United’s brand new Boeing 777-300ER arrives at SFO for the first time (Photo: Chris McGinnis)
This week United put its newest bird, the Boeing 777-300ER, into service. Starting Thursday, February 16, the new 777 will fly domestically between SFO and Newark. With a United fare sale that started today, you can try out the new plane for as little as $252 round trip in March (that’s cheap!), but you’ll pay about $3,000+ in business class.
Right now, there’s only one United jet flying with the Polaris seats— the one you’ll see pictured below. While United has begun marketing all its business class tickets as Polaris, you’ll only find the seat on the B777-300ER for the time being. United will get 14 of these birds from Boeing this year.
A window seat in United’s new Polaris cabin on B777-300ER (Photo: Chris McGinnis)
Note the staggered configuration of window seats on United B777-300ER- best seats are closest to windows on odd numbered rows (Chris McGinnis)
Bulkhead center seats (rows 1 and 9) are the best choice for tall travelers- 80 inches long in full recline! (Chris McGinnis)
If you are on another type of aircraft, you’ll get United’s old business class seat, even if your booking and boarding pass say “Polaris” which has been confusing to many TravelSkills readers. That’s because you are getting the Polaris “soft product”- which in airline terms means the food and beverage service (such as the wine flights or bloody mary cart), pillows, blankets, new amenity kits and white teddy bears (currently selling on eBay for $80!)
Passengers on the first Polaris flights get cute teddy bears along with new amenity kits (Photo: Chris McGinnis)
The “hard product,” meaning the reconfigured cabin and new Polaris seats will roll out slowly. Between now and May 4, United will fly the B777-300ER between San Francisco and Newark six days per week. On February 22, United gets another new B777-300ER which it will also deploy on SFO-Newark through March 8– which means there will be TWO Polaris planes flying the route for a short period of time.
Interested in flying on the new plane? When booking your SFO-EWR flight on United, click on “Detailed View” or “Details” and look for “Boeing 777-300ER.”
On March 25, the new aircraft will make its international scheduled service debut, replacing a 747-400 on the very competitive San Francisco-Hong Kong route, where United’s Polaris seat and service compete with two of the best in the business: Singapore Airlines and Cathay Pacific.
TravelSkills was at SFO to welcome the shiny jet and its payload of travel media invited along to try out the new Polaris business class seats. This flight operated as a charter and was not available for purchase.
A few observations about the B777-300ER after my brief tour and chat with a few of those on the media charter:
>Length of seat and comfort vary in the new Polaris cabin. Window seats offer the most privacy and best views, although with some neck craning, you can get a view out the window from some window-side aisle seats (even numbers). Due to the staggered configuration, an odd-numbered window seat should be your first choice. See B777-300ER layout on SeatGuru here.
>The bulkhead center business class seats (rows 1 and 9) are a remarkable 80 inches long in full recline— that’s enough room for a 6’8″ passenger! I’m 6 feet tall and had to point my toes to touch the wall in a regular mid-cabin window seat. The seat feels a little narrow, but in the few minutes I was in it, I was comfortable, and I’m sure I’d sleep well on my side snuggled in with a bear, a big pillow and a Saks Fifth Avenue blanket (plus eye shades and ear plugs!)
Chris lying flat in a new United Polaris seat (Photo: J Guerin)
>Economy class is configured 10-across while United’s other 777s offer 9-across seating. I was prepared for the worst when I ventured beyond the curtain, but when I tried the premium economy seat, I was impressed with the seat legroom (34 inches pitch). Granted, I was seated alone in a center seat, but it just did not seem that bad. Time will tell what it’s like to be jammed into a center seat with two large passengers on either side. But the seat, the access to power, the seatback screen and knee room all seemed okay to me.
>There’s a clubby Economy Plus section (rows 19-22) just behind business class, the first row (19) of which are probably the very best economy seats on the plane due to the legroom. Plus this cabin is protected from the larger economy class cabin by bank of lavatories. Economy Plus row 24 offers a lot of legroom, too, but proximity to the lavatories could be a problem, and there’s a limited view out the window and no storage space for take off and landing.
Club-like Economy Plus rows 19-22 just behind business class and in front of a bank of lavs (Chris McGinnis)
10-abreast economy class on United’s new B777-300ER- that’s a LOT of middle seats! (Photo: Chris McGinnis)
>You can tell where Economy Plus ends and regular economy begins by looking at the color scheme of the seats, as well as the placards in the overhead bins. Regular economy was pretty tight (31 inches pitch), but I had a couple inches in front of my knees when the seat in front was not reclined. That would disappear as soon as the person in front reclined. (See below) Out of 10 seats across four are middle seats, six are windows or aisles.
Knee room – 31 inches- in regular economy class on United B777-300ER (Photo: Chris McGinnis)
Knee room – 34 inches- in Economy Plus on United B777-300ER (Chris McGinnis)
Economy Plus on United’s B777-300ER has 34 inches of pitch. Seats are 17 inches wide (Chris McGinnis)
There are two crew rest areas on this plane. One is upfront for pilots, the other is accessed by a secret door by the rear galley and contains six soundproof sleeping berths for flight attendants. This get-away-from-it-all space is cherished by crew, especially on those 12-15 our transpac long hauls!
