jerry a. laska

2017 The Year of the A350

Tine Rod

worldtrav

The A350 is already in the DL fleet.

MastaHanky

I can fly LAX-SIN on United, leaving tomorrow for $760 roundtrip.

If I book 30 days out, I can fly it for $400 roundtrip on a number of carriers.

Not sure why Delta would want to bother chasing that kind of yield on a route 8800 miles long each way.

KDCAflyer

It's very true. I snagged JFK-SEA-HKG for $400 RT at T-14 toward the end.

pbarnette

formeraa

The issue is NOT SIN itself. It is the air competition and resulting low fares to SIN, which is most likely driving DL's decision.

pbarnette

bsagator

I hated the timing on the SIN flight. Get in at midnight, leave at 5am. I rather fly MU from LAX with day or night departure from LAX, then multiple choices from PVG to SIN. Plus, you earn more RDM and MQD, whether flying Y or J, which is much cheaper to begin with.

ryw

I guess I can add anywhere to SIN to the "what route do you wish DL served?" thread. Seemed like it was only a matter a time before this happened, given the decreased economic advantage of international hubs, and HND seems better to serve Tokyo O/D traffic. But as a passenger though, it doesn't fully sit right that you can't get to TPE, HKG, or SIN on DL metal, especially considering PMNW's robust Asian network. (I do understand that the business case is different than the passenger perspective). Lots of folks keep pointing to the expansion of SEA's international arrivals facility before DL re-enters the TPAC market, but I'm starting to wonder how they'll use the extra capacity...I'm not terribly optimistic that they'll use it to re-open up routes to stations they're pulling out of.

kyushuman

Sad to see NRT leave! I actually lived in Japan for many years and was a regular on flights to the USA and also all around Asia, using my (then- NWA) miles for First Class on the 747-200s, for example... Ahh.
Here are the routes that I've flown on NW/DL to/from Japan, most of them now gone:
NGO to:
MNL
HNL

KIX to:
HNL
KUL
TPE
MNL

NRT to:
MNL
TPE
HKG
SIN
BKK
SYD (!)
PEK
PVG
ICN

FUK to:
HNL

So yes, I've got some NW/DL memories! That said, now that there is a nonstop on DL MSP-ICN, that's a pretty good start to getting to Asia.
As for those who are surprised that MNL is the lone remaining Asian tag flight, did you know that NW for a time had THREE daily 747s flying into MNL? KIX, NGO, and NRT! So to keep one 767 on ICN-MNL is actually quite a drop in itself. NW/DL never had more than one flight per day to any other place in Asia, did they?

I agree with the above poster that 7 US markets to HND seems excessive, especially with no connecting traffic or partners, but then again NW/DL does have more name recognition in Japan than DL does in South Korea.

SmartSky

It is definitely sad to see the current DL network out of Japan, but the TPAC environment changed. NWA was once the largest international, non-Japanese operator in Japan, with 10% of all tickets sold internationally being for NWA flights there. When NRT had 91 gates/spots available, NWA typically used 15 of them.

Anyway, I believe NWA routed their SYD flight via KIX instead of NRT (JFK-KIX-SYD, and SYD-LAX).

Resonant Programmer

1. No sterile transit.
2. Transit without visa is only available to citizens of select countries.
3. Some people perceive that there is a risk they may be detained by the Chinese authorities.

Akiestar

1. China has sterile transit at most major airports. PVG has sterile transit.
2. The list of countries that can't avail of any TWOV program (24/72/144 hours) is very short.
3. This will only happen if you're extensively involved with China. Ordinary tourists will have nothing to worry about.

Seriously, there's nothing unusual with transiting in China.

arkangel

Just booked a CLT-NRT "mileage run" for late Nov. Is this now likely to be changed to HND?