United Airlines revealed its new Polaris and Polaris Studio products at a media event in Brooklyn yesterday that I attended. Here’s a first-hand look and my observations on the new suites and other new seating onboard future United 787-9 deliveries.

I Tried Out The New Polaris Studio Suites And Other New Seats

After prepared remarks by CEO Scott Kirby, members of the media were invited to preview the new seats…from economy class to Polaris Studio. I outlined the particulars of the new seats yesterday, but there is often a disconnect between fancy stock photos and the product itself.

While 90 minutes may not have been enough time to fully test these new seats, I was greatly impressed with the seat comfort and the finishes. The faux-marble table and the use of suede around the seat in Polaris is a very nice touch that looks exceptional in person (as long as it ages well).

The Studio suite will be a bit tight with someone in the ottoman, but it’s certainly an ehanced product and I don’t share the concern of others that the close proximity to the lavatory and galley will be a problem (I already choose bulkhead seats when I fly in Polaris and this has not been an issue for me).

To avoid this becoming the new “employee class” I think United should offer bump status passengers up to these seats on the day of travel if there are still revenue passengers on the business class waitlist. Policy and pricing around Polaris Studio has certainly been discussed internally, but not revealed…EVP Andrew Nocella was tight-lipped about this yesterday.

The new reverse-herringbone Polaris center seats are great for couples traveling together: a privacy divider between seats can be lowered, creating a more spacious shared space:

The new digital seat controls and mood lighting settings are a big improvement over the current wheel-style controls.

Nocella received a lot of questions about why the existing fleet would be be retrofitted, but I tend to agree that it’s anot a wise use of reserouces nor is it a huge problem that there will no longer be fleet consistency…you have to start somwhere when you upgrade the seats and with over 100 additional Dreamliners coming, this is a smarter way to do it than pulling aircraft out of service for seats that are already comfortable and have direct aisle access.

(Side note: Nocella said that United is still undecided on the A350 order, but if it does take it, it will feature these new suites)

The timing of this, as American Airlines also debuts its new Flagship Suites, is no coincidence and the large monitors in the Polaris Studio are a reminder that AA really should have put some more thought into its new premium suites onboard (which have inexplicably small monitors)

The new premium economy (what United class Premium Plus) seats look great too, though I’m not sure that purple color will age well:

No innovation in the economy class seats, but the new larger monitors look nice:

New hooded pajamas coming to Polaris Studio look nice and the new headphones will be a nice upgrade:

I think my most interesting conversations were with United’s food and beverage team, which will be the subject of a future post. I like to be transparent as a blogger and will also “pull the curtains back” and share more details about the event logistics.

CONCLUSION

In short, the long-awaited new Polaris seat will be a genuine upgrade, not so much for the doors (which I still view as gimmicky) but for the seat finishes and technology onboard (larger monitors, Starlink Wi-Fi, and wireless charging). The seat details were carefully considered and not only look nice, but are very comfortable and practical.

The new seats will debut in San Francisco (SFO), first on routes to Singapore (SIN) and London (LHR) and later expand to other routes across the network.

What do you think about the new 787-9 seats on United?