All I want for Christmas is a 747 to HNL
 

It's close enough to the Christmas season that I'm wondering when, or if, a 747 will again make its appearance in the SFO-HNL timetable during the peak holiday travel days?

Last year, I missed the 747's operation by one day and had to make do with a 777, which was very nice too. But with the 747's days of flying for United winding down, I wonder whether there's a chance I could catch one from Honolulu back to the mainland this holiday season?

Does anyone recall when these special up-guages were introduced to the timetable last year? Any predictions on whether Santa might bring those of us in the 50th state for Christmas an upper-deck 747 ride home?

Is O'ahu (HNL) the only island that gets or ever got the 747?

I never had noticed it going even there, but you've now got me dreaming.

It would be pretty surprising to see UA scheduled 744 service to any of the other Hawaiian Islands. Where else can it even work operationally anyways? KOA I suppose - Kalitta goes there with 747s, wonder where else.

It was cool to see the 747s last year, but as a coach flyer I was plenty happy with admiring them in HNL and flying something else, lol.

I don't think KOA or OGG work, but they can do a 777 into OGG, so maybe?! As I said—dreaming. :p

(edit: and they sell it out ORD-OGG)

HNL-NRT-SFO/ORD gets you on the 747 :)

If our 777 to SFO is oversold or goes mx, I'll keep that alternate routing in mind!

When they aren't using 777s (or 787s briefly last year) on HNL-NRT.

As mentioned above, Kalitta goes to Kona with a 747. Saw it when I was last there. A charter out of Minnesota, or Michigan...someplace up there. A regular occurrence, from what I heard.

Back in the day, i used to sit upper deck 747 sfo-koa. Those were the days!
 

Supposedly LIH is extending one runway by 850ft, so that would open up a ton of possibilities.

I love the 747, great airplane, sorry to see it phased out. I will say the Dreamliner is an amazing plane, quite, comfortable and smooth; I think it's becoming my new favorite bird.

747 is becoming UA's not-favorite bird, by the maintenance issues we seem to see.

But then, the same could be said for the 789s as well these past few months...

Festivus miracle?
 

I just saw that Monday's morning 1175 SFO-HNL and afternoon flight back, UA 724, is showing 747

So there is hope yet for those of us traveling on these flights closer to Christmas and New Year's!

I wonder how long ago this equipment change was made?

I believe in miracles!

The change must have occurred this morning. I saw the seat map for a 747, with a 777 header. Interestingly Y was zeroed out, but F and J were wide open for about an hour. I hope this will happen next week!

It's N197UA - http://flightaware.com/live/flight/N197UA

772 HI config carries 344 (per seatguru) vs 744 of 374 people. From the seat map (with its acknowledged limitations), there are 12 unassigned seats.

I use ExpertFlyer to check loads in case our OTH flight is delayed and I need another option to get to my destination.

It's now showing F1/N1(?).

I'm amazed how United can fill their seats.

Today's 747 departure to HNL is on a 55 minute rolling maintenance delay (so far).

The 747 will always be dear to me, but hearing these stories about delays due to mechanical issues just makes the upcoming retirement even sadder.

I'd be curious if someone inside UA could "leak" whether there's been any official new policy set on maintaining the 744s.

Obviously I would HOPE that they're continuing diligent maintenance on the flight-related systems. The recent maintenance delays notwithstanding.

But, internal to the cabin, my last 3 744 flights have been awful -- including returning ICN-SFO yesterday. Broken bathrooms, malfunctioning seats, terrible IFE choices compared to the WiFi-based entertainment or other non-747 birds in the fleet, WiFi not working, broken drains in the galleys forcing FAs to pour liquids into the bathroom sinks, etc...

Either these planes are all far enough away from their last overhauls that everything is suddenly breaking at once? Or else it's really hard to think that they haven't just stopped caring about maintaining the interiors... I've begun to dread flights on the 744s, even upper-deck, lately. And that's sad. :(

My 777 for 12/21 just got switched to the reconfigured 10 across slimline seats. Ugh.

Sounds just like the sCO 752 I flew back from LIH two weeks ago. Not sure this is aircraft specific.

Anyone remember the 747SPs that used to run on this route? (And on SFO-LHR too)

Yes. I spent a lot of time on the upper deck on that plane. There were several regulars who commuted between HNL-SFO and in the smaller cabin you ended up getting to know each other. Good times.

Missed my connection to HNL from SFO on Flight 300 last Saturday. Instead of a 777 I had a 737-900 with the most miserable F seating ever in 5A. No one should be on a 737-900. To their credit, the F crew was stellar. I miss my childhood 747 Friendships!

Looks like those on UA724 12/22 will get an early Christmas present :cool:

You'd think this was about United Airlines, but I flew 747 on SQ--SFO-HNL-HKG back in 1980. Just economy class with lobster for dinner. :cool: That's my only 747 experience at HNL. It was not an SP. 747SP's were quite new at the time and having some issues.

And also on 1175 going westbound that day. Still some seats showing open on the UD!

Can I get an SDC for that one? :D

Today is my mom's birthday and is on 724. She's a 1K and got the double upgrade into Global First. The first upgrade into Business cleared at T-24 and when she checked in at the Skycap she got her new boarding pass. She's a happy camper.