dinoscool3

BOB?

trust77

it was a mixture. yes the crew that worked CO 2 the day before were heading back to GUM. But the lady next to me and her colleagues were from airport service/pax service. my comparison (pros vs. cons) was to the BF product that was once offered.

1. the pre departure beverages available were water, OJ, or champagne. i'm not sure about mai tais. maybe if one asked, they would make but i didn't see it on the beverage list either.
2. good question! but all indications going forward from UA Insider and the 2012 upgrade charts show it's SWU'able/mileage upgrade (which leads me to continue to think that they will one day bring back international configured aircraft on this route)

jetaway96

regardless what plane they use and who fly it, it is all United Airlines now like it or not. HQ can decide what kind of service they should provide in all cabin and cater it accordingly. To compare fistclass seat on PMUA domestic 777 to PMCO international 767 is like compare an orange and apple. FA only have to perform live demo on 3 class 777 / 767 due to personal video screens that pop out of the front row in coach have to be stowwed or if any one of the big screens in-op on any other plane.

mh3265a

It's not an apples to oranges comparison per se. Shifting the domestic 777 UA aircraft to the HNL-GUM route is a downgrade to the hard product offered to F-class customers on this route. UA is one company and they will shift assets as teh market demands but that doesn't mean everything is an improvement.

To UA's credit they acknowledge that this aircraft config is not ideal because the F-class product is old but we'll see how it can improve when the airline is given a single operating certificate.

Often1

Guam is the USA, not an intl. flight an UA is pretty tough about that distinction. Mainland-Hawaii flights significantly longer than 7 hours are on 2-class domestic birds with a slightly upgraded catering from domestic F and B-o-B in Y.

As others note, if you want intl., will need to route through NRT.

delayflight

Repost from my experience on 10/29 on other thread.

-----------------------------------------------------

I just completed UA 201 from HNL to Guam in Y on a domestic 772. Here is my mini trip report.

Boarding
The inbound flight from ORD was 5 minutes late. There are lots of seat movements. Cleaners and catering were late, so we did not board until 2:20 and left gate 30 minutes late. GA even said there are snack for sale on board, but that was not the case.

There was a confusion and duty free cart was not loaded.

Flight
Biggest drawback is no personal entertainment, a significant downgrade from the "state of the art" entertainment on CO 764. Heard several people making comments on that.

Meals
Still serve 2 free meals just like CO. A round of drink 45 minutes after takeoff. First meal is 1.5 hour after takeoff, lagsana or chicken + salad and bread with plastic utensils. Ice cream at 5 hours into flight (usually 3.5 to 4 hours on CO). Second meal is 1.5 hours before landing, with a ham sandwich and sliced fruit, but no utensils provided. FAs tend to me slower serving meals compared to old CO, maybe they are not used to serve free meals to everyone.

Catering screwed up so no special meals were loaded.

Baggage
Took me 55 minutes after landing to get my luggage. When I got mine, there are still half of people still waiting for theirs. Baggage people said staff are not used to 772.

Overall
GUM is a new route and new destination for UA, they are still working on various issues. Hopefully things will more smoother down the road.

trust77

this is good news then, delayflight. looks like there is still much confusion amongst the airport and inflight crew that are still being sorted out. FWIW, my bags didn't come out any sooner, OR later than they usually do, meaning I was out of customs in my usual 15 minute window - all my bags had prioriy tags on them.

JOSECONLSCREW28

No kidding I knw GUM is considered a US territory however whn CO had the HNL-GUM it was considered intl. And if UA is calling HNL-GUM a domestic flight, they might as well call GUM-NRT a domestic flight as well since there using a domestic aircraft on the rte.

mike_asia

i am platinum on CO is this flight eligible for a free upgrade and do i have to request it and if so how?

mh3265a

NO - this flight (GUM-HNL) is not UDU/EUA eligible. You can only upgrade with SWUs or miles (and possible co-pay).

Tim B

I don't understand the philosophy here, why is a customer required to use the same SWU or mileage/co-pay required for a true international flight HNL-NRT when the service is only domestic first. This is a 7 hour flight, nearly as long as the HNL-NRT flight. If UA wants to downgrade the service, fine, but then allow UDU to upgrade, or at least a regional. The SWUs are few and precious.

