United Airlines is one of the biggest airlines in the world, serving more than 300 destinations worldwide. No matter where you’re going, United (or one of its Star Alliance partners) can likely take you there.
To boot, point.me ranks United MileagePlus as the #3 best airline rewards program in the world. There’s no official United Airlines award chart, but the carrier’s loyalty program is user-friendly, and its award miles are easy to earn.
United’s crown jewel is its fresh “Polaris” business class seat, which appears on most long-haul flights, both transcontinental and international. And if you know the right tricks, booking these otherwise pricey seats is dirt cheap.
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What to know about flying United Polaris business class
United Airlines flies to a lot of destinations. But not all planes offer its flagship Polaris business class seats.
In addition to Polaris, United’s premium options consist of domestic first-class seats (the larger-than-usual recliners found on short- to medium-haul domestic flights) and a standard business class seat (legit lie-flat seats that aren’t as updated and fancy as Polaris). You may find some of these non-Polaris business class seats on long-haul flights, but you’ll (almost certainly) experience Polaris when flying on the following aircraft:
- Boeing 777 (200 and 300)
- Boeing 787 (8, 9, and 10)
- Boeing 767 (300ER and 400ER)
- Boeing 757-200
The best routes to fly in Polaris business class on United
United Airlines flies its Polaris business class to several dozen popular destinations from hubs like Newark (EWR), Chicago (ORD), Washington, DC (AD), San Francisco (SFO), Houston (IAH), and others.
Here’s a route map that, for the most part, displays where you can fly in United Polaris.
Here are a handful of the best routes to fly United Polaris:
- Washington, DC (IAD) to Cape Town (CPT)
- San Francisco (SFO) to Tahiti (PPT)
- Newark (EWR) to New Delhi (DEL)
- Honolulu (HNL) to Guam (GUM)
- Houston (IAH) to Santiago (SCL)
Some of these routes are extremely long, giving you the maximum amount of time to enjoy the seat. Others are unique routes for which you’ll find comparatively few miles-eligible business class seats.
What to expect when flying United Polaris business class
The United Polaris business class experience begins long before you stuff your baggage into the spacious overhead compartment. Here’s what to expect.
Check-in and security clearance
United Polaris automatically grants you Premier Access. This comes with exclusive security lanes (at participating airports) as well as priority check-in. Both of these features independently could easily save you an hour during a busy period. Dedicated premium lines sound simple, but they can eliminate a lot of hassle.
Luggage allowance
Premier Access also comes with priority bag handling — meaning your luggage will be among the first to appear at baggage claim. Polaris customers also get two free checked bags weighing 70 lbs or less. As a comparison, economy passengers get (at best) one free checked bag weighing 50 lbs or less when flying most international routes.
Lounge access
If you’re flying United Polaris, you’ll also get free access to United Club lounges. These otherwise cost $59 per person. Even better, you can enter the extra-exclusive Polaris lounges when flying on a long-haul international flight from or through the following airports:
- Chicago (ORD)
- Houston (IAH)
- Los Angeles (LAX)
- New York (EWR)
- San Francisco (SFO)
- Washington DC (IAD)
You can also use the Polaris arrivals lounge when flying into London (LHR).
These lounges are a notch above standard United Club lounges, with amenities like showers, daybeds, and private dining areas with proper sit-down meals.
Polaris seats even unlock access to Star Alliance lounges, which can be found all over the world.
Seats
United Polaris seats are comfy with plenty of legroom, boasting a typical pitch of 79 inches. By all measurements, United Polaris seats aren’t particularly narrow. You’ll find them between 20.5 inches and 22 inches. Still, there’s something about them that feels a bit slender.
United Polaris seats are arranged in either a 1-2-1 or a 1-1-1 configuration, meaning you’re guaranteed to have direct aisle access. However, aircraft with outdated seats feature less-than-desirable 2-1-2, 2-2-2, or even (gasp) 2-4-2 configurations.
When flying Polaris, choose seats in an odd-numbered row for the most seclusion. These seats are situated farthest from the aisle, giving you perhaps a foot or so of buffer from passersby.
Polaris hasn’t jumped on the sliding door bandwagon that a handful of top-tier business class seats now boast (think Qatar Qsuites and ANA’s “The Room”). But they still offer decent privacy, all things considered — as long as your neighbors are well-behaved.
