onboard another flight soon.
Thanks Yoichi! You are the best!
Yoichi. Thank you for taking such good care of Matthew, but raising the bar for all flight attendants with your attention.
Way to go Yoichi!!
It looks like UA is serving you food (starter and main) together on one tray. Will they ever serve the starter, remove the starter dish, then serve the main? That to me is better service.
Remember, this was a few months back. Courses are now served separately.
When United gets it right, they can offer a decent service. Glad the service was good, and the food better than usual (UA uses a good catering company at ICN?), if only the plane had been cleaned properly.
I wouldn’t call that food anything more than average for a US3. What’s sad is they should treat every client like you but I suspect you’d then realize all of your readers may not get that- UAL knew exactly who you were and your report should reflect that- I wish you wouldn’t keep covering up for a crappy airline and their filthy planes and poor food.
I really love (or loved) UAL in the past but let’s get real- I bet a KAL or Asiana flight would have offered immensely better food and much better service for less or equal money. Try one and let us know.
You really think they staff flights based upon my bookings, especially when made only 25 hours before travel?
Come on, Carins.
I’m not covering up for anyone. Covering up would be not pointing out the crumbs.
Wait till you here about my crotch incident on my recent CDG-SFO flight. It won’t paint United in any sort of good light…
But this was an excellent flight and everyone around me was treated well. I’ll give UA credit where credit is due…just like for any other airline.
“UAL knew exactly who you were”
Yes, UA knows exactly who you are. If you don’t believe that, you either don’t understand how CRM works or you’re pretending to be blissfully ignorant.
And man, you sure do eat a lot on your flights. My experience is that I can minimize jet lag by eating light and healthy.
So you’re saying the little iPhones have all sorts of comments about me…”VIP Blogger, etc, etc”?
I know what CRM systems (my gym apparently keeps detailed records, which is kind of hilarious and kind of alarming), but the uneven service I receive makes me wonder…
I’ll respectfully disagree while saying I love your blog and read it avidly. I don’t think they staff flights based upon your presence- but two extra meals?? C’mon. The last time I flew them (IAD-HNL and reverse last month) I got one 7-11 piece of garbage as a meal each way. The crumbs you saw were nothing compared to the snot covered Kleenex, fingernail parings and leftover food that graced my Polaris seat.
While you may may have been treated to an excellent flight it is very, very rare for UAL to treat it’s customers any where near as well as they have treated you lately- I think you’re known to them and I strongly suspect their knowledge of you reflects that. Crikey, they may even use a vacuum cleaner on your seat- I think they may even own one or two in the Pacific region.
Huge respect Matthew for selecting the regional dishes. Credit where credit is due.
Even more respect for consuming four meals on the flight.