A typical window seat in United’s new Polaris international business class. (Image: United)
December 1 is the launch date for what United Airlines is calling a ”reimagined international travel experience” – the carrier’s long-awaited new business class, which will come with some new airport lounges as well.
United is calling the new cabins “Polaris Business Class” and they’ll start to appear in December on the airline’s 777-300ERs, and later on its new 787-10s and A350-1000s. United said its 767-300s and 777-200s will be retrofitted with the new cabins and that the fleet-wide retrofit is a “multi-year process” that we expect to take up to three years. United’s current first class product will disappear with the retrofit. So will those controversial rear-facing, four-across BusinessFirst seats.
Also on December 1, United will cut the ribbon on a new Polaris business class airport lounge at Chicago O’Hare, the first of nine such installations. Others will be coming at Los Angeles International, San Francisco, Houston Bush Intercontinental, Newark, Washington Dulles, Tokyo Narita, London Heathrow and Hong Kong, United said.
Related: First class phase out picks up steam
New business class seats will recline up to 180 degrees. (Image: United)
The new Polaris business seats, custom-designed for United, come in “forward-facing, suite-like pods,” the airline said. They all offer aisle access and 180-degree lie-flat recline. The seat dimensions are 6 feet 6 inches long and 22 inches wide. A spokesperson told TravelSkills that “bed length, width, side furniture and storage are all in line with Global First today.”
Passengers will find 16-inch high-def video screens, mood lighting, and the perfect level of seat recline achieved via a wheel instead of a button (something we first saw on the Hawaiian Air biz class rollout last week), along with multiple storage areas and surfaces for simultaneous working and dining.(Always a difficult feat to do both so will be interesting to try this!)
For those traveling with companions, the two seats in the center of the cabin will have electronic privacy dividers. And another nice touch: All seats have toggled do-not-disturb notifications.
Improved in-flight menus are designed by the Chicago-based Trotter Group. (Image: United)
Other enhancements to business class will include new custom-designed luxury bedding from Saks Fifth Avenue; free pajamas and “cooling gel filled pillows” on flights longer than 12 hours; new amenity kits; and upgraded in-flight menus and wine selections.
“In-flight service will also include made-to-order signature ice cream sundaes, a dessert cart with a variety of petit dessert options, chocolate truffles and wine flights. On daytime flights longer than eight hours and on all flights longer than 12 hours, hot mid-flight snacks such as lobster macaroni and cheese will be available,” United said.
Seats come with innovative storage spaces and new amenity kits. (Image: United)
The new Polaris airport lounges will feature new custom chairs, private daybeds, spa showers, and hot meals “served in a boutique restaurant setting” so travelers can dine before boarding if they want. Private seating stations in the lounges come with pull-out desks, induction chargers, AC/USB ports and table-mounted lamps.
Polaris lounges offer some private seating spaces for work and device recharging. (Image: United)
The airline has created a special website at www.United.com/Polaris to introduce all the features of the new cabins and lounges. It also offers a virtual tour of the cabin via YouTube video.
Related: First class phase out picks up steam
So dear readers…. what do you think? What do you like…or not like about this? Please leave your comments below.
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judyserienagy says
June 13, 2016 at 9:14 amThese planes look nice, but I think that internationally-based airlines will continue to offer better service.
Jeffrey Lee says
June 5, 2016 at 11:10 pmThe seat looks a lot like the Cathay Pacific business class product, which I think recently was similar to what AA has announced for business class. It is a great product (hardware) because the various cabinets and walls do offer privacy…makes the in flight service less important as long as they provide enough bottled water :-).
Salvatore Johnson says
June 5, 2016 at 4:58 pmWish if you would ask about price. I bet that there will be no discounts, it will be more than present business class fares and that to upgrade with miles it will be a lot more miles and have to pay a heavy co-pay. Six years ago you use to be able to upgrade from a coach ticket to business class for 20,000 miles each way.
When they went to the new flat seat business class they added a $550 co-pay along with the 20,000 miles making it almost not worth it.
Bet that they raise the miles and possibly the co-pay. One thing I have learned about United, anything nice will cost you a sh*tload of money.
Chris McGinnis says
June 3, 2016 at 2:56 pmI have several questions for United about the lounges, esp those at SFO, but we’ll have to wait for some answers. My take is that the current Global First lounges (like the one at SFO) will become Polaris lounges and will be reserved only for those flying United Polaris Class on that date, and that United Club members, day pass users, and those flying partner airlines will use the United Club. Still a gray area, but once we have it figured out, we’ll write up a post on it.
EDub says
June 3, 2016 at 2:50 pmI’m curious about the Polaris lounges. Are these replacing the Global First lounges, and does that mean the Global First Lounges will be more crowded? I mean, not that I fly GF often, but there are a lot of flights out of SFO that have it, and it was always kind of nice to have the empty lounge.
mary says
June 3, 2016 at 5:47 am22 inches wide for a 15 hour flight across the ocean ?
Thanks , but I’ll stick with China Southern & their 30 inch wide seat .