Food and drink
Polaris really does make an effort when it comes to inflight food and beverage. True, it doesn’t offer dine-on-demand service — and it’s not one to blow you away with big-name champagnes and whiskeys — but it squeezes in multiple dining services during your flight, and its bar is prepared for most requests.
Your menu will vary based on where you’re flying. You’ll be served after takeoff and again later in the flight. A standard meal comes with multiple courses: an appetizer, salad, bread, entrée, and dessert (sundaes made to order). Alternatively, you can ask for “express dining” to be served all of your courses at once. It’s less pomp, but it’s convenient if you’ve got work (or sleep) to accomplish.
Of course, you can also order snacks in between meals.
Service, amenities, and in-flight entertainment
United Polaris doesn’t lead the way in much, but its Saks Fifth Avenue bedding is excellent, with a cooling gel pillow and a comfy duvet. Its Therabody amenity kits are good quality as well, with standard items like lip balm, hand cream, facial spray, and more. You’ll also get pajamas on flights lasting more than 14 hours.
The Polaris seat’s TV screen is a generous 16 inches, with nearly 600 movies and shows available. United will begin rolling out Starlink Wi-Fi to all its aircraft in early 2025 — meaning speeds should be excellent in the near future.
How much it costs to fly United Polaris
Cash prices for a one-way United Polaris flight tend to be above $3,000 — in most cases, well above this number (though London is an exception, as you can occasionally find sub-$2,000 flights from Newark). That’s a deal-breaker for most of us. It also makes booking with points through your credit card’s online travel portal a bad idea. Points are worth 1.5 cents each, at best.
A more palatable alternative is to book with United miles. United doesn’t have an award chart, so you’ll have to check your specific travel dates and desired route to know exactly what you will pay. Generally speaking, you can book flights to Europe in Polaris for 80,000 miles each way. That’s considerably less than the aforementioned 130,000+ points you’d need when redeeming through a bank portal.
You’ll often find the best deal for United Polaris when booking through partner programs like Avianca Lifemiles or Air Canada Aeroplan. For example, Air Canada offers a flight from Newark (EWR) to London (LHR) for 60,000 points and $80 CAD. The taxes and fees are higher, but it’s a small price to pay for a 20,000-point savings.
How much it costs to upgrade to business class on United
Unfortunately, you can’t request an upgrade to Polaris with an award flight. You must pay for an eligible flight with cash. Then, you can use United miles (or a cash and miles combo) to score a Polaris seat.
The amount you’ll pay depends on three things: your fare class, route, and elite status. For example, you can upgrade from United Premium Plus (fare class O) to Polaris for:
- 15,000 miles when traveling to Europe
- 25,000 miles when traveling to the Middle East
- Between 10,000 and 20,000 miles when traveling to Hawaii
- 10,000 miles when traveling to Northern South America
Not all fare classes are eligible for upgrades — and if you don’t have elite status, you may need to pay cash in addition to miles (sometimes over $400).
Those with Platinum or Premier 1K elite status can use PlusPoints to upgrade to Polaris for free. You’ll pay between 30 and 80 PlusPoints each way, depending on the class of ticket you’re upgrading.
How to save on United Polaris business class tickets
Sales
United routinely runs fare sales, which can help you save money on Polaris flights in a couple of ways:
- If United deeply discounts its Polaris seats, you may decide to splurge for it with cash.
- United may publish notably low prices on upgradable fare classes, in which case you can book cheap economy or Premium Plus seats and upgrade with miles.
United has also been known to produce a mistake fare every once in a while — a mispriced ticket that’s well below what it should be. Mistake fares are a rarity, and they’re only available for a short time before they’re corrected. But if you find one, it’s worth jumping on (and waiting to book other travel details until you know it will be honored).
Upgrades
As covered above, upgrading to a Polaris seat will cost you, since you must purchase your initial seat with cash. You’ll absolutely save money versus buying a Polaris seat outright, but it’s still far from the most economical method.
Travel rewards
Booking an award flight is the best way to save money for a United Polaris seat. Award prices are reasonable (we’ll cover this below), and they don’t come with obscene fuel surcharges either. You can reasonably expect to pay between 60,000 and 80,000 miles for a flight to Europe and between 87,500 and 100,000 miles to Australia. Keep in mind you’ll pay nominal taxes and fees on these awards.
