Originally Posted by
exerda
It's only one route, but I wonder about the future of the NRT-LAX flights. Every day I checked, J was wide-open and the cabin filled with upgraders, and with Y cabin fares even at the last minute in the sub-$1k range. I hope they keep it for the connecting traffic reasons, FWIW, to take a bit of pressure off the other, more in-demand routes.
UA's strategy for flying to Tokyo is
mostly oriented toward flying to HND where allowed and letting NH handle all traffic to NRT if NH serves that route. The exceptions appear to be SFO and LAX where UA and NH are both flying to NRT and IAD where neither are flying to NRT but both are to HND (of course that's a capital to capital route). It wouldn't be surprising to see UA drop LAX from that exceptions list. NRT traffic is domintated by onward connections (which UA no longer has) if there's already HND service available.