adambrau

SQ will be forced to cut their service levels if they continue to report losses, and I believe a review is already underway. In any case we can discuss the merits of both airlines till everyone is blue in the face. I think it is a little early to assume UA fails on LAX-SIN nonstop since the flights are only just announced. Hopefully both airlines can serve all pax better by both offering a nonstop service, and do so profitably!

Adam

Kacee

+1
This is a positive development for west coast based UA flyers. Competition on SFO-SIN has driven the discount J fare to $4100 and I'm hopeful the new route will bring similarly good news for passengers. Not to mention some easier 1-stop connections throughout SE Asia.

WineCountryUA

Topic Reminder

The thread's topic is UA recent announcement about LAX-SIN service. Other topics that have been covered in other threads have been removed to get the thread back on topic -- let's try to stay to the thread's topic. (And avoid commenting about each other).

WineCountryUA
UA coModerator

kevino

I now have two different itineraries which show this on the receipt at the bottom in the "MileagePlus Accruals Details":

0037 Los Angeles, CA (LAX)-Singapore, Singapore (SIN) Ineligible to accrue mileage or Premier qualifying credit

I called UA and of course they don't know why. Maybe it's because the routing doesn't have approval yet?

For another itinerary, I said I'd rather stop in HKG on the outbound and they let me do it.

laxmillenial

You'll earn miles. It's just a UA website bug that commonly shows up on people's itin's.

emcampbe

I wish UA would codeshare with SQ to onward destinations. For example, would be easier to go to India west rather than the only routing that shows up now which is via FRA. Last year, for example, did SFO-BLR on SQ, and would love the ability to book something like that using the SFO/LAX nonsfops. Flying to South India is a pain because UA often tries to book via their own DEL/BOM flights, but who wants to land at 9pm, then have to stay overnight, and be on a flight at 7am the next morning. Would much rather do soemthng like -flight to SIN, spend a day or two there (and get a bit of a flying break), then do the onward flight on SQ. Currently, can not do this via Ua at all - the only way to do it is on SQ.

i looked up a flight yesterday, and even the website showed zero accrual for everything on the flight selection page for LAX-SIN. Probably someone forgot to put in the proper info. in the database for this flight that it looks up for accrual. I wouldn't worry about it.

hirohito888

As I understand, UA considers US-India flights to be TATL. So you will be routed through EWR or the TATL JV partners. So UA forces you to fly over the Atlantic.

N104UA

Which is kind of crazy, I think it should depend on which coast you are leaving from depending if SE Asia, EWR, or FRA is a closer routing

Hipplewm

No, United's proverbial line is between India and Singapore. Especially now with ORD-SIN being cut. The only way to india is thru EWR and the only way to SIN is thru California.

You can get to India via LX, LH and AC from a variety of locations, but not United

emcampbe

I agree there should be some flexibility.

Technically, LAX/SFO-FRA-BLR is the fewest miles, but not by much. LAX-FRA-BLR is 10,408 (per great circle mapper), LAX-SIN-BLR is 10,745. Via EWR/BOM is more though, 10,778. From SFO west is pretty much just as close though - SFO-FRA-BLR is 10,308, SFO-SIN-BLR is 10,425, and the longest is SFO-EWR-BOM-BLR at 10,890. But based on the mileage differences, why they wouldn't give the option to go either way seems silly.

Whether or not the rules allow TPAC or not, it doesn't really matter until you can get non-full Y fares on SQ flights - that drives the cost up a ton.

It really depends on where you're going. DEL/BOM you can get on multiple carriers, including UA, AC, LH, LX, TK, OS (I think DEL only), etc. But while a surprise to some on this side of the world, India has many other cities, even large ones. The only way to get to any of these places on * from North America with a single stop, is an overnight connection in DEL/BOM (which just sucks), or on LH or SQ. From the west, there's no reason why that shouldn't be an option, especially with the long segments now available on UA metal.

uastarflyer

i can hope your assertion is put to the test.

an all E+ cabin and Polaris up front would be a good update.

hscottm

Ironically, I just got back from a SIN trip which was PIT-SFO-HKG-SIN-HKG-ORD-PIT (partly booked that way to get a good P fare outbound and grab 2 R seats on return). But I remember looking at options and fares a few months back when shopping. In short, anything that was going through HKG was problematic because you had to do the UA flight HKG-SIN to keep the lowest fares. If you instead switched to SQ it was several hundred dollars more.

Now, of course, looking for the cheapest December flights, you get either the California-based nonstops at a premium, or connections through NRT on NH. While PIT isn't a huge O/D market for SIN, there aren't any UA non-stops to LAX from here. Its really interesting to see all of the midwest/east coast HKG options disappear completely.

Also, the flights with the NH legs (one stop longer) are $150 each way cheaper in economy and $3k cheaper in business. Good luck on monetizing that premium!

drvannostren

Just as I thought I wouldn't take this flight...found a sick deal, used a united emco I still had and got 1 way via lax and the other way via sfo.

sbm12

This is based on countries as markets, not cities/destinations. My understanding is that the A++ Joint Venture includes all US-India traffic. That's why it prices out using the TATL routings.

Also, I've been led to believe that SQ is refusing to sell the cheaper seats on UA stock so it isn't that UA is deciding to not offer such.

Plus, UA & SQ already applied to switch to a full codeshare model, though that might not fix the JV pricing issues for the India market.

Kacee

If true, SQ might want to reconsider, since its current strategies are not working out so well.

Singapore Airlines CEO Signals Job Cuts Loom in Business Review.