FiveMileFinal

Off to SkyPesos then!

Loooool I love it. With the change already loaded, my last flight is now BKK-NRT. I guess I have to swim from there to Seattle now! ^^

Just when you think things can't get any worse. Apologists for this farce pretending to be an airline need to just quit. Delta at least made coherent decisions trimming the fat during their merger. The only reason United survives is because there isn't any competition left.

goodeats21

It is confirmed. Someone quoted the press release earlier in the thread...or on another "cutbacks are coming" thread. A lot of them today to keep up with.

Yes, UA is shrinking its footprint and I am not happy about it. No amount of eye rolling will lessen the degradation of the route for me.

And I am very doubtful about SFO->BKK is in the works. They would not close up the BKK station if they were going to start up a new service at any point in the foreseeable future.

spin88

its 7931 miles which is 6892 NM. Boeing lists the range of the 787-8 as 7,650 to 8,200 nautical miles, I don't know the range of UAL's birds in that envelope. There is no doubt that you could fly East Bound, but I don't think they could fly west bound given the prevailing head winds without a fuel stop. It shows as a 15.5 hours flight SFO-BKK, and even a light head wind (75 knots) over that time would drop the plane below its maximum range.

UAL could fly the plane with no cargo (light) but the economics would be a killer. It would take a 777LR to do that route. If anyone did it it would be DL from SEA, but I think its better to do via a plane change in NRT or another city, as UAL and DAL have been doing it.

Its just not in the cards, and UAL is in retrenchment mode, not doing inventive things...

unavaca

Say, that's a good question. Anyone know what happened to the TPE UA staff? They nuked NRT-TPE awhile back, but SFO-TPE hasn't started yet.

mike1968

Wow the loss of BKK is unreal. No way would I chance that to a split carrier routing as nothing like getting stranded in NRT overnight when ANA doesn't hold their flight for UA's tardiness. BKK is such a great SE Asia hub, it just doesn't make sense considering I can't ever recall being on a BKK flight in 25 or so trips where the 777 or 747 wasn't completely full. So sad. I guess it will free up at least 50 seats on ORD-NRT if others opt for same metal flight to BKK as that seems to be the minimum going onwards in my experience. Nice way to thin the elite ranks as well I suppose.

would be great If AA would redeploy a plane to launch this route after their merger. I suppose its time to start comparing Cathay, ANA and Asiana for options.

gradsflyer

I never flew NRT-BKK but have been in BKK several times a year since 2007 and always liked often seeing a UA aircraft on the ground there, made me feel at home! If the flights really always were filled to capacity then this must be simply due to the CO fortress hub mentality; any capacity filled international flight has to be making money for UA (I think). I do know TG seems to be constantly boosting their Japan services these days, including with the A380 now, so perhaps UA might look to start codesharing with them...

uastarflyer

Yes it was intentional to leave off 48 state smallball stuff. I'd trade them all back for return of BKK and SEA as routes from NRT on UA metal.

I loved the CTU announcement and made that clear in the CTU thread. We need more like that.

That SFO hasn't been hammered like NRT isn't a lot of solace. Of course SFO is strong - people want to go there. That is the flaw with GUM, CLE and even IAH. And that is what is so disconcerting about capacity reductions in major business centers like HKG and NRT.

CALMSP

well, if it was truly getting the revenue to make it a profitable flight, then it would still stay. Apparently that is not the case. Therefore, no reason to fly the route.

iquitos

I suspect this shake up is all show. They want to show the board they are taking action. It appears they are going to blow their wad on TATL. Asia is where the growth is. Personally I think they did a lot of business out of Japan between ICN and BKK especially. What about SIN? All that work building up that market is now scrapped.

Nevsky

Will be going to BKK in January and will be going on United. Was curious what the other alternatives are and compared prices. I could get a ticket on UA for about $1400 or Singapore (SQ) for about $1200. Given that soon there will be no upgrades on the NRT (Narita) BKK route and the Transpacific (TPAC) will be very dicey and at the higher W or above fares, it would seem the logical route in the future is to "suffer" economy on SQ for the whole trip (even if through Frankfurt (FRA). The SQ skies are very friendly. Is that what they want?

The 21st Century is supposed to be the Asian century. Apparently, United just wants to concede the growing Asian market. I guess if you cannot compete on service......

5khours

I guess there is not enough traffic on the TYO<>BKK route..... only 12 flights a day with TG adding another early next year.

Flyer420

I have just given up 3 hours of my miserable life to listen to the entire Investor Day presentation--certainly a lot of management-speak to try to digest, but--just supposing--that the present team have in fact got it right? Monetize everything; use new technologies to offer each individual pax the fare that the computer reckons that pax will pay; it's going to be a very interesting ride. Whether I take it or not remains to be seen. The jawing today about yields and returns and cash for investors reflects the intended audience. The management folks were very clear that on IT and everything else they want a 'retail' approach. Funny thing, of course, is the concept of airlines as 'common carriers'... Common carriers have always offered a variety of values of service, and those who could pay for something better did so (think Pullman sleepers, or parlor cars). But, the information was open to all. The future as Jeff Smisek appears to see it, is one where UA (or other airlines) will try to orchestrate consumption in a way where no open market will remain.

I now stand back to receive flames, opprobrium, scorn and contempt from my betters. FTers are discussing discontinued flights between here, there or somewhere (and man I'm going to miss SEA-NRT-BKK), but aren't we sharing wisdom over placement of deck chairs on the Titanic?

Flyer 420
en route to Paris

iquitos

You have to work for traffic. United did. They built a nice hub at NRT. Good lounge, great personnel, good local cabin crews, nice service with a lot of Japanese elites. I think downgrading NRT will mean the loss of feed from the outlying cities and a decline of NRT as a United hub. Much of the traffic from BKK and ICN is onward traffic.

FiveMileFinal

I just flew it on Monday. It was packed to the gills. But it's full of upgraders because Smisek can't get anyone to pony up for the product. Who would? Food's awful in Y and not much better in C. They ToDed me for $479 for that sector, I passed, sat in 23A with my neck pillow and just dealt. In the past $600+30K would have been chump change, but I'm choosing to spend it at this nice hotel I'm at right now while I go through reentry. It's no wonder they're cutting the route - though I thought, as full as it was, and as hard of an upgrade as it is, that they were at least making a few pennies.

It's not a problem with demand - Thai's triple daily with 2 A388s and an A346. ANA rolls a 77W and a 763 (and another 763 to Haneda)...this is just another incompetent move by an incompetent airline who wants to be either like Spirit or Delta and can't figure out how to do either right. Other than the el cheapo fares, no skin off my back as it will finally make me make the jump to abandon UA for all transoceanic travel.

unavaca

You might be the only person here to call the reintroduction of TPE and CDG at SFO as "small ball".

I'll happily take the TPE and CDG non-stop routes ex-SFO over piddly connection routes out of NRT.