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Having done 4 nonstop round trips to the West Coast of the USA from Singapore, I feel quite comfortable declaring that as far as travelling SIN-SFO is concerned, nonstop is the way to go. Whatever your class of service, boarding in Singapore and deplaning in San Francisco 15 hours later is just so much more pleasant than having to deal with the hassle of an intermediate stop.
My previous three round trips were in UA 787-9 Economy (Y) on the SIN-SFO and SIN-LAX sectors, and SQ A350 Premium Economy (PEY) SIN-SFO. I found these trips quite comfortable, even in economy/premium. But what was the business class experience like?
Earlier this month, I flew on UA2, United's nonstop service from Singapore to San Francisco, in Business Class.
This was branded by United as Polaris Business Class. That said, United's marketing team uses the Polaris branding quite broadly, using the term Polaris to refer to the relaunched UA business product overall, including service, catering, cabin amenities, and not specifically to the new Polaris seat product, which is still being progressively rolled out across the United fleet.
At this point in time, only some of United's fleet have the new Polaris seat: Those which have the new hard product are all of United's 77W's (777-300ER's) and United's 787-10's, and some of their 772's and 763's. A useful progress tracker can be found here.
Currently, though, none of United's 787-9's and 787-8's have the new Polaris seat.
The first 787-9's will be retrofitted at the end of this year, but that means that at the moment, all of United's 787-9 nonstop services from Singapore to San Francisco will have the earlier generation business class seats, in 2-2-2 layout, pictured below:
That said, this B/E Aerospace Diamond business class seat on the 787-9, which United operates on the SIN-SFO sector, is a modern, comfortable seat which reclines into a fully flat bed. All other Polaris amenities, such as bedding and revamped catering are offered on the SIN-SFO sector, and this is the product I experienced on my flight.
I spent a few days in San Francisco before heading to Chicago in United Economy Class.
In Chicago, I watched a baseball game between two rival Chicago teams, the Cubs and the White Sox. This was played at Wrigley Field, a historic ballpark, where the atmosphere during the game was electric.
The atmosphere was just as electric later in the week, at Millenium Park in Chicago, where superstar cellist Yo-Yo Ma played a free concert at the open air Jay Pritzker Pavilion, as part of his ongoing Bach Project.
Till that point, the trip had proceeded like clockwork. However, on my return sector, ORD-SFO-SIN in United Economy, a delayed ORD-SFO leg snowballed into a misconnect and a missed SFO-SIN flight. Thankfully this whole sector was on a single ticket, which meant it was UA's responsibility to get me safely back to Singapore, which they eventually did...more on that experience later in this TR...
TR INDEX
1. Introduction
2. Changi T2 Lounges - SIA SilverKris Lounge vs SATS Premier Lounge
3. Flight - UA2 787-9 Dreamliner SIN-SFO in Polaris Business Class
4. Destination & Run - San Francisco
5. Flight - UA 737-900 SFO-ORD in Economy Class
6. Destination & Run - Chicago
7. Flight - UA 757-300 ORD-SFO in Economy Class
8. Misconnect!
9. Flight - UA29 787-9 Dreamliner SFO-SIN in Economy Class
10. Final Reflections
My previous three round trips were in UA 787-9 Economy (Y) on the SIN-SFO and SIN-LAX sectors, and SQ A350 Premium Economy (PEY) SIN-SFO. I found these trips quite comfortable, even in economy/premium. But what was the business class experience like?
Earlier this month, I flew on UA2, United's nonstop service from Singapore to San Francisco, in Business Class.
This was branded by United as Polaris Business Class. That said, United's marketing team uses the Polaris branding quite broadly, using the term Polaris to refer to the relaunched UA business product overall, including service, catering, cabin amenities, and not specifically to the new Polaris seat product, which is still being progressively rolled out across the United fleet.
At this point in time, only some of United's fleet have the new Polaris seat: Those which have the new hard product are all of United's 77W's (777-300ER's) and United's 787-10's, and some of their 772's and 763's. A useful progress tracker can be found here.
Currently, though, none of United's 787-9's and 787-8's have the new Polaris seat.
The first 787-9's will be retrofitted at the end of this year, but that means that at the moment, all of United's 787-9 nonstop services from Singapore to San Francisco will have the earlier generation business class seats, in 2-2-2 layout, pictured below:
That said, this B/E Aerospace Diamond business class seat on the 787-9, which United operates on the SIN-SFO sector, is a modern, comfortable seat which reclines into a fully flat bed. All other Polaris amenities, such as bedding and revamped catering are offered on the SIN-SFO sector, and this is the product I experienced on my flight.
I spent a few days in San Francisco before heading to Chicago in United Economy Class.
In Chicago, I watched a baseball game between two rival Chicago teams, the Cubs and the White Sox. This was played at Wrigley Field, a historic ballpark, where the atmosphere during the game was electric.
The atmosphere was just as electric later in the week, at Millenium Park in Chicago, where superstar cellist Yo-Yo Ma played a free concert at the open air Jay Pritzker Pavilion, as part of his ongoing Bach Project.
Till that point, the trip had proceeded like clockwork. However, on my return sector, ORD-SFO-SIN in United Economy, a delayed ORD-SFO leg snowballed into a misconnect and a missed SFO-SIN flight. Thankfully this whole sector was on a single ticket, which meant it was UA's responsibility to get me safely back to Singapore, which they eventually did...more on that experience later in this TR...
TR INDEX
1. Introduction
2. Changi T2 Lounges - SIA SilverKris Lounge vs SATS Premier Lounge
3. Flight - UA2 787-9 Dreamliner SIN-SFO in Polaris Business Class
4. Destination & Run - San Francisco
5. Flight - UA 737-900 SFO-ORD in Economy Class
6. Destination & Run - Chicago
7. Flight - UA 757-300 ORD-SFO in Economy Class
8. Misconnect!
9. Flight - UA29 787-9 Dreamliner SFO-SIN in Economy Class
10. Final Reflections
)...
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