I'm not saying its unreasonable, but this was I understand a profitable route when started. My guess is pulling off the widebody tag and "right sizing" it, with the 737 damaged UA's yields, like it killed them to SIN. I think this is more of Jeff's bad decisions coming home to roost.

As to someone else, I think UA N/S has the only real shot. VN will have a hard time with some of the US based traffic, DL is not going to do from SEA (which has 60-70K Vietnamese) and LAX is just a little further away and at ULR "a little bit" matters. But I agree, SFO-BKK is a better call at this point.

But United also has no aversion to dropping routes either... and when's the last time we've seen any expansion into a part of Asia that's not China? (Excepting SIN-SFO but that's been discussed to death and we shall see how that route fares in the winter)

Also slightly OT but does this mean that the last remaining 738 intra-Asia tag is now NRT-ICN?

My recollection is that, when they introduced this flight, part of the motivation was that flying HKG-SGN and back was cheaper than parking the 747 at HKG overnight. Is that no longer true?

United keeps killing off the Pacific routes. First BKK is gone and now SGN. :td::td::td:

NH added a second NRT-SGN timed for US connections. NH is now flying 2x daily to SGN.

ANA Doubles Tokyo Narita – Ho Chi Minh Service in W16

UA has also added CTU, XIY, HGH, and AKL. I would say it's a wash and just adjusting routes based on demand and JV capabilities. Either that, or they're just following DL's SEA dartboard strategy.

Any speculation as to what those "...additional and comparable flight hours added..." means in terms of new routes, additional services for CMI based folks?

1. BKK then SGN. I predict UA will abandon SIN within 2 years.

2. NH 763 J recliners are the most uncomfortable business class seats in the world. Even UA 737 F is better.

3. VN has publicly stated they would need to load limit a 78X or standard 359 on an NA route. (Which BTW means they are not considering YVR or SEA.) They are waiting for the ULR version of the 359. I'd guess SFO or JFK.

4. NH recently finalized their investment in VN so we should expect to see VN switching to *A shortly. Will be interesting to see what DL does.

5. As spin88 says, there's plenty of US<>Vietnam traffic. Lot of it is currently flying BR.

6. I would expect to see a resumption of BKK<>US service within a couple of years.

Yes. I totally agree. I did it two years ago.

And the seats are poor for American-sized travellers.

Depends how you count TPE.

Well not to go too off-topic here but wasn't SFO-TPE added as a replacement for the NRT-TPE tag? So I wouldn't count it as an expansion here. And as many others have pointed out with SGN ending UA is down to only SIN in Southeast Asia.

Do you really think UA will drop SIN and start a nonstop to the much lower-yielding and leisure-heavy BKK? Seems very unlikely especially since the premium demand to SIN is definitely still there. I guess we'll see how SFO-SIN does in the winter (with the headwinds westbound + the SQ nonstop) and who knows maybe they'll resurrect the NRT tag if it doesn't work out (on a 772? — one can dream, I guess?).

I would not be surprised however if United cuts HKG-SIN (especially if SFO-SIN does well) or if it goes back to the guppy again (and then gets axed, like what we're seeing happening here).

I flew SGN-HKG-ORD-LGA before the merger with 3 friends on the upper deck of the 747 before the merger with CO. We were the only ones up top on the segment to HKG - it was a fun flight chatting with the FA's but obviously not a money maker. UA has shown a willingness to take on new Asian routes (and drop others like MNL and BKK) but with new planes coming on site maybe UA will return to old haunts. Wherever the best money to be made can be found!

A large proportion of the SGN-U.S. traffic is comprised of ethnic Chinese with roots now well established in California and Houston. Perhaps this should shed some light on why BR flies 17x/week on LAX-TPE, 14x/week on SFO-TPE, and daily on IAH-TPE. BR is the undisputed specialist in this market; CI is too, but to a smaller extent.

So, UA can't compete with a single daily 738 and that lousy 5 am departure. ~ yawn~

I would expect KUL before UA returns to SGN, but I wouldn't even hold my breath for that.

Why abandon SIN?

+1
Miserable seats, miserable flight ex-SGN.

We only know that the GUM based aircraft/crew are being discontinued. They may be up gauging until non-stop service can start.

TG & SQ won't like this. I really do not think VN could meet *A requirements in the near future. They have a lot of new airplanes, but the airline is still an awful mess.

I have a ticket for this flight HKG-SGN-HKG booked for December. Will United book me on Different carrier HKG-SGN-HKG? What are my options?

Asserting that ethnic Chinese Vietnamese are a large part of the (traveling) Vietnamese community in Houston is wrong. They are a part of it, well known, well established but are vastly outnumbered by Viet.

If competing is filling 2 daily 773s, no they can't. But some day direct flights are going to stomp on those TPE connections.