findark

With the retirement of the 747s, and the rollout of the 77Ws I've seen a lot of random domestic swaps especially to 77W. These are hard to set an alert for because of the search space, but I know we have a lot of people coming to comment when their flight is swapped.

I'd love to pick up one of these aircraft (especially 744) on e.g. SFO-ORD and would totally do it last-minute if given a day or so notice. I'm suspecting I'm not the only one who wants to keep tabs on swaps like this, and was wondering if we could start a "spotting" thread for interesting/cool equipment swaps, especially domestically.


I'll start:

N2639U (77W) is flying today:

UA207 BOS-SFO
UA1858 SFO-DEN
UA257 DEN-SFO

With a bit more notice could have been a fun DEN turn to see the 77W.

cesco.g

on ghGreat & very helpful thread, findark! ^

Have been looking for a 77W ex-IAD and LAX (highly unlikely on the latter though).

Slurve30

I have noticed the 77W has been subbing for the regular 77A on the ORD-SFO-ORD route on occasion. I was the beneficiary of this swap on my last trip. Best I can tell this swap isn't scheduled. In my case I got the equipment swap notification overnight and the flight itself was an upgrade bonanza on what is a normally an impossible upgrade.

altbg

The 77W has also been doing UA408 SFO-IAD for the last two Fridays. Of course, when I'm scheduled to fly next Friday it is showing 3-class 772. Keeping my fingers crossed for an equipment change so I can finally try out the new Polaris seat.

findark

Indeed - the swaps are not scheduled. I'm hoping we can collect reports so that notice is given as far in advance as possible (ideally, long enough to buy a ticket and go to the airport). I don't fly int'l all that often, and so I would love to jump on a spur-of-the-moment 747 farewell flight to ORD instead of making a TPAC/TATL out of it.

tarheelnj

Is there any chance of a domestic 747 sighting at EWR before they're put out to pasture? I would grab that in a second if I knew about it in time.

mediator

Highly doubted. IAD is your best bet. I would also keep an eye on UA cargo.

fly747first

Would it kill UA to do a last IAD LAX or SFO trip on 744 before retiring these birds? They could use the free POSITIVE publicity. lol

artvandalay

Agree, and it's disappointing that UA chooses to let these planes go quietly, after all the (justifiable) hype surrounding their arrival decades ago. As a "legacy" carrier, one would think acknowledging positive remnants of UA would have more significance...especially this year.

altbg

Kirby did say this in January:

"And of course, we'll honor the 747 with an unforgettable retirement celebration — we'll keep you posted with more details on her final flight in the months ahead."
https://hub.united.com/farewell-747-...188763460.html

So there is still hope!

Slurve30

Data points: I know for sure that the 11:42am from SFO-ORD, as well as the the regular 7:20pm ORD-SFO swapped from the 77A to the 77W on both June 13 (Tu) and June 18 (Su). That said, they were not swapped this past Sunday, and for tomorrow these flights are still listed as aboard the 77A Hawaii version.

Hergertarian

UA 497 EWR -> SFO has a 77W this Friday, 6/30. I jumped on it when I saw it a few weeks ago.

TurboFan779

Please let us know if you see anything out of or into LAX, I'm highly interested.

Yea, there is still plenty of time until I would expect commemoration routes. I'd expect a few in Oct and November, it is just way too early. Although some domestic summer rush routes could easily use 747s...

UAL250

A 777-300 flew IAD-IAH-IAD today and is about to leave for Frankfurt. Arrived from Tokyo yesterday.

luv2ctheworld

That's presuming they don't bungle that flight with some more negative publicity

I say that in jest, but there's a small part of me that actually thinks it may happen...