LAX-PVG

I hate having to get to the airport at 5-6am to get the flight at 7am to SFO just to make sure I don't miss the 11:55 connection. I used to take the 9am LAX-SFO flight that carried the same Flt# as the SFO-PVG (UA 857 - but LAX-SFO is a different plane than the SFO-PVG despite the same flight #) but once my flight had mechanical problems and missed my connection and had to lose a day in SFO. Another time the wildfires happening south of SFO delayed the flight so much that I made the connection with 30 seconds to spare. And despite having the same flight number, UA 857 wasn't waiting for any connecting passengers from the LAX 857 flight. Several of them on my same flight missed the connection.

I know United thinks it's redundant to have PVG flights out of both SFO & LAX, but they have flights to NRT out of both LAX and SFO. And the way Shanghai is growing, they will need a direct So. Cal flight.