Originally Posted by ClipperDelta

People keep lambasting Delta for squandering the Pacific by killing the NRT hub but they forget that that’s exactly United did as well, just much earlier. United killed all their NRT-Asia routes; the only difference is they have a JV partner to support them in Japan. The old PA (then UA) and NW model of a NRT hub with their own metal for beyond flights into Asia was simply not sustainable going forward.

UA has had a few years head start on DL with restructuring the Pacific, but it is mostly the same strategy: use an APAC JV partner hub, and operate your own flights from a U.S. coastal hub. The only differences are one is using Tokyo while the other is using Seoul, and that UA has lucked out with a much bigger TPAC US coastal hub in SFO