Ending 2021 on a great note: United Polaris London – DC

After a long year, I have one final flight to report on.  For those who’ve been keeping track of my flights this year, it’s been quite the roller coaster.  I started the year in Finland.  I flew in First Class on British Airways and back on American to go get a vaccine.  I then came back in September on short notice for personal reasons, and again in October for business/vacation.  Finally, I came back in December in Polaris, which is the flight I’ll be talking about here.  This is the second true Polaris flight I’ve taken.  I’ve taken pseudo-Polaris a few times (either Polaris soft product but old hard product or Polaris hard product but domestic service).

When I was visiting in October, British Airways was having a sale, and I wasn’t sure what was going to happen with my UK visa.  Thanks to the new, more relaxed change policies, I decided to go ahead and book a flight back to the US for the holidays because I knew I could just change the flight if needed.  Luckily, everything somehow fell into place, and I was able to go on this trip.  Because of British Airways’ sale, United price-matched them.  I just needed a simple flight to/from IAD airport in Northern Virginia/DC.  Since this trip was happening close to Christmas, the flights were a bit overpriced, but the business class sale offset the overpricing a bit.  Specifically, it meant that an economy ticket was running for nearly $2 000, and business class was $2 300.  So I obviously booked business class.

At the time of booking, British Airways did not consistently operate aircraft equipped with Club Suites on the route, whereas United consistently operated 767-300ERs in the ‘high J’ configuration with 46 Polaris business class pods.  This is the same type of aircraft that I flew in October from LAX to IAD (but in a premium economy seat sold as economy).  My British Airways account year doesn’t reset until January 8^th, so there was no particular points-related advantage to flying BA over United, so I opted for the better seat. 

A few days before my flight, I learned that the United Club in LHR had reopened.  I was very excited.  While not as good as the Polaris lounge, London’s United Club is the best I’ve been in.  Since international travel is still relatively low, the club was not very busy.  I found myself a spot in the corner away from everyone else and then immediately went to build my own ‘Full English Breakfast’.  I’m not usually one for a big breakfast, but I make an exception for build-your-own breakfasts. 

I actually had some business to take care of, so I took advantage of the business area to make a few phone calls.  The business center had both US and UK plugs, which was fun. 

I got some nice views of aircraft in Terminal 2, including a Saudia airplane and my 767 (N670UA).

I intentionally boarded at the end because all passengers on this 767 board through the front door.  I assigned myself seat 1L, which is generally my favorite seat on aircraft.  United’s 767 Polaris seats are arranged in a relatively unique 1-1-1 configuration, which means that most seats have window views.

The last time I sat in 767 Polaris was back in January 2020, when I got a completely free (operational) upgrade from Premium Plus to Polaris and sat in seat 8D, which is in the middle row (left aisle) and is an angled seat.  The Polaris seats are one of my favorite types of seats; it’d be great if they had doors like the BA seat, but it’s also holding up better than some of BA’s seats.  The big downside to the Polaris cabin is that not all seats are identical.  Half the seats face forward, and half are angled.  The angled seats have decidedly less privacy and only have 1 window (instead of 2 or 3 for the forward facing seats).  Waiting at my seat was all the bedding, headphones, and an amenity kit.  United’s Saks Fifth Avenue bedding is very high quality, and I particularly love the gel pillow.  The headphones were pretty lackluster, and I’m not even sure if they were actually noise-cancelling, haha.  Noticeably absent from the seat was an in-flight menu.  Instead, the flight attendant came around shortly before takeoff to get my order: mushroom-stuffed chicken.

I got a few different angles of me in the seat over the course of the flight:

Shortly after takeoff, they came around for a drinks service.  I got a glass of champagne to start with, which was served in a glass, unlike on American.  When they came around with our lunch orders, I got some white wine to go with my chicken.  The lack of a menu was a bummer because I couldn’t read about the wine before I got it.  The wine was fine, but I enjoy reading all the random information they give.

Like a lot of airlines right now, business class meals are served all on one tray.  However, they’ve returned to removing (most of) the plastic from the food.  The presentation was actually pretty good overall, and I liked the fruit on top of the salad; it made it seem more substantial than some of the salads I’ve seen on other blogs this year.  The main course was basically a roast dinner, which was actually pretty good.  The chicken was cooked properly, and the mushroom stuffing was great.  The vegetables were also cooked properly within the same theme.  The ice cream was also a fun addition; they even came around just after the meal offering the remaining ice creams, haha. 

After the meal, I settled in to work on my laptop and watch some movies.  I’ve been working through the Harry Potter movies on my various United flights.  I watched numbers 4, 5, and 6 on this flight, and I’ll probably with numbers 7 and 8 on the way back.

After making a poster for a conference and watching two movies, they came around to offer the pre-arrival lunch.  I got a gin & tonic to go with my vegetable couscous dish.  The fruit bowl was pretty good, as was the tiny crumble.  The couscous was a bit dry (it just needed some more of the vegetable sauce), but the vegetable medley went well with it.

After the meal, I was one of the first to deplane, but we had to wait for one of Dulles’ inter-terminal busses ‘mobile lounges’, which are pretty terrible.  Dulles has the new Global Entry kiosks, so I didn’t need to do anything beyond facial recognition.  Given I only had to show my passport at check-in and the gate, it’d be great if I didn’t have to carry my passport on my person at all for this type of flight, haha.  Perhaps one day.

In summary, this 7-hour transatlantic flight was exceptionally relaxing.  The United Club being reopened was great to hear; I like it way better than the sub-par Lufthansa Lounge (5/5).  I wish London had a Polaris lounge, but the pandemic put those plans on hold, so it’s not fair to penalize.  The 767-300ER is one of my favorite planes, and the Polaris seat is great, just lacking a door (4/5).  Both meals were solid, but the couscous was a bit dry, and there was no dessert wine or menu (4/5). The in-flight service was great; not overbearing, not underwhelming (5/5).  The inflight entertainment was typical for a UA 767, and the free WiFi was a great benefit to using the Travel Ready Center, but the headphones were noticeably subpar (4/5). Overall, I give this international business class flight a great score of 22/25.

From a points perspective, this flight was interesting because I earn United miles based on the price of the ticket (7 408 miles), which was quite substantial in this case.  If I’d flown BA, I would have earned 9 193 Avios.  This is the first time in a while that a revenue-based award scheme gave a relatively comparable number of miles to a distance-based award scheme.  I booked put this ticket on my Amex Green Card to earn 3x points, so I earned around another 3 500 Membership Rewards points in addition to the United miles.  Between the Amex points and the United miles (which don’t include taxes/fees), I earned around 10x points/dollar, which is pretty good.  The Points Guy values Amex Membership Rewards points at 2 cents each and United Miles at 1.3 cents each.  Using their valuations, I earned $166 worth of points, for a return of 14%, which isn’t bad.  

I’m not entirely convinced that I value Membership Rewards/Ultimate Rewards points at 2 cents each though.  We’ll have to see when I start redeeming them next year.