United Airline B747-400 landing very gently at Hong Kong on runway 07L after a 14 hour non stop flight from Chicago O’Hare. Yes, this was a polar flight. Our flight path: Chicago – straight north into Canada – over the north pole – Eastern Siberia – Russia – Mongolia – Eastern China – Hong Kong. The return flight however took us over the Pacific: Hong Kong – Taiwan – Southern Japan - Alaska – Canada – Chicago. The flight took off 50 minutes late because United realized they pumped 5 tons of addition fuel that had to be offloaded to meet the complex weight requirements that make this non stop flight possible. Nothing like a 747.