( also a lie flat , 80 inch long bed )
ATLDavid says
June 3, 2016 at 4:42 amFinally the new United International Business Class product is introduced. It appears to be greatly improved with the direct aisle access for every seat, adding 2 inches of leg room, and increasing seat width by 2 inches also. The seat is now wider than Delta, but still not as wide as the new business class offered by American. However, the seat is longer than the Delta or American product. At the end of the day it seems like United is still trying to put in too many seats compared to other carriers in a comparable space with the new design. The new lounge product appears to be significantly better than the Delta product especially in terms of food and alcohol. The gate C16 lounge at ORD will become much more crowded now with it becoming a business class lounge and will certainly be less tranquil. These new business class seats do not appear to have the elbow room that the old United F class seats have even though the seat widths appear to be identical. Window facing, as mentioned earlier, like the Delta A330 would have been nice compared to the aisle facing seats like the Delta 777-200LR for the seats to instill a little more privacy. There are not a lot pictures regarding the middle section so I am not sure how well it will work when traveling with a person. The mini snack and drink area is an improvement. Overall, my guess is this product will take a slight lead over American and a significant lead over Delta in terms of quality. Unfortunately it will still lag compared to foreign carriers. I also wish they would have enhanced their F class product instead of eliminating it. Lowering the bar by eliminating the F product and not having a true premium economy product does not help United compete overall. The US carriers are still not stepping up their game to truly compete with foreign carriers on in flight product, service, lounge, or overall airport experience.
Salvatore Johnson says
June 2, 2016 at 7:08 pmAgain until the idiots that run United realize that people will fly other airlines because their’s sucks, it won’t get better. They have done a very good job in eliminating most of the competition, this is what you get with no competition, junk. This is why we have to make sure that this merger between Alaska and Virgin doesn’t happen, it will make the airline more profitable with no competition.
R94110 says
June 2, 2016 at 6:48 pmThe UAL lounge at SFO is the only lounge I have ever left early because I thought the rest of the terminal was superior.
United was the last flight I was ever on where there was a large central screen and everyone had to watch the same movie.
Oh, and pay for alcoholic drinks in economy on international flights?
They have a log way to go
stacey says
June 2, 2016 at 6:37 pmi agree … until the service staff develop a service mentality UA can’t compete with international carriers. they’re making the hard product competitive with other carriers, now they need to make the cabin staff stop acting as though they hate passengers.
i fly SQ and UA equally often, and just entering an SQ aircraft gives a soothing feeling even on coach; UA gives a stressful feeling with the staff barking orders and making everybody hurry up.
FedUP says
June 2, 2016 at 4:56 pmThey are already making a mistake, by having OUTWARD facing seats, rather than inward facing seats…..
Yes nicer food, and nicer infrastructure…. But until the SERVICE improves whats the point ? And its not just the Flight Attendants, who enjoy their job.
Mechanization and Rushing is not service. Running the Cart down the aisle or a trash bag, is not service. United puts you on a 12 hour flight, rushes the “dinner service” in 1.5 hours, then everyone disappears for hours on end. The rushing of the food is ridiculous. You dont even have one drink, and they are shoving the salad in front of your, shortly thereafter the lukewarm mail.
Its called service. United senior management need to fly undercover on other international airlines to realize that the service is part of the package, not just some stupid 15 inch LCD screen.
John Ramirez says
June 2, 2016 at 4:29 pmGood. That place is tired.
Chris McGinnis says
June 2, 2016 at 4:25 pmMy guess is that they are referring to the United First lounge, but not confirmed yet.
John Ramirez says
June 2, 2016 at 2:59 pmIt says that they will unveil a Polaris lounge at SFO and that the Polaris lounge will be a cut above the standard United Club. At SFO, are they planning on converting the United Club in INTL G or the current United First lounge?
ptahcha says
June 2, 2016 at 2:02 pmBuy 2 seats in coach = extra room for $2,500. Voila.
Salvatore Johnson says
June 2, 2016 at 10:20 amOn paper this looks great. The present international business class that United introduced five years ago is a complete bust, the seats were way to narrow and uncomfortable and the seats facing backwards was very awkward at best.
The seat had no storage room for anything so you had to store your computer and such in the overhead bin and go get it after takeoff. Everyone was very excited in getting a “true flat-bed seat” but when people first experienced how tight and uncomfortable it was, a good amount of folks asked for the super wide, old fashion seats that reclined a lot but didn’t turn into a bed.
The bottom line United turned the old seven to a row on a 777 seating to eight in a row with the new seats and most of the folks hated it and went to other airlines.
Again another mistake United made in the interest of higher profits.
I dread finding out how much this new business class will be. I know what made the difference five years ago when United introduced the new business class seats, round trip fairs from Dulles to London was between $2,700 to $3,000 which people could afford. But since the price has gone up to an average of between $4,300 to $5,000 which is unaffordable. So if these new seats are the same pricing, I may not be able to afford them.
Again for any of you idiots from United that are reading this, we want something with some room that is in the $2,500 price range, not $5,000