Jul 1, 2016, 10:36 am
Last edit by: IBJoel
27 March 2018
United Airlines suspends NZ service (Suspension Period: April 18, 2017 - October 30, 2017)
Per New Zealand Herald quoting UA:
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.
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.
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/
http://www.routesonline.com/news/38/...as-of-01sep17/
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."
SFO-AKL JV w/NZ, all year UA metal, 77W Nov18-Mar19, 772 Apr19-Oct19 (+newORD-AKL NZ)
Jan 7, 2017, 12:27 am
#197
Join Date: Feb 2008
Location: Chicago, IL
Programs: Marriott Ambassador, UA Mileage Plus 1K, AA Executive Plat, Marriott Ambassador Elite
Posts: 2,344
happened to me on an award ticket going ORD-LHR-ATH. Agean for some reason cancelled my leg of the trip from LHR, so UA ended up paying the fare for MUC-ATH on the reroute as the award space was no longer available for LHR-ATH.
Jan 7, 2017, 7:14 am
#198
Join Date: Apr 2004
Location: Washington, DC
Posts: 1,309
well, it looks like they are indeed coming back in October, and they've even published 10 flights a week sfo-akl from December 2017: http://www.routesonline.com/news/38/...from-dec-2017/
so I guess it is just a very very seasonal route, and UA figures it can do better with its own aircraft elsewhere during the summer season. Nothing wrong with that.
And from my sources, New Zealand is a super seasonal route with a VERY small corporate component. Not huge corporate ties one way or another. Makes sense to allocate resources according to demand, which this action demonstrates.
so I guess it is just a very very seasonal route, and UA figures it can do better with its own aircraft elsewhere during the summer season. Nothing wrong with that.
And from my sources, New Zealand is a super seasonal route with a VERY small corporate component. Not huge corporate ties one way or another. Makes sense to allocate resources according to demand, which this action demonstrates.
Jan 7, 2017, 7:30 am
#199
Join Date: Mar 2015
Location: NYC (Primarily EWR)
Programs: UA 1K / *G, Marriott Bonvoy Gold; Avis PC
Posts: 9,009
well, it looks like they are indeed coming back in October, and they've even published 10 flights a week sfo-akl from December 2017: http://www.routesonline.com/news/38/...from-dec-2017/
so I guess it is just a very very seasonal route, and UA figures it can do better with its own aircraft elsewhere during the summer season. Nothing wrong with that.
And from my sources, New Zealand is a super seasonal route with a VERY small corporate component. Not huge corporate ties one way or another. Makes sense to allocate resources according to demand, which this action demonstrates.
so I guess it is just a very very seasonal route, and UA figures it can do better with its own aircraft elsewhere during the summer season. Nothing wrong with that.
And from my sources, New Zealand is a super seasonal route with a VERY small corporate component. Not huge corporate ties one way or another. Makes sense to allocate resources according to demand, which this action demonstrates.
Either way, do like that they are going 2x daily during peak season. Earlier departure is nicer for folks who are West Coast-based, while the later departure will serve those who have to make the TCON haul first.
Jan 7, 2017, 11:04 am
#201
Join Date: May 2001
Location: RNO, NV, USA.
Programs: UA 2MM
Posts: 5,063
well, it looks like they are indeed coming back in October, and they've even published 10 flights a week sfo-akl from December 2017: http://www.routesonline.com/news/38/...from-dec-2017/
so I guess it is just a very very seasonal route, and UA figures it can do better with its own aircraft elsewhere during the summer season. Nothing wrong with that.
And from my sources, New Zealand is a super seasonal route with a VERY small corporate component. Not huge corporate ties one way or another. Makes sense to allocate resources according to demand, which this action demonstrates.
so I guess it is just a very very seasonal route, and UA figures it can do better with its own aircraft elsewhere during the summer season. Nothing wrong with that.
And from my sources, New Zealand is a super seasonal route with a VERY small corporate component. Not huge corporate ties one way or another. Makes sense to allocate resources according to demand, which this action demonstrates.