On a similar note, does anyone who files HNL-NRT regularly know if UA will being back the new configuration flights? All last summer and fall I flew in the new full lay flat seating HNL-NRT-BKK and for the last two months, all of the equipment going from HNL to NRT and BKK has been the old junk. Is this a temporary repositioning or are is the old configuration here to stay out of HNL? If so, may be time hit my 1k then jump back to DL and see if i can keep my Diamond. The grass is always greener, isn't it.

kwintheair

Hi everyone,

I am in the process of doing a United 1K status match, and need some advice.

Several weeks ago, I booked TVC-ORD-GUM-CNS and SYD-ORD-TVC (flying back on March 4th from SYD, just a few hours after the dreaded IT system merger, which should be fun !!!).

Without notice, United cancelled my final ORD-TVC flight (which would have gotten me home by 8AM on a Monday morning), and rescheduled me on the next flight, which gets me home around 3:30PM on Monday afternoon. My understanding is that this involuntatary change means I could modify (or cancel) my flights w/o any fee.

In any case, my main issues are that (1) I booked these flights via Continental (since I could not get .bomb to give me the same flights for the same $ - note that all the flights are operated by United, except for the GUM-CNS portion, which is operated by Continental), and I only later learned about the "IT glitch" with UDUs on multiple flights w/ the same flight number (even though they involve a physical plane change).

My understanding is that the ORD-HNL flight IS UDU eligible, while the HNL-GUM flight is NOT UDU eligible, and due to this IT glitch, it means that I apparently WILL NOT be placed on the upgrade list at all, for the ORD-HNL flight.

I have the same issue w/ the SYD-ORD flights (flight # 0840), but am less concerned, since the chances for an upgrade on the LAX-ORD flight portion (on Sunday March 4th) are probably "slim to none" even as a 1K.

How do you recommend that I try to resolve this? Do you know if the United 1K line could either 1) manually put me on the upgrade list for the ORD-HNL flight segment (100+ hours in advance) or 2) break flight #201 into two separate segments on my itinerary?

Or, since Continental issued the flights, do I need to ask Continental to break the flight up into "two segments" first?

Also, to get this to work, would I need to switch one of the Flight 201 segments into a different (higher?) fare category (paying a small difference in price if necessary - the current fare category is K)?

I briefly spoke w/ both airlines about this earlier today. United 1K transferred me to Continental, while the Continental Platinum agent told me that they did not know ANYTHING about UA metal, and that "as far as they were aware, ALL 777s were "three class planes" w/ lie flat beds", and hence these flights were NOT eligible for ANY UDUs at all. I tried to explain that this was a UA DOMESTIC 777, but they did not seem to follow me. Should I just keep calling back until I get someone better (and should I be phoning CO or UA)?

I currently have decent seats booked in Economy Comfort, which I do not want to risk losing, since there are no longer any good seats left on the plane. (So if I am able to convince UA or CO to break up the flight into 2 segments, would I be at risk of losing my E+ seats?)

I am hoping to be able to use the involuntary schedule change (on my last flight) as leverage...

Thanks very much in advance for any advice (I am trying to learn the ins and outs of UA and CO)!!!

Best regards,

kwintheair

p.s. For what it's worth, I also had the pleasure of flying on the day of the Northwest-Delta IT system merger, and I don't recall running into any big issues...Hopefully the CO-UA merger won't be a total nightmare !!!!

amartin1979

I had the pleasure? of being upgraded to Global First on the GUM to HNL sector on Sunday. To my dismay, I discovered that Global First service has been significantly downgraded. The HNL-based flight attendants were excellent as usual, but United doesn't give them much to work with anymore.

To summarize, this TPAC Global First flight had

• No menus
• No wine list. Wine and champagne appeared to be of domestic quality.
• No midflight snacks.
• No appetizers, salads, or desserts.
• No choice of meal for lunch service.
• No amenity kits.
• Food quality was equivalent to domestic first service.

Is this how bad United food service in Global First has really become? I was shocked. Or does United just not bother to compete on this route since they have the only service between GUM and HNL?

Akulashark

Inconsistent product is the best way to describe UA.

SEA1K4EVR

They just don't give full GF service on that route.

From the UA website:

"Most flights to Africa, Asia, Europe, India, the Middle East, South America and the South Pacific, and flights between Tokyo and Bangkok, Seoul, Singapore and Taipei"

Apparently GUM-HNL isn't part of the "most".