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SFO-AKL JV w/NZ, all year UA metal, 77W Nov18-Mar19, 772 Apr19-Oct19 (+newORD-AKL NZ)

Old Jul 1, 2016, 10:36 am
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Last edit by: IBJoel
27 March 2018
Air New Zealand service between Auckland and Chicago

From Nov. 30, 2018, Air New Zealand will operate three times weekly, year-round service with its new configuration Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner aircraft. Flight time will be approximately 15 hours northbound and just over 16 hours southbound. Air New Zealand code share service will be offered on around 100 flights across the U.S. for convenient connections to Auckland via Chicago. United Airlines operates more flights from its hub at O'Hare International Airport than any other airline, with more than 500 flights to 147 airports across the United States.

United expands service between San Francisco and Auckland


Beginning in April 2019, United will extend service between its West Coast hub in San Francisco and Auckland to year-round with three-times-weekly service. In partnership with Air New Zealand, United's flight arriving in Auckland will offer passengers more than 20 connections across the region. The return trip utilizes United's extensive route network in San Francisco, which provides connections to the United States, Canada, and Latin America. United operates more than 290 daily flights from its hub at San Francisco International Airport to 79 airports across the U.S. and 26 international destinations. Tickets for the expanded San Francisco schedule will be available on united.com and airnewzealand.com later this year.

United service between San Francisco and Auckland will operate with a Boeing 777-300ER between November and March and will operate with Boeing 777-200ER aircraft between April and October.
Originally Posted by jimyvr
UA will now fly the 77W on SFO AKL when it resumes operation 29OCT17 - 22MAR18 (from SFO). Overall frequency will be 6 weekly, and increasing to 7 weekly from mid-Dec. UA73/74 is canceled.

http://www.routesonline.com/news/38/...as-of-01sep17/
United Airlines suspends NZ service (Suspension Period: April 18, 2017 - October 30, 2017)

Per New Zealand Herald quoting UA:

This change is in response to seasonal variations, which will also see United Airlines adding an additional three flights per week starting December 18, 2017 after resuming its daily Auckland to San Francisco services on October 31, 2017. This will increase services to a total of 10 United's flights per week during the high seasonal demand period. Passengers who have already purchased tickets during the suspended period are being contacted by the airline and offered flights on the Air New Zealand service instead. We apologise to customers for any inconvenience and advise that customers will not be out of pocket as a result of this shift in scheduling and will retain all frequent flyer benefits."
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SFO-AKL JV w/NZ, all year UA metal, 77W Nov18-Mar19, 772 Apr19-Oct19 (+newORD-AKL NZ)

Old Jan 5, 2017, 4:39 pm
  #151  
 
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Fail already

Between April 17 and October 31, all United services on this route will be suspended. Only Air NZ will be operating a daily on this route.
Axey is offline  
Old Jan 5, 2017, 4:56 pm
  #152  
 
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Originally Posted by Axey
Between April 17 and October 31, all United services on this route will be suspended. Only Air NZ will be operating a daily on this route.
Really! I was unaware that this was a seasonal service.
restlessinRNO is online now  
Old Jan 5, 2017, 5:11 pm
  #153  
 
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Will be interesting to see what happens to my award ticket in May...
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Old Jan 5, 2017, 5:47 pm
  #154  
 
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Originally Posted by Axey
Between April 17 and October 31, all United services on this route will be suspended. Only Air NZ will be operating a daily on this route.
Where do you read this? I have both a paid BF and award ticket booked on the 787 SFO-AKL-SFO April 19<->April 25. There has been absolutely no change so far.

