Reporting and photography by Dawn Gilbertson
LONDON -- United Airlines dangled a tantalizing offer a day before my flight to San Francisco. Pay $939 to jump from seat 35C in economy to 4D in its plush Polaris business-class cabin. The asking price a couple of days earlier was a staggering $8,000.
This was an 11-hour daytime flight and the unofficial upgrade bar for many frequent fliers is $100 per hour. So I bit. I had a column to write on deadline and relished the idea of doing so in comfort with a side of pampering.
United got the pampering right from the start, but I nearly missed my deadline. The (not free) Wi-Fi on the Boeing 777-200 was inoperable for much of the flight and in and out for the rest. There are almost as many error-message screenshots in my camera roll as there are of the food and seats.
That's no big deal if you're going to binge movies or TV shows for hours or snooze the flight away. But this was a business trip. As many of you who clock dozens of business flights a year know, predeparture champagne and the most comfortable lie-flat seat aren't going to save the day if you can't work.
The whole experience underscores a harsh reality in today's airline arms race for big-spending travelers. (My one-way ticket was $2,200, including the upgrade.) You may or may not find the shiny new features airlines are gushing about on your next flight. Inconsistency rules.
United raved about its free speedy Starlink Wi-Fi at a media event in Los Angeles last week. But the main place you'll find it right now is on the United Express regional jets the airline uses on shorter flights. The service is installed on more than 300 of those planes but just 18 of its mainline jets. Starlink won't be on all of its 1,000 planes with dual-class service until the end of 2027. And those cool couches in economy? They won't debut until 2027; it'll be 2030 before they are on 200 planes.
United executives told me they think they are managing travel expectations by providing details on the rollout plans for new products and services, especially after complaints about inconsistencies during the airline's Polaris rollout a decade ago.
"I'm sure we're not perfect but I think we do a pretty good job of communicating time lines on this," United CEO Scott Kirby said, adding that he hasn't personally received a single complaint about no Starlink on flights.
I still think there's plenty of room for disappointment. I knew not to expect Starlink on my 11-hour flight because it's my job to follow all of this. But I certainly expected reliable Wi-Fi, business-class seat or no, especially when there's a charge for it.
I had no issues on my JetBlue flight from New York to London and it was free. (United automatically refunded passengers' $16.99-per-device Wi-Fi fee and sent me a $50 travel credit after I complained to a helpful flight attendant.)
The Wi-Fi woes overshadowed an otherwise luxe trip. Unlike the lackluster business-class airport check-in I found on JetBlue, American and La Compagnie, the Polaris check-in at London Heathrow was welcoming.
The customer-service agent nearly made me cry when she asked if I was heading home. No matter how nice your hotel, meals and ride home are, she said, there's no place like home.
The United Club at Heathrow, included with my ticket, was crowded but a good place to check email and grab some snacks. It even had a guest book to sign. Boarding group 1 had me on the plane quickly, though a couple of dozen passengers with frequent-flier status filed on ahead of me.
Waiting in my seat: Saks Fifth Avenue bedding, including two pillows, a comforter and a blanket, headphones, bottled water and an amenity kit with designer skin care from Perricone MD. A flight attendant came around with Champagne and water before take off.
There were no privacy doors on these Polaris suites. The airline is adding doors in Polaris on its fancy new Boeing 787-9 Dreamliners, which start service from San Francisco in April. (The airline only has four of those planes so far.) The seats lie flat and I managed a 90-minute nap, though I found the pod a little less roomy than others I have tried.
The food was OK. I enjoyed the signature burger at the Polaris lounge in San Francisco much more than my beef tenderloin in the sky. The appetizers, especially the charred grapes with mozzarella cheese and balsamic vinegar cream, were better than the main course.
Polaris veterans probably don't get excited about it, but this newbie enjoyed the ice-cream sundae cart wheeled to each seat.
I waited for a midflight meal listed on the menu for extra-long trans-Atlantic flights including San Francisco, but didn't know you had to request the items. The sweet potato coconut soup hit the spot.
I skipped most of the prelanding salad I ordered to save room for the Polaris lounge on my layover. The Wi-Fi worked there.
Flying in Polaris was a splurge, albeit a relatively affordable one. I'll wait until Starlink is on all of United's widebody jets before trying it again on an international business trip.
Write to Dawn Gilbertson at dawn.gilbertson@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
March 31, 2026 21:00 ET (01:00 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2026 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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