Kacee

"At UA's discretion" are the most important words in the entire rule. That means UA doesn't have to make any effort to reroute you. And (C)(4) is directly on point in the event UA, in its discretion, opts not to reroute you. Because a refund is the only remedy you can actually insist on.

Hope this works out for.

jimmc66

The GUM/CNS brought Japanese to Cairns from all the other large cities in Japan - Fukuoka, Sendai, etc. Japan isn't just about Tokyo. . .

jimmc66

I agree. It's odd however that UA hasn't seen the value of the GUM/CNS service in this light. Like Japan previously, a network of "feeder" flights to GUM connecting to the CNS service would be a very good alternative to transiting the big cities in China. Cairns is proving a very popular destination with the Chinese, like as with the Japanese in the 80's and 90's.

HkCaGu

ITI TWOV, the lack thereof.

mh3265a

Bingo - that is why Guam sought China to be added to their regional VWP or parole authority. That isn't going to be happening anytime soon. They need to bank on the new 10 year validity of visas to hope that Chinese numbers coming to or thru Guam jumps

spin88

United has badly damaged its brand in asia. Asians know that United is late or cancels, and that is planes are dank/dirt, and its food is gross. Why would any Japanese or Korean in their right mind fly United rather than JAL, ANA, Korean, or Asiana? There are also discount carriers that have a much lower cost structure than UA does, and offer a better flight experience.

I don't think that UA (with numerous well publicized CS failures in China) is going to attract anyone in China other than on price, but then there is the visa issue others have noted.

United can only compete on price at this point, and given its cost structure is higher than most other airlines this is not a winning proposition, so flight/capcity cuts are not surprising.

mh3265a

Sad but true. CO Mike and Air Mike had a somewhat unique product that differentiated them in the market. However, that has morphed and combined with a bad reputation it makes it hard for UA to compete against other Asian carriers.

jimmc66

I don't agree with any of this, and I've flown to and thru GUM quite often since UA took control of the AirMike routes. The planes are exceptionally clean, the food just fine. The Japanese are much less "nationalistic" about airlines than the Koreans, IMHO. These planes to Cairns were chockablock until the AU$ took a nosedive. Australia is one of the most expensive countries to visit (and to live) in the world.

The visa issue is of major import, but the Australians have a visa agreement fully in place. And any so-called CS failures must be viewed in the Chinese context - the whole country operates on CS failures at every level. It's not an issue.

UA was stupidly overpriced on the CNS route to and through GUM to north Asia. AU$2200 to Sendai or Sapporo during the ski season just was stupidly over-the-top. No amount of cajoling by CNS residents of UA management could get the fares to be even nominally competitive with JQ.

It's almost like UA Guam has a death wish. . .

artvandalay

Message from CNS residents to UA: "We'd like you to make your airfares more competitive."

UA response: "We quit."

Like many UA HVF--and soon-to-be former first class passengers--CNS residents have learned what it feels like to be Smisek-ed. I agree with you that the termination of service to CNS raises questions about the plans for GUM.

mh3265a

GUM is struggling a little right now. The airline will blame it on the weak Yen. They continue to forget that they lost a TON (dare I say majority) of HVFs on Guam to Delta who poached them after they changed the GUM-HNL aircraft and overall service standards fell.

HkCaGu

And DL won a lot of GSA contracts that were always CO's. And the incompetence known as Cape Air made UA lose SPN too to DL. SPN-USA traffic should not have been affected that much by the CNMI economy.

spin88

If the fall in the AU$ caused them to loose traffic, it was not the loss of Asians, but Ausies that was at issue. A falling AU$ should result in more traffic from asia, not less.

As to UA's reputation, I am often in Japan/China/HKG, and we have friends in all three places. Mention UA to them, and the responses are that its rather pitiful. They have all seen the bad press. E.g. was just in HIJ, with family friends, we ended up staying another half day as Asiana cancelled our am flight out and we switched to ANA/UA. The response of our friends (who travel often) to hearing this was "sorry you have to fly UA"

But I think the rep is worse in China at this point, as UA has been hit by multiple bad press on riots and passengers stranded for several days at PEK/PVG.

Teeejay

JOSECONLSCREW28 - our authority on all things GUM - has been noticeably silent in this thread. I wonder what his take is on UA's upcoming flight cutbacks out of GUM.

Antonio8069

Nostalgia.

UA has excellent non-stops LAX-MEL on the Dreamliner. Indeed, CO does serve AU.

pdxdtm

Still no update or plan from UA after a follow up call last night.

Not sure how long this should take or what their plan is, but starting to get really frustrated that UA still hasnt reached out to me in almost a week. Theres definitely no other available reward tickets to the South Island of New Zealand currently. I did find seats on a HKG-BKK-SYD (in X ) and booked that as a holder, but no flights from SYD-ZQN/CHC within a week of when I want them.

I've even taking to tweeting at UA for information. More to come.