How to book United business class with points
There are multiple ways to book United Polaris seats with points and miles. Here’s a quick rundown of your options.
How to book United Polaris using your credit card portal
Booking an expensive business-class seat through your credit card’s travel portal is, with little exception, a bad idea. Travel rewards are worth between 1 cent and 1.5 cents each toward airfare, depending on the card you hold. In other words, you’ll likely need hundreds of thousands of points to reserve a seat. Polaris seats routinely sell for $3,000+ each way, meaning you’ll pay:
- 300,000 miles through Capital One Travel if you hold the Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card
- 200,000 points through Chase Travel℠ if you hold the Chase Sapphire Reserve®
- 300,000 points through Citi Travel if you hold the Citi Strata Premier℠ Card
- 200,000 points through Amex Travel if you hold The Business Platinum Card® from American Express
Saver-level award seats will always cost less than this. Only book through your bank’s travel portal if there are zero award flights and you’ve got an astonishing points balance.
Which credit card points transfer to MileagePlus?
You can transfer the following credit card rewards to United Airlines:
- Chase Ultimate Rewards® points
- Bilt Rewards
You can also transfer Marriott Bonvoy points to United Airlines at a 3:1 ratio. And when you transfer in increments of 60,000, you’ll get a 10,000-point bonus — effectively improving the transfer ratio to 2:1.
How to book United business class using MileagePlus points
To book United Airlines Polaris with United miles, navigate to the United Airlines website and enter your desired route and dates. You can tick “flexible dates” to find available award seats.
You’ll then be taken to a page of search results where you can sort by price, stops, etc. Business class seats that offer Polaris will say so at the bottom of each search result, as you can see from the below screenshot.
Again, if you don’t have the miles you need, you can transfer points like Chase Ultimate Rewards and Bilt Rewards in increments of 1,000.
What other loyalty programs can you use to book United business class?
You can book United Polaris through Star Alliance partners such as:
- Air Canada Aeroplan
- Asiana Club
- Avianca LifeMiles
- Lufthansa Miles & More
- Turkish Airlines Miles&Smiles
- Singapore Airlines Krisflyer
We’ll examine the benefits of using partner airlines in a minute.
How to save on United Polaris with points
Open a United Airlines credit card
Cobranded Chase credit cards, such as the United℠ Explorer Card and United Quest℠ Card, come with exclusive award discounts for many flights. They may be as little as 1%, but they can also be 50% or more.
Depending on the flights you want, a United Airlines card could stretch your points further.
Book through partner airlines whenever you can
The ability to reserve United Polaris seats through airlines other than United means you aren’t pigeonholed into earning United miles exclusively. It also means you can shop around for the best price, which (spoiler alert) isn’t usually United.
Search for your flight through United and each of its partners for the best price, and then transfer points to whichever airline offers the best deal. Or even better, let point.me do the heavy lifting for you — searching with us helps you quickly find the best options for the type of travel rewards you collect.
For example, a trip from Los Angeles (LAX) to Sydney (SYD) costs 100,000 United miles.
Avianca charges the same — but if you enroll in its LifeMiles+ subscription, you’ll get a 10% discount on all award flights. That brings the price to a more reasonable 90,000 miles.
Air Canada sells the same seats even cheaper at 87,500 miles (though taxes and fees are higher). Both of these programs partner with more transferable rewards than United Airlines, so their miles are more attainable.
Tips for finding Polaris business class award availability on United
During your search, focus on United hubs like Newark (EWR), Chicago (ORD), and San Francisco (SFO).
Here’s why: United Polaris only operates on long-haul flights. If your home airport is a modest size, or if it doesn’t offer many direct international flights, you won’t find a Polaris seat from your home airport. Instead, you’ll end up connecting to one of these cities — and the price can sometimes be tens of thousands of extra miles. In many cases, it may be worth booking your Polaris leg separately and then booking a cheap ticket from your home airport to catch the flight.
Should you book United Polaris business class?
If you’ve got the opportunity, you should absolutely book United Polaris business class. It’s a good use of your rewards, and the exclusive access to United Polaris Lounges means the fun begins long before you board.
However, United Polaris is a far cry from the best-in-class business-class seat. If the alternative is, say, Qatar Qsuites or Emirates A380 business class, you’re better off going with one of those.
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