United said it expects to put all 14 of its new 777-300ERs into service during 2017. The aircraft will be configured with 60 Polaris business class seats in a 1-2-1 layout; 102 Economy Plus seats; and 204 regular economy seats.
So what do you think about this big new bird? Please leave your comments below!
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Wow Charles, you nailed it. I’m a loyal UA customer now working on 2 million miles. I have been quite content with E+ 3x3x3 seating on their 777 and have the segments to prove it. I will not travel in eco on this aircraft without a gun to my head. I’ll make sure to book elsewhere – trust me United – “to avoid these absurdly cramped seats”.
I’m a regular reader of TravelSkills based in SF (thanks Chris for the interesting and helpful columns!) and after reading this article, I decided to try to new 777-300ER for a flight from EWR to SFO (UA flt 418 on 3/8). Business class looked great, but I flew in Economy Plus, so here’s my review from the cheap seats.
Pros: The lighting is great. The seats are new and outfitted well (including power at every seat). Wifi actually worked pretty well on this flight.
Cons: The economy seats are just too narrow, making the flying experience miserable. I’m not a large person, and I’ve generally enjoyed UA E+, even on long trips. (For example, I flew on a UA 787 SFO/SYD last month in E+ and thought it was actually quite nice.) But my experience in E+ on the 777-300ER was awful. I found it very difficult to work, and my neighbors and I got to know each other much better than I think any of us would have wanted. You are literally pushed up against the next passenger. Admittedly, my flight was full, and I expect that it would’ve been a very different experience with an open seat next to me. But with high load factors these days, you can’t count on an open seat next to you.
Bottom Line: I understand that UA is going to add these planes to its SFO/HKG route and other long haul flights. I flew SFO/HKG on a UA 747 last year, and I thought it was fine (although a bit aged and admittedly not nearly as nice as UA’s 787). But I absolutely would not fly a UA 777-300ER in E+ on a long route like that. In fact, based on my experience yesterday, I will actively avoid the UA 777-300ER in E+ on any route and would pay a premium to take a different plane, make a stop, or take another carrier to avoid these absurdly cramped seats.
Sadly Cathay Pacific’s 777’s with 3-3-3 seating is going away soon to the barbaric 3-4-3 layout. They had a fantastic product in the 3-3-3 layout since they got rid of those awful ” fixed shell” seats about 4 years ago but sadly they are going to be stuffing more seats in and losing customers like me.
Well, if the women weren’t such fat-asses it wouldn’t be such a big deal.
Sweet! Where are you flying to/from?
I’m writing this from onboard (1A) and it is a very nice experience.
31”. Forget it.
Econ Plus looks okay, until you consider the 17” width. That would get taxing on a long flight.
Cramming people into airplanes like this is asking for a lawsuit when someone develops DVT.
Delta is def. ahead of United. They both are worlds ahead of American in terms of legacy carriers.
Yes for T7 for 777 and EWR 🙂 I don’t fly out of that airport very often, mostly JFK.
In a way it looks almost like first class seats now.
Again United is screwing those in coach, if you can afford Polaris class United is the way to go. But no matter what, I refuse to sit for ten hours in a ten across seat. I don’t care how much legroom I have, the seat is too narrow and too many people in a row for me.
United can shove this configuration up there you know what, I will fly someone else.
Fair enough. Those 777s won’t stay on domestic routes for very long, but temporarily, it is true that they compete with JB.
I do have to tease you about your acronyms tho. I thought your T7 acronym was unusual (I kept trying to figure out which terminal 7 you were referring to). But then you came up with NWK! I’ll assume you mean EWR 🙂
Singapore still has 3-3-3 config in coach. Very comfy.
In my case it is relevant because the flight advertised here is between SFO and NWK. It would be an alternative vs the JFK SFO route I normally fly on JB with an A321. So yes, you can compare domestic T7 with A320 and other small planes.
Delta will introduce suites (with a privacy door) in business class later this year. That’s fairly cutting edge anywhere in the world (except maybe Singapore airlines)
Yeah, I don’t see why a US airline getting something that foreign airlines have had for a decade is news but, hey, Go USA huh?
I don’t really see the point in comparing a 777 and an A320 since they almost never fly the same routes.
All of Delta’s 777s are 3-3-3 in coach
You are correct. T7 is pretty cramped in coach but this layout is standard. At least KLM and air France fly this way. The 31″ pitch seems very short though. Such a giant airplane, such tiny seats in cattle class. I’ll fly Jetblue when I can. Small plane (A320/1) but normal coach is pretty roomy. Extra legroom is nicer of course and I often do that.
767s have seven across in the back. I don’t think the fuselage is wide enough for an 8th seat.
I don’t think there is a Triple 7 in the air that isn’t 3-4-3 in coach if memory serves. The only aircraft I can think of is the 767 in coach is 2-4-2 but I may be mistaken.
Can’t wait to try it! Have loved the Polaris class amenities including the new menus, wine flights and blankets/pillows from Saks Fifth Ave with the old seats on SFO-FRA, IAH-EZE and SCL-IAH. Looking forward to the new seats!
Polaris doesn’t look that great to me either. Very confined/enclosed