The answer is 'no'. 'Would' is not always politer than 'will' : the basic difference is purely grammatical. 'Would' is the conditional form of 'will'. In most situations, it changes the meaning from a fact to a hypothetical possibility. If you are definitely going on a trip to the US to find out about a specific industry in different US cities, you might ask "Will we have the opportunity to find out about the industry in New York?" If the trip is only a theoretical possibility, you might ask ["If we went on the trip, ..."] ..."Would we have the opportunity to find out about the industry in New York?" Is that difference clear? As for the politeness issue, this only applies when you are asking someone to do something for you: Using the conditional "Would you close the window, please?" is more polite than the direct request "Will you close the window, please?" because it creates a distance and therefore sounds more tentative and less presumptuous. Please don't assume that 'would' is always more polite than 'will': this isn't the case at all.