I recently had the opportunity to fly United Polaris business class from San Francisco to Tokyo aboard a Boeing 777-200 aircraft. I was flying with Maisie, the Culinary Concierge as part of the 3 Cards, 3 Continents Challenge. For each of us, this was our first experience with United Polaris business class. The flight clocked in at 11 hours and 5 minutes.
United Polaris Business Class Boeing 777-200 Bottom Line
Compared to other business class products I’ve flown, the flight was pretty average. It wasn’t close to the best, but it wasn’t bad either. The reverse herringbone seats were pretty standard but with one stand-out feature: they were soft enough to be comfortable for side-sleepers like me. On most business class flights, especially when no extra padding is offered for sleep time, I find it painful to lie on my side. That was not the case here and so I was able to get decent sleep. That’s huge. Food was mediocre and service was inconsistent (I had great service on my side of the aisle and Maisie had awful service).
Pros
- Direct aisle access was available in all seats (seats were arranged in a 1-2-1 configuration).
- Seats were more comfortable than most business class seats, especially when flat
- Readers have told me that extra padding is available upon request. I didn’t know about this at the time and didn’t ask for it.
- United provided two pillows and a blanket. One was a standard size pillow and the other was a small memory foam pillow. I really loved the memory foam one.
- We chose bulkhead seating and had tons of legroom (we had previously read that bulkhead seats offer more legroom).
- A divider between middle seats can be raised or lower depending upon whether you want to talk with or want privacy from the person next to you.
- In flight wifi was very fast while it was working
Cons
- There is no privacy door
- Service was inconsistent
- Food was mediocre
- No pajamas were provided for this 11 hour flight (my understanding is that pajamas are available on request for flights of 12 hours or more)
- In flight wifi cut out for a few hours in the middle of our flight
Photos and Captions Follow
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Would you recommend the ANA around the world or united? Thank you!
It depends what you’re trying to do. If you want to fly around the world with lots of stops, then you can’t beat the ANA RTW award. If you just want to get to Asia and back, then check this post for ideas: https://frequentmiler.com/best-ways-to-get-to-asia-using-miles-premium-cabins/
In the spirit of that 90K round the world redemption, that looked like a great flight.
Thanks. It was.
A few years ago, I took a trip where I had opportunity to fly United, Thai, and EVA all in a row. Each were offering short ribs as a meal choice and I thought it would be an interesting experiment to order the same dish on each flight to compare. To my surprise, the UA short ribs were the best. The Thai short ribs were (by far) the worst (almost inedible).
Recently flew a similar flight in UA Polaris and experience was about the same. Salmon bleh/Short Rib good!
“Maisie ordered the short rib and said that it was really good.”
Either I’m starting to question her taste in food or she has amazing luck to get a unicorn meal.
“No extra padding or pajamas were provided”
Greg-did you specifically ask for the seat padding? If so, were you told that they weren’t stocked/catered? Or that they just ran out of them? These are normally available (in limited quantities) and provided, but like the slippers and pajamas on flights over 12 hours, it is only given ON REQUEST, so you have to specifically ask for it.
No It didn’t occur to me to ask. Good to know!
I can confirm the mattress pad is quite comfortable. I always ask for it when boarding – I believe the number they have onboard is limited (that said, I’ve never not gotten one)
How many points was this?
This was just one segment of an around the world trip. I paid 90,000 ANA miles for the ANA award that included this flight plus several others.
A tip if you are flying the other way – always order the congee for breakfast instead of the Western breakfast which is guaranteed heartburn. Not everyone is familiar with ‘rice porridge’ but it is savory and really hearty. They don’t (or didn’t) cater soy sauce with each plate, but you can ask for it.
Flying this in a couple months. Sad to see the salmon is meh…hopefully the Polaris lounge at SFO makes up for it.
@Tom…yes, you will enjoy the Polaris Lounge at SFO…Try their sit down dining room in the back.
I agree with Greg Polaris has a mediocre service and just ok product, could you share how you booked this award?
ANA RTW.