tuolumne

I think it's a nice gesture they contacted you at all and you should be greatful for that.

While I hear and respect frustration, I still don't understand it. I'd want to be on the 747-400's last international flight that lasts 12-hours, with full international amenities. While the celebratory HNL flight sounds great, it's also less than half of that flight time linking two US State's. It's not a real international flight and it's not really representative of what United's 747-400s have done for decades, which is transverse the Pacific crossing into the Orient.

And by the way, who's to say that there will not be festivities put on by the company for this flight as well? You really think that the last 747-400 to come inbound into SFO from Asia won't have both a celebration onboard, and one at both ends?

It's your frustration that seems to be getting in the way of even considering that that very reasonable possibility.

And even if there's not, who cares? Roll with it, and as I'm sure many others on UA892/893 will be doing, make your own damn celebratory atmosphere and stop crying...The queen deserves better!!!

DELee

I stumbled on it from jetstream. I didn't have a special login - just ended up on the page with the images.

David

ORDnHKG

well for one there wasn‘t any celebration onboard or on the ground a month ago for ORD-SFO one off 744, which all the media and TV stations claimed that was the last domestic 744 flight. Also since UA now said SFO-HNL on Nov 7 will be the last with all sorts of activities on the ground and onbound but say nothing about ICN-SFO, i can see there is nothing more than the pilots will make an honory comment.

Who cares ? well i am not going to waste time and money if there are no certs no last flight celebration, there are lots going on this year with multiple airlines retiring their 744, like last month i went to HKG for BR‘s last 744 flight, DL will retire their 744 shortly after UA too.

oopl

Delta already celebrated their last 747 domestic party flight.
Zach Honig has a writeup.
https://thepointsguy.com/2017/09/del...ic-747-flight/

EmailKid

Thanks, nice article.

Ignoring the fact that DL does not have Int'l FC (nor will UA relatively shortly), it only took UA one hour to sell out Biz and FC.

Guess we have more nostalgic flyers ....

uastarflyer

The winged T I refer to is the letter T in the final UNITED logo and livery.

Ted is a different matter. Actually, Ted would be an upgrade to the current A319/320 seats on average.

tuolumne

In retrospect, Ted had more comfortable less dense seats with generous Economy Plus. Seeing the markets it served, the lack of F, for me personally, wasn't a huge deal. And the branding surrounding Ted was fun and energizing to United at the time, the same way Song was to Delta.

findark

According to people who flew it, there was quite the party on board, with a parade of people taking photos in the nose and upper deck, and quite a bit of singing from the 200+ non-revs who were among the pax.

UA took that flight seriously enough they grabbed an extra 744 and ferried it in empty SFO-ORD just to make sure that it would go out in time (which they ended up using - the original frame ferried empty ORD-SFO the next morning).

AndyPatterson

That has to be a record for NRSAs!

findark

Yeah, I forget the exact count but the flight was added to the schedule very late, and it didn't generate quite the fervor that HNL-SFO did. The forward cabins sold out but there were hundreds of seats left in Y, which were all gobbled up by ORD-based employees (and probably some who managed to get to ORD just for it). Because of it, the upgrade standby list was also roughly 200 long

WineCountryUA

200+ might be a bit high, at the time, the cleared standby list showed 133 passengers
. The front cabins were sold out long before the gate, so NRSA for F or C was unlikely.
Local Chicago news team report - mistakenly calling it the last domestic flight

findark

Ah you're right, I was remembering the 235 total who listed for the flight. Still a pretty crazy flight.

ORDnHKG

Delta did NOT do a damn thing for that LAX-DTW flight as that wasn‘t its final flight, it was the Diamonds group created that party. And if you are not a diamond and in that particular group, you are left out from the party inside the sky club.

I actually had a friend on that flight as no status revenue pax, sitting all the way in the back of Y, he got absolutely nothing out of it, and if you read the complete article from Zach@TPG, he mentioned that as well.

So just because lots of people taking photos are considered as a party ? If so then whatabout the annual UA family day then ?

There were no certs no giveaways and not even a banner or backdrop at the gate at ORD, no fire trucks at the gate making water arches for the plane to cross over, which means nothing significant for the flight. UA ferried planes between hubs all the time especially between ORD and SFO, it is not that serious. If they took that serious then they wouldn‘t just add that flight just a few days before departure and would actually formally announce like the final flight on November 7th.

tuolumne

The 744 is coming back to ORD....I mean this is the type of automatic outrage I don't understand.

The festivities onboard the recent ORD-SFO were a demonstration of how those with good attitudes can make their own party.

And it was a party (at least my idea of one) onboard. I know no less than 3 pax onboard that flight. It doesn't sound like you made it or you'd be aware of that.

UA_Flyer

saw the inert in a number of UA flights this month: