Was able to do a fake booking UA700/701 into November 2008 today. Hopefully this means they are staying next winter, and not just for the holidays!

There's a blurb in the business section of yesteday's Anchorage Daily News saying that UA is coming back for "year-round service" starting February 15.

Excellent!

It'd be interesting to get the inside loop on this. Wonder what prompted this decision? Did they come to the realization that it was a mistake to abandon this market, or did something change?

Although I'm not as frequent a flyer as some of my FT brethren here in ANC, so far, all of my AS and DL flights in and out of ANC (7 total so far this year--I'm in VA now) have had 100% load factors, regardless of the connecting city (SEA, SLC, ATL, CVG). It seems like winter tourism or business travel is up, too--the car rental agencies have all been selling out regularly throughout November and December in midweek. That hasn't happened for as long as I've been here.

I wonder if UA is going to operate more than just one round trip daily--if the passenger levels will sustain it, year-round service to SEA and SFO on top of DEN might be warranted...

if im not mistaken dosnt alaska operate a den-anc nonstop? couldnt the paying passengers demand to be rerouted on that?? I am guessing alot of the passengers could be easily rerouted thru salt lake city and deltas nearby hub to reduce inconvenience to the connecting passengers? Delta has reduced winter service to one 757 a day. hopefully ua wont make another carrier to sea then ua to den/ord to connect. no one likes an extra connection

I doubt it will be more than one flight a day to DEN in the winter. UA made a half-assed attempt at doing ANC-SFO in the winter after it yanked ANC-SEA and it didn't work. Personally, I wish they would bring back the SEA flight, but I doubt it since UA has basically ceded the PNW to AS/QX. UA has been scaling back Alaska service for years; they seem to view it as an inbound-only market, and don't cater to the locals.

Here's my $0.02 on why they reversed their decision: There have been lots of rumblings that UA couldn't find anybody to do their ANC ground handling during the summer. If no ground handlers were available, then even seasonal service wouldn't work. I think the pencil-pushers in Rockford decided that it made more sense to keep their own staff in ANC and operate one flight through the winter, with the usual summer increase, then to close down ANC completely and never return.

AS only does DEN-ANC seasonally, mainly to compete with F9's seasonal service on this route. No airline has flown DEN-ANC this winter; UA is due back on 2/15, and F9 is starting their service in March this year, probably to get a share of the Spring Break leisure market that packs planes leaving Alaska that time of year. AS should be back on that route in June.

United decided that their last flight to/from ANC is DEN-ANC/ANC-DEN on 9/20 so far. Protection is via Alaska Air for ticketed passengers.

Beginning this year, they announced that they had reinstated DEN-ANC YEAR-ROUND service (according to the sign at ANC).
Now they changed their mind again and summer 2009 service to ANC is not scheduled at the moment.

Who are you referring to in Rockford??

And now they are exiting the market completely.

Great...here we go again. Weird that if you try to book a flight after September 2008, the only flights that show up are the US codeshares through PHX and LAS, but if you look under Timetables, UA 700/701 are still there. Maybe things are just getting updated? We can only hope!

I am flying to LAS next week out of ANC, will have to ask them what's up!

This is a BIG bummer.

I flew out of ANC on May 23 on UA700. They had a banner behind check-in proudly announcing the year round DEN service and additional seasonal services to ORD and SFO. What a shame.

It was a delight taking off in daylight at almost midnight..and the Premier check in girl was terrific.

How are pax with confirmed award bookings or those with confirmed upgrades affected - are these protected as well?

I would imagine that the awards are protected, but the upgrades are not.

They protected my award after service ended last year on AS. Very flexible in rescheduling (I added a day in SEA). However, my travel had already begun.

Must avoid billscann. He's not going to be at all happy about this.