JOSECONLSCREW28

The flatbeds on SFO-BOS is only lasting a few months before going back to regular F seats. There has been no internal announcement by the company regarding PS style service coming to SFO-BOS.

NH_Clark

Trial run to see if worthwhile/money maker?

N623DL

Trial run? With PS planes flying BOS-SFO multiple times a day, I simply doubt this is a test.

Well then they better get smart and transparent about what they want to do. 77G operating premium on BOS-SFO seems like desperation. Fleet planning at UA is beyond embarrassing at this point. They can't even seem to make up their mind about keeping or ditching the 3-class 763s.

JOSECONLSCREW28

Its making use of planes that otherwise would be sitting several hours. And none of the sub UA 752s are getting the fuel tank mods which is why they are leaving the fleet. Expect SFO-BOS to go back to a mix of 753s and 737s by years end.

EWR764

The fall/winter schedule isn't finalized. This seems like a pretty deliberate move to get flat bed aircraft in the BOS-SFO market. It's not utilization flying. EWR-LAX/SFO frequencies have been reduced slightly, with 77G added to the schedule, to accommodate this change.

N623DL

I don't know if this is correct when EWR-SFO/LAX is having the same type of fleet allocation as BOS-SFO. sUA 757s don't sit on the ground at all. They go between EWR-LAX/SFO constantly all day long. So this isn't a case of slack within the 757 fleet. As a matter of fact, between the sCO and sUA reliability of their 757 fleet, there probably isn't even enough slack at the moment for PS routes alone.

If they go back to 753 / 737 by the years end, they're going to have a tough time with DL on the route, that's for sure. The fuel tank modifications seems like corporate jargon to ditch a sub fleet. They need help with fuel tank mods on PW aircraft? Call up Delta, I think they know a thing or two when they are keeping over 100 757 at this point.

JOSECONLSCREW28

Of course it isn't finalized and SFO-BOS hasn't even been confirmed as being a PS route. And company has no plans to upgauge all of the TATL routes to 767s so that the 75B can be used strictly domestic. Take what the club employee told the OP with a huge grain of salt.

The sub UA 752s aren't getting the required FAA fuel tank mods which is why they are leaving the fleet and UA has no plans to do so regardless of what DL does.

PsiFighter37

So...what seems like a very big push into the BOS market, with nearly 200 lie-flats daily, is only for a few months?

That makes zero sense from any kind of strategy standpoint. It makes a LOT of sense if they are formally adding BOS as a premium market. I have to think there is some follow-on here. Perhaps I am being generous in assuming that the folks running the show in the post-Smisek era are smarter than their predecessors?...

entropy

I highly doubt that they'd do that, the 752 to 763 is quite a jump in capacity on routes that would likely not support it.

If I were to venture a guess, I think they are using it as a test to gauge how lie-flat does on the route, so they know how many of the new aircraft (hopefully the 321neoLR) to order for the new PolarisPS.

N623DL

Then let me ask you a question: What the hell is UA going to do with domestic lie flat utilization? They are still overly reliant on the 757 flying transatlantic missions and still need to run PS. 738 isn't going to cut it on EWR-LAX/SFO.

Seems that even in a post-Smisek era, UA still is struggling to find it's niche with fleet planning.

riphamilton

i don't think UA needs to do much more testing of lie-flat ex-BOS. if there was a point where they dipped their toes in the water, it was the past couple of summers(?) when a pmUA 752 was making daily BOS-LAX turns.

i can buy the "this is just how the utilization cookie crumbles" argument, except for the fact that the route is (a) exclusively lie-flat through the summer, and (b) the otherwise bizarre fare activity. as others have correctly noted, the 753/73X/A320 equipment that appears on the fall schedule is essentially a placeholder.

fly18725

I don't think your questions can be sufficiently answered at this point.

Despite the lack of popularity with this community, United's fleet planning is pretty good. There are a number of options to smaller gauge TATL flying and domestic flat beds, including swapping A350s for A321s. We will just have to wait and see what happens.

riphamilton

others here have significantly more internal insight than me, but the rumor now is that the A350 order will be (at least) delayed. UA wants the A321neoLR, but the order backlog for it extends beyond 2020.

i have confidence in UA's current fleet planning team and strategy, but the fact is that - to an extent - their hands are tied. they haven't been in place long enough to make their mark, and they have to deal with smisek-era decisions.

i agree with jose that UA will not do the mods to keep the pmUA 752s flying after 2018, but being able to use them to bridge the gap to the A321LR does seem to have some appeal. i just hope that UA doesn't find itself in a scenario where they have to 'settle' for the speculated 737-10 as the 752 replacement, forcing us as flyers to suffer with that plane for the next decade plus.

cfischer

except that the next schedule change shows all PS aircrafts on this route. Hardly a co-incidence and while I agree it is not yet officially confirmed ... it smells like it!
Summer TATL is usually 763 for most markets so they have more 752s available ... curious what they'll do in the winter.

ermintrude

I'm guessing UA will increase the $199 post purchase upfare (and that was on a K fare). but even if PN and R open up, it still currently makes sense to me to just upfare rather than use a RPU anyway unless your having a hard time burning RPUs.