Premium Travel Insider is a review aggregation site, not a review site. However, sometimes we’re able to travel internationally in business or first, and we will post those reviews – and incorporate them into our scoring. Today we’re looking at a review of United Polaris Dulles to Brussels.
This trip has a somewhat amusing origin. On a whim, I decided I would visit the remote port of Melilla, Spain, which is physically located within Morocco, yet part of Spain, and thus, the EU – no visa requirements. This was a triple AvGeek header for me:
- Burn 2 expiring GPUs
- Pre-emptive mileage run for 2019 for the rapidly devaluing United 1k status
- Visit the continent of Africa for the first time
To my utter glee, I was able to secure a guaranteed upgrade both to and from Brussels for this trip – the AvGeek gods wanted this trip to happen. I had flown True Polaris once before – from Tokyo Narita to IAD on a 777-300ER, and was looking forward to doing it again.
As a reminder, for internal “house” reviews, we score on the same 1-3 scale we use elsewhere. A 3 indicates that a given category exceeded reviewer expectations, a 2 indicates it met expectations, and a 1 failed to meet expectations. We evaluate the categories we believe are most relevant to the flight, hotel, or lounge experience.
Details
Flight Number: UA950
Flight Date: 4/11/19
To/From: IAD to BRU
Carrier: United
Class of Service: Polaris Business
Duration: 7:40
Aircraft: 777-200
Seat: 9A
Lounge Experience
I did a quick run over to the Lufthansa Lounge at Dulles International Airport’s Terminal B. Although the Turkish has better food, it’s usually insanely overcrowded and I’ve taken to the Lufthansa Senator Lounge when flying internationally. Today was a fairly routine visit, with the lounge moderately crowded with travelers on the 5:35 PM Austrian Airlines flight to Vienna, Austria.
Food options were not as appetizing as they’d been in the past – not that they looked bad, but the selections – some sandwiches, chicken tikka masala, did not inspire me. I grabbed a quick sandwich and butterscotch pudding, both of which were good. This proved to be a wise move for later on.
Seat – 3/3
As I was solo traveling, I picked seat 9A, which was one of Zach Honig at The Points Guy recommended Polaris seats if you’re without a companion. The larger footwell was extremely noticeable and quite comfortable when sleeping. I did note that the seat was a bit dirty – crumbs in a few of the places you’d expect crumbs to accumulate (and in theory, thus be vacuumed). I’m not a germaphobe, but it was disappointing. Beyond that, the Polaris seat was fantastic. Each seat also had individual air nozzles, great for comfort.
IFE – 3/3
United’s IFE is nearly always strong, and today was no exception. There was a good assortment of movies and TV shows. The screen itself, being newly refit, was crisp and high definition. United also boasts a nice airshow, although ours was deeply confused, and seemed to think we were on a continuous loop from Frankfurt to Brussels via Dulles (i.e., it had us at 50% of the way through the journey while we were on the ground). It’s OK IFE. We all get confused sometimes.
Drink – 2/3
United’s drink offering is solid, but unremarkable. Pre-flight drinks were served relatively late, with a tray of options (water, juice, champagne). Parched for alcohol, I didn’t ask for anything special and grabbed the champagne. Beyond that, it was the usual United assortment. I ended up sticking to a red wine blend throughout, but snapped pictures for your enjoyment. I swapped over to the port and amaretto (a deadly combination for me at times on a plane) for dessert, both of which hit the spot.
Food – 2/3
Similar to drink, United’s food was solid, but again unremarkable. Appetizer was the chilled duck, which I enjoy, although I find the accompanying grain to be bland and uninteresting. Bread was not terribly warm, and butter was ice cold. I went with the salmon dish, which was good for airplane food, and acceptable for normal food. The fish itself was well cooked and flavorful, and the rice was good too. Vegetables were fine. The usual dessert cart was fantastic, and I went with the cheese plate and a lemon tart. Being a couple drinks in, I forgot pictures. I ended up skipping breakfast since dinner ran long – more on that below.
Service – 2/3
Service was interesting on this flight. The flight crew were pretty friendly (and extremely friendly by United standards), but not terribly knowledgeable or prompt. The crew also seemed quite young across the board for an international trip, which made me wonder if it was a training flight or something had happened with scheduling, as United uses a seniority system – typically business class has veteran crew.
My hot towel was sadly neither hot nor warm (it happens). Everything seemed to be delayed – as noted before, preflight drinks came pretty late into boarding. Flight attendants had to be seated due to turbulence which disrupted the start of service by over an hour, but even after that it seemed service dragged – everything didn’t finish until close to 3 hours into the flight – and for a 7:40 flight time flight, that’s a long process. When I asked what the wines loaded were, the friendly flight attendant told me that they hadn’t told the crew and she had to go check exactly what they had. What they did have did not match the menu at all.
On the other hand, when I asked for things – such as a mattress pad, not to be woken up for breakfast (after initially placing an order before things dragged on), and a quick cup of coffee before we landed after I woke up – the crew was always quick to oblige and very friendly about the requests. This is contract to some experiences I’ve had on United where any request is viewed suspiciously. Overall, despite the variability, this was a solid experience overall and a good one for a US carrier.
Other Characteristics
I checked in on the lavatory by the cockpit and the one by 9A were fine. Nothing remarkable, and they were in decent enough shape throughout the flight (2/3). Amenity kit (pictured below) was standard United – I really like the cowshed products and am a fan (2/3 for this flight. *Note – United has since switched to Spiderman themed amenities, which I will review in the future). Bedding was excellent (3/3), which is the norm for the United bedding, and I slept like a rock (aided by 5 drinks to be fair), briefly awakened by arrival meal (which I passed on) service before passing out again. Deviating from my norm, I pulled the trigger this trip for a few hours. United WiFi can often be poor, but it actually was pretty good for this flight. I didn’t run a speed test, but was able to browse twitter and the web on my phone and didn’t feel like I was being ripped off (2/3).
United Polaris Class Dulles to Brussels Bottom Line – 2.5/3
This was a pleasant flight – a solid “2.5” on the Premium Travel Insider scale. It hit exactly where I expect United at their best – great seat and IFE, acceptable food, drink, and service. It’s not the crazy luxury of an Asian carrier or the efficiency of Lufthansa, but I felt it was great value, particularly with the GPU insta-clearing.