And enjoyable trip report to read. Next time, you should mention the carrier. We all don't fly UA. (But I eventually figured it out.)

"I don't understand that because it's the same flight number from SIN to NRT to LAX -- flight 890. And it's the same type of plane -- 747-400. So why do they change aircraft. Seems like a lot of extra work, i.e. moving all the bags, etc."

-- More of a plane-scheduling thing. Some planes need to be sent to a maintenance base or some other flight is delayed. NW has a lot of flights from Asia "stopping over" in NRT, when you actually have to change planes from B742 to B744 and vice-versa. The airlines have flights that have a "1-stop" for marketing purposes. e.g. CO and UA fly directly from NYC-HKG. NW doesn't. To compete, NW does NYC-NRT-HKG on the using the same flight number, even though the aircraft may change. So if you ask an agent to see flights to HKG from NYC, you'll get CO, UA, and NW. The NW listing will have a "1" under the stopover column, even though you don't know where the flight will stop.

This happens on all airlines. You may get BOS-NRT, but it stops in ORD, MSP, NYC, etc., with a smaller plane to the hub, and the "big bird" over the Pacific Ocean.

I one time thought I got a non-stop flight on BA from DTW-LHR. On the day of the flight, I found out that there was a stopover in YMQ.

- Pat

[This message has been edited by Wiirachay (edited 04-25-2001).]