bldr1k

Great news - I hope they make it year round. I fly DEN-LHR at least half a dozen times a year. I've heard DEN-NRT is the most profitable United flight in Denver.

boat9781

NTA has the TATL sCO trips. NLS has the sCO "speaker" trips if I recall. Both are Newark based. My understanding is that this is different to the sUA set up which is simply a function of seniority. (These differences even extend to how FAs work they aircraft; sCO position bids whereas sUA does not.) These methodologies will be harmonized when the flight attendants are merged and the scheduling systems and rules updated.

txaggiemiles

This appears to be a valid routing from southern and Texas cities with direct flights to DEN (MSY, SAT, AUS etc). Which is nice to allow for a later departure time and a longer ride for sleeping when up front (as opposed to EWR or IAD). A nice option to check over a connection in IAH.

skycrab

And that 2nd LHR-LAX flight was originally taken from the 3rd LHR-IAH flight, reducing that route to 2 daily.

Personally, I'd rather they have kept IAH or LAX as they're hubs/destinations I actually use. There's enough choice on the LHR-EWR route already (for me)

EWR764

It seems to me the 17th summertime LHR slot is kind of an orphan and UA was looking for the 'least worst' place to park it. The NYC-LON market is massive and comparatively the least expensive (in terms of fixed costs) UA flight to operate to LHR, so absent any better options, the EWR flight made sense.

Now, with DY coming to Denver, there's more of a strategic impetus for UA to add DEN-LHR service, so EWR goes back to 5x and DEN gets a summer flight.

N104UA

Will this still exist after the FA group integration, my understanding is that DEN is a high seniority base and I am sure a few DEN based FAs would like a LHR run. (I assume the same for the NRT flight)

JOSECONLSCREW28

The separate international/speaker/domestic bases for sub CO goes away October 2018 so NRT & LHR will likely be in the DEN bid packages at that time. Sub CO DEN is a domestic only base which is why the current DEN-NRT and the upcoming DEN-LHR have to be flown out of an international & speaker base. DEN-NRT is currently staffed with NTA (Newark Transatlantic) and HOS (Houston Other Speaker) based FAs. When EWR-NRT becomes a 77W DEN-NRT will be staffed with HTA (Houston Transatlantic) and HOS (Houston Other Speaker) based FAs.

N104UA

It is my understanding that the sUA FAs don't have a domestic/international crew, basically the FAs can fly what ever routes his/her seniority can hold, many SEA based FAs flew SEA-NRT one week then domestic flights the next week when it was the only international flight from SEA. Is the new contract going to keep that in place or will it keep the sCO model in place, if the sUA system were kept in place I imagine it would be hard for the company and union to justify not allowing DEN based FAs to fly this route.

Aspen

And I always thought it was ASE

DENflyer3

Well this just made up my mind for next summers vacation! I'll book now in W and then panic for the next 11 months waiting for the GPU to clear.

symphonicman

Starting your vacation 11 months early with Expert Mode and ExpertFlyer, nice

JOSECONLSCREW28

By October 2018 any DEN based FAs should be able to bid DEN-NRT & DEN-LHR. Since sub CO DEN is a domestic only base those trips don't appear in the sub CO DEN bid package and all 788s are assigned sub CO so DEN-NRT & the upcoming DEN-LHR have to be flown out of a sub CO international base for the time being.

boat9781

I understand the contracts but why is sCO so bifurcated vs sUA? Especially when UA has foreign crew bases. Why isn't seniority the ruling factor on the sCO side? Just interested. Thanks.

N104UA

Thanks for the clarification. So it is Oct 2018 when they crews will finally be one working group?

DENflyer3

Amazingly this just worked out much better than expected.

I just scored a Friday night late Spring flight flight with PN6. T8 and XN already 8. Same on the return two Saturday's later.

I grabbed 5 60,000 mile economy savers, for family and my daughters best friends family. I had 12 GPU's to burn and I'm about to hit 1k for the year on the flight I am about to board. Now we have next Summer set right out of school enough people to go with that we can have alone time, and I still have another 500,000 miles to use for other things. I love this board!!!

Now of course I bought my own ticket to keep GS status. Everyone now riding up front, now onto the real fun planning the trip, I'm assuming we will have to run down to the mainland, but oh so many options to work with.

I think I'll have to grab a Martini at Elway's tonight to celebrate.