Originally Posted by
Magnum9
The FAA piece I was missing. Thank you.
8+ hours blocked on LHR-BOS? We’re in Winter when headwinds are strongest and that flight isn’t even close to 8-hours let alone 8+:
UA25 LHR-BOS 7h 5m
https://uk.flightaware.com/live/flight/UAL25
I fully support Pilot’s needing proper rest, but these short BOS-LHR-BOS TATL hops don’t even touch 8-hours.
BOS-SFO can be just as long in winter as LHR-BOS. Does UA block a J seat and put a 3rd pilot on those flights?
This evening’s LHR-BOS is blocked at 7:40, and this evening’s BOS-SFO is blocked at 6:54. So not quite the same.
But a couple of other points you may be missing. First, going to the UK is a 5 time zone change each way vs 3 going across the US. It’s also a red-eye on the outbound, meaning that for the crews coming back on that 7:40 blocked flight, they’ve been through an overnight flight with 5 time zone change in the “wrong direction”, followed by jet lag and then turning around in 24-36 hours and flying back across 5 time zones again. That is a killer, and I would not want 2 person flight crews that didn’t get rest going both directions. Second, there’s going to be a little more leeway with a 3 person crew that has built in rest time than with a 2 person crew should the flight end up being longer due to bad winds on a particular day, or needed a fuel stop or whatever. In some cases could probably be the difference between the flight going out or not.
Sorry you didn’t get your #1 preferred seat. But this isn’t even all up to United, some of it is FAA regs, and honestly it’s kind of first world problems. (Not that it’s wrong to ask about it). Hope this helps.