United MileagePlus (Consolidated) - The Fate of United 785 (BOS-DEN)

Folks,

Can anyone comment on the post-merger downsizing of UAL 785, BOS-DEN nonstop? It flew weekdays late morning, and was _always_ a full flight --- I was aboard, and depended on it to make an early connection from an outlying airport through Boston directly to Denver, and still getting to the customer early!

Flight 785 will be discontinued sometime this month. Where's the sense in that. A full planeload of passengers, and the demand that they represent, will now be forced to connect through the IAD and ORD bottlenecks.... where they've already laid off ground crew, so that an arriving plane sometimes no longer has gate personnel to guide the airplane into the gate. Recently I waited 20 minutes short of the gate because of this, missing a connection.

Is downsizing a popular direct flight for the purpose of laying off more people? Or simply to reduce the expectations of passengers.... making it take longer and more connections to get from point A to point B? A few subtle hints accompany this action, such as taking away the blankets from Economy Plus on the redeye coming home...

Folks,

Can anyone comment on the post-merger downsizing of UAL 785, BOS-DEN nonstop? It flew weekdays late morning, and was _always_ a full flight --- I was aboard, and depended on it to make an early connection from an outlying airport through Boston directly to Denver, and still getting to the customer early!

Flight 785 will be discontinued sometime this month. Where's the sense in that. A full planeload of passengers, and the demand that they represent, will now be forced to connect through the IAD and ORD bottlenecks.... where they've already laid off ground crew, so that an arriving plane sometimes no longer has gate personnel to guide the airplane into the gate. Recently I waited 20 minutes short of the gate because of this, missing a connection.

Is downsizing a popular direct flight for the purpose of laying off more people? Or simply to reduce the expectations of passengers.... making it take longer and more connections to get from point A to point B? A few subtle hints accompany this action, such as taking away the blankets from Economy Plus on the redeye coming home...

DL is doing the same thing with Memphis - slowly cutting direct mainline flights and forcing everyone to go though ATL to get anywhere. UA customers who aren't in EWR, IAD, ORD, IAH, DEN, SFO and LAX need to get used to the reality that there are more regional jets in their future.

Flight 785 will be discontinued sometime this month.

Full flights don't mean they're making a profit. I'm sure this flight will be back in the spring/summer schedule - seasonal reductions are a bit deeper than usual this year, particularly at DEN.

A full planeload of passengers, and the demand that they represent, will now be forced to connect through the IAD and ORD bottlenecks.... where they've already laid off ground crew, so that an arriving plane sometimes no longer has gate personnel to guide the airplane into the gate. Recently I waited 20 minutes short of the gate because of this, missing a connection.



Sorry this simply isn't true. Do you have a source to show that large amounts of planes are waiting to be guided in? I understand that may have happened to you but I fly to/from ORD EVERY week and I haven't had to wait this year for grounds crew. Yes a few early arrivals and all gates were full but its been a long time since a lack of ground crew has caused an issue for me.

I do understand that loosing a non-stop and now facing a connection is not the most fun but sometimes even full flights aren't profitable.

United installed laser guidance system at O'Hare to park the planes. I recall seeing an article in the Chicago Tribune talking about it, and they specifically stated no layoffs.

It flew weekdays late morning, and was _always_ a full flight
Every flight is full. United has to set priorities, and that non-nstop just isn't one of them.

its not the only flight, I am sure there will be more to come

btw you could say the same thing for the following 2 IAD flights

UA 946 to AMS

UA 914 to CDG and the return leg while the domestic portion may exisit those INTL flights are history

Thanks to all for weighing in !

My source for the layoffs is talking to flight attendants and pilots. They've been instructed not to talk about it... you may even see a posting here to deny it.

The latest politically correct term is 'rightsourcing'.