Jan 7, 2017, 2:21 pm
#202
Join Date: Jul 2006
Location: California
Programs: AA EXP, lowly UA 1K; Hyatt Diamond, SPG Gold, Hilton Gold; National EC, Hertz PC
Posts: 2,215
Jan 7, 2017, 3:43 pm
#203
Join Date: Aug 2003
Location: Northern California
Programs: I want to be free! Free!
Posts: 3,455
I called; the agent said an announcement was circulated this morning and that they are actively moving pax over to the NZ flight and to wait a few days for the reservation to reflect the change as they work through it all. I am sure this is bad news for my award ticket+GPU but will wait to see what happens since I don't really have a reasonable alternative. All else failing I'll just ask them to rebook me on the SYD flight, clear the upgrade, and I'll make my way there on my own.
Jan 8, 2017, 2:59 am
#204
Suspended
Join Date: Jan 2014
Location: yyz/ord
Programs: AC E50 UA1k 2MM AA EXP Royal Ambassador SPG Platinum
Posts: 1,516
AKL must just have low premium traffic. NZ configures its 787 with JUST 18 business class seats. United has 48.
NZ 777-200 have just 26 business class seats.
reality for this market United need some planes with a lot of economy seats to compete.
NZ 777-200 have just 26 business class seats.
reality for this market United need some planes with a lot of economy seats to compete.
Jan 8, 2017, 4:12 am
#205
Join Date: Apr 2001
Location: Any of the Following PDX SFO IAH YUL HPN CDG SYD WLG AKL
Programs: AA GLD 1MM, DL DM, UA 1K Marriott Platinum, Hilton Diamond, IHG Spire Ambassador , Hyatt Platinum
Posts: 464
later this year the 789's will be delivered with a less dense higher premium configuration that will allow them to meet North American market demands and open new routes (speculated to be ORD)
Jan 8, 2017, 10:12 am
#206
Join Date: Aug 2003
Location: Northern California
Programs: I want to be free! Free!
Posts: 3,455
Separately, piss poor communication by United on this one. Perhaps have alternative arrangements ready to go when you axe the flight rather than leaving a bunch of folks without any method to finalize new plans.
Jan 8, 2017, 12:23 pm
#207
Join Date: Jan 2006
Location: SFO
Programs: UA MMGold, HH Diamond, Marriott Plat
Posts: 1,263
According to Herald:
http://m.nzherald.co.nz/business/new...ectid=11778240
UA is contacting impacted customers. I have not received any call from them. Seems the plan is moving customers to Air New Zealand flight.
Any thoughts of Air New Zealand in Y (on 772)? Comparable to UA E+? Also wonder what other options available such as stay with UA on a later flight.
Jan 8, 2017, 12:26 pm
#208
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Mar 2000
Posts: 17,427
But the route must be VERY seasonal. For example, biz class was not populated by biz travelers. Rather, they looked like ordinary, affluent couples, families, etc travelling "for the Holidays." From my observations of business in NZ, this does not surprise me: it's a pretty small economy without a lot of big corporate players, so I can easy imagine the difficulty of trying to fill 48 biz class seats on a regular basis. BTW, the pre-Polaris hard product in Business looked terrible: you'd be a fool to pay big money for it (I was in the back).
I'm guessing that "weather" makes NZ very seasonal. Honestly, I wouldn't go there on vacation anytime other than summer. And while I understand that Kiwis love to travel (one stat I read said that 1 in 4 Kiwis travel overseas every year!) there are fewer than 5 million of them. I guess that's not enough to sustain this flight (and, besides, they probably prefer to fly the better ANZ product).
Jan 8, 2017, 12:43 pm
#209
Join Date: Jan 2006
Location: SFO
Programs: UA MMGold, HH Diamond, Marriott Plat
Posts: 1,263
http://www.airlinequality.com/seat-r...r-new-zealand/
Jan 8, 2017, 1:21 pm
#210
Join Date: Feb 2007
Programs: NZ Koru
Posts: 6,415
The 789s aren't used on the North American routes, they are target at the low yielding Asian market.
AKL-SFO is operated by the 77W, some services can be the 772 but mainly the 77W.