United updating the Polaris cabin

United announced some major updates to Polaris Business Class yesterday and it's crazy to think this blog has been around long enough to have my thoughts on Polaris' birth nearly 10 years ago. Re-reading that post makes the launch of this new seat seem fairly trivial in comparison to that: the branding, the service, the lounges are all up and running now. Other than the door, the difference between the new seat and the old seat is fairly small - a lot smaller than the difference between the first Polaris seat and the Business Class seats that preceded it. 

LOL a worker at the BK Navy Yard leaked the big Polaris reveal 24 hours early

So yes, they're going to roll out an off-the-shelf seat (with doors!) that's been in use by Qatar and Hawaiian for a while now. A seasonal flavor will get added to the ice cream sundae cart. There'll be a new self-serve snack area. A bunch of the middle seats will have double-bed features (including a shared mattress pad). The new planes will have a lot of Polaris seats so that will hopefully keep my upgrade chances high.

Polaris Suites

United's going to brand the larger bulkhead seats as Polaris Suites and charge more for them like JetBlue does. In addition to all the normal Polaris perks, people in Suites will board with Global Services members, get a caviar amuse bouche and a better champagne, and their amenity kit will be nicer. There's some talk of tarmac transfers "on a surprise-and-delight basis" – i.e., don't hold your breath. 

UPDATE: Jut read a FlyerTalk post where someone made the very good point that these suites being paid seat assignments (rather than a separate fare/class) likely portends all Polaris seat selections eventually costing money/points. Ugh. I hate that they're probably right. British and Lufthansa manage to get away with it, I'm sure United will try. 

Sidenote: I did a focus group for United and one of the things they proposed for Suites was a  physical champagne button. Sadly, that campy idea didn't make the cut. (Maybe they'll do it in software as an onscreen button? Easier to hide that when the bean counters inevitably cut the service in a few months)

Most of my points from the original Polaris lounge are still true, but this one especially so:

I've flown Polaris probably 25 times now, and on a good day the service feels friendly and competent but also distracted and harried. Treat your people well, compensate them fairly, and train them to provide service like you see on ANA. Wake up, Brian, you're dreaming! 

UPDATE: Just found out that United flight attendants disrupted the launch event to protest exactly their lack of said fair compensation. Hell yeah!

Ok but while I'm dreaming, here's a few other things I would have like to see: 

• Please put a flap on the mattress pad so it will stay on my seat properly
• Espresso on board (NO milk drinks unless its from one of those Vertuo Nespresso pods!)
• Coffee machines at SFO lounge. While i love a live barista, it's just weird having to go to the lone bartender to ask for one or take drip coffee from an urn.
• More SFO lounge shower capacity. Anything to speed things up when that morning crush of long haul folks arrive who want a shower in the 2 hours before their connection. I'd happily use a communal YMCA kinda shower if I needed to. They could put in way more showers if each one didn't have a toilet and a grooming and dressing area.
• Singapore Airlines-style Book The Cook. I'd love to have a much wider variety of meals to choose from if I book in advance. United's IT department give you this illusion really well, but in all honesty you're just choosing "Beef, Chicken, Fish, or Veg?" in advance.
• Just get rid of the amenity kit. Put toothbrushes and masks and stuff in the bathroom (or in a basket passed by the FAs). I feel bad opening a whole kit just to get one thing out of it.
• My husband just shouted "also bring back the PS cookie!" IYKYK.