This is the time frame of the World Masters Games which will attract 10,000+ competitors. So it would be very strange to abandon flights then.
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Old Jan 5, 2017, 5:51 pm
  #155  
 
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Originally Posted by Axey
Between April 17 and October 31, all United services on this route will be suspended. Only Air NZ will be operating a daily on this route.
Please source? This would impact many of us who have already booked trips.
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Old Jan 5, 2017, 6:41 pm
  #156  
 
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When I try to do a dummy booking on united.com for after April 17 only the NZ flight comes up as an option.
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Old Jan 5, 2017, 6:46 pm
  #157  
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SFO-AKL flights from 16-Apr-17 to 28-Oct-17, and AKL-SFO from 18-Apr-17 to 30-Oct-17 are blocked from inventory. They haven't been dropped from the schedule, yet.
findark is offline  
Old Jan 5, 2017, 6:51 pm
  #158  
 
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United just started a NZ fare sale today, some really cheap ($880 RT) fares, and NZ Air is quite a bit more. Loads must be bad.
spin88 is offline  
Old Jan 5, 2017, 6:52 pm
  #159  
 
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Originally Posted by porciuscato
Where do you read this? I have both a paid BF and award ticket booked on the 787 SFO-AKL-SFO April 19<->April 25. There has been absolutely no change so far.

This is the time frame of the World Masters Games which will attract 10,000+ competitors. So it would be very strange to abandon flights then.
NZ has been known to be looking at starting an additional North American route in 2017, with ORD and DEN, EWR all being rumoured.

If NZ was to start an additional route SFO wouldn't need double daily, and NZ was an joint venture with UA so might be making room for that to happen.
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Old Jan 5, 2017, 7:33 pm
  #160  
 
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Originally Posted by restlessinRNO
Really! I was unaware that this was a seasonal service.
It wasn't supposed to be.
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Old Jan 5, 2017, 7:55 pm
  #161  
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Originally Posted by spin88
United just started a NZ fare sale today, some really cheap ($880 RT) fares, and NZ Air is quite a bit more. Loads must be bad.
Must be if they're not just downgauging to a 788.

Speculation: This is probably immunized activity that would otherwise be an anti-trust violation (NZ not happy about its loads either).
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Old Jan 5, 2017, 8:05 pm
  #162  
 
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Originally Posted by Kacee
Must be if they're not just downgauging to a 788.

Speculation: This is probably immunized activity that would otherwise be an anti-trust violation (NZ not happy about its loads either).
NZ has been using an 77W year round on this route for an few years, and before that it was an 744, over the peak session they would add an additional couple of weekly services with the 772.
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Old Jan 5, 2017, 8:52 pm
  #163  
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Originally Posted by Kacee
Must be if they're not just downgauging to a 788.
They already did that.

Originally Posted by cavemanzk
NZ has been using an 77W year round on this route for an few years, and before that it was an 744, over the peak session they would add an additional couple of weekly services with the 772.
They've downgauged to mixed 77W and 772, with 4x weekly 772 + 3x weekly 77W in the low season.
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Old Jan 5, 2017, 9:48 pm
  #164  
 
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Originally Posted by Kacee
Must be if they're not just downgauging to a 788.

Speculation: This is probably immunized activity that would otherwise be an anti-trust violation (NZ not happy about its loads either).
Must be the case. SFO-AKL drew a lot of seats all of a sudden to a previously-unserved market, not to mention the additional NZ-USA capacity brought online by AA LAX-AKL (a larger local market than SFO) with AKL-IAH no doubt poaching some East Coast connectivity.

If it's not a JV decision (which I doubt) then it's possibly another example of the new sheriffs in Chicago flexing some strategic muscle...
EWR764 is offline  
Old Jan 5, 2017, 10:07 pm
  #165  
 
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Originally Posted by EWR764
Must be the case. SFO-AKL drew a lot of seats all of a sudden to a previously-unserved market, not to mention the additional NZ-USA capacity brought online by AA LAX-AKL (a larger local market than SFO) with AKL-IAH no doubt poaching some East Coast connectivity.

If it's not a JV decision (which I doubt) then it's possibly another example of the new sheriffs in Chicago flexing some strategic muscle...
The SFO-AKL route has been around since 30 June 2004, NZ started it 3x weekly with an 744. Then grew the route up to 12x weekly at peak, this south summer they didn't need the extra services with the daily UA service, so NZ just operated an daily service. During the Southern Summer UA has only really added 2x weekly capacity on the route. Most of that time UA has codeshared on the AKL-SFO service.

So it wasn't really an unserved route, there was definitely already an established market for UA to tap into.

Maybe it would work it NZ went 12x weekly April to October, and 14x weekly November to March.
cavemanzk is offline  

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