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Official: Final United Boeing 747 Flight Was SFO-HNL on 7 Nov 2017 {SOLD OUT}

Old Sep 18, 2017, 1:29 pm
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Last edit by: expert7700
News Release Issued: September 18, 2017 (3:17pm EDT)
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"Friend Ship" Will Recreate the Journey of the First United 747 Flight from 1970

United's final international 747 flight from Seoul to San Francisco departs October 29

CHICAGO, Sept. 18, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- In celebration of United Airlines retiring the Boeing 747 from its fleet, United flight 747, on Tuesday, Nov. 7 from San Francisco to Honolulu will be the airline's farewell flight to the 747 fleet.

This journey will serve as the ultimate throwback for customers, employees and invited guests as it recreates the first 747 flight operated by United in 1970. From a 1970s-inspired menu to retro uniforms for flight attendants to inflight entertainment befitting of that first flight, passengers will help send the Queen of the Skies off in true style. The original United 747 aircraft that first made this journey from San Francisco to Honolulu was named the "Friend Ship," the same name bestowed on this farewell flight.

Seats on this special, one-way trip, United flight 747, are available for purchase now at united.com or through the United app. The seats in the upper deck will not be sold, giving all guests the opportunity to spend time in this iconic space.

Customers seated in United Polaris first class and United Polaris business class will be entered into a drawing that will take place at the gate prior to boarding for an opportunity to occupy one of a select number of seats in the upper deck during the flight.

The journey will begin with a gate celebration at 9 a.m. local time at San Francisco International Airport, featuring a Boeing 747 gallery, remarks from United employees and executives, as well as refreshments. The flight will depart San Francisco International Airport at 11 a.m. local time, landing at Honolulu International Airport at 2:45 p.m. local time. Upon landing in Honolulu, local employees will welcome the aircraft with final festivities to close out the historic day. Customers and fans of the Queen of the Skies are encouraged to use the #UA747Farewell hashtag in social media posts.
United and the Boeing 747 through the Years

April 13, 1966: Boeing announces it will build a 490-passenger 747 transport. Construction is set to begin in June on a new plant in Everett, Washington.

January 3, 1967: The first production workers for the 747 program arrive in Everett. The 50,000 who would produce the world's largest civilian airplane were known as The Incredibles, and they earned the label by bringing the Jumbo Jet dream to reality in only 16 months.

September 30, 1968: The first Boeing 747-100, City of Everett, is rolled out at their Washington plant, painted with the insignias of the 27 airlines that had already ordered the aircraft including United.

February 9, 1969: The Boeing 747-100 makes its first flight.

January 21, 1970: The Boeing 747 makes its first commercial flight from New York to London for Pan American World Airways.

June 26, 1970: Continental Airlines becomes one of the first carriers to put the Boeing 747 into U.S. domestic service, flying from Chicago to Los Angeles and onward to Honolulu.

June 26, 1970: United Airlines receives its first Boeing 747-100 complete with a christening ceremony fit for a luxury liner.

July 23, 1970: United makes its first Boeing 747 commercial flight, with a trip from San Francisco to Honolulu.

January 1977: A modified Boeing 747-100 is delivered to NASA to serve as a carrier vehicle for the Space Shuttle.

April 22, 1985: United announces its plan to acquire Pan Am's Pacific routes, as well as 11 Boeing 747SP planes. The 747SPs feature a 48-foot-shorter body and fly higher, faster, and farther than standard 747 models.

January 29-30, 1988: Friendship One, a Boeing 747SP owned by United Airlines, sets the around-the-world air speed record of 36 hours, 54 minutes, and 15 seconds. This special flight raises $500,000 for children's charities through the Friendship Foundation. Tickets cost a minimum of $5,000, and special guest passengers included astronaut Neil Armstrong, famed test pilots Bob Hoover and Lieutenant General Laurence C. Craigie, and Moya Lear, the widow of Lear Jet founder Bill Lear.

June, 1989: United Airlines receives their first Boeing 747-400 which provides increased range.

August 23, 1990: The first of two modified Boeing 747-200Bs is delivered to the Air Force for presidential transport. Better known as Air Force One, these planes still serve the president today, having replaced the Boeing 707-320Bs that had served as the presidential aircraft for almost 30 years.

September 1996: A 747SP previously flown by United is transformed into NASA's SOFIA, or Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy, which carries a 17-ton, 8-foot-wide infrared telescope mounted behind an enormous sliding door.

June 28, 2014: Boeing delivers the 1,500th 747 to come off the production line. The 747 aircraft is the world's first wide-body airplane in history to reach the 1,500 production units milestone.

January 11, 2017: United announces that it will retire the Boeing 747-400 fleet in the last quarter of 2017.

July 28, 2017: United schedules a special domestic flight from Chicago O'Hare to San Francisco to allow more people to say farewell to the Queen of the Skies.

October 29, 2017: United flies its last international 747 flight from Seoul to San Francisco.

November 7, 2017: United celebrates the retirement of the Boeing 747 with a fitting full-circle moment. A special retro event sees the aircraft flying from San Francisco to Honolulua nod to its first-ever flight back in 1970.
Flight Status Link
(May require multiple attempts to load; close and re-click if website errors.)

ARE YOU ON THIS FINAL 747 FLIGHT?

FT Handle -- seat (optional)

ORD4R - 2A
tcdtcd and son - 450pm return to ORD - 2K/3K
kevanyalowitz - 3H (will trade for 1A/K!)
jdivenere - 4A
UA1flyer - 4C
CO FF - 6K (return to LAX on HA2 @ 3:45pm or UA 534 @ 9:45pm)
ctownflyer - 7A
JSpira - 9K
EWR764 - 19G - return @ 420pm to EWR UA62
ChiTownMuggle - 20D
Ruhr - 20H
pushmyredbutton - 20K
greg99 - 21D
BThumme - 22A - return @ 945pm to LAX
goldelite8 - 22G
Trijet1011 - 24A
MRY Flyer +1 - 24 H&J
Cybertronic - 25H
Sykes - 33C
ZRS70 - 33H
eklapper - 34A
plc44 - 34K
Pat89339 - 35C
CaptKornDog - 36C
eap+1 - 40HK
ual763 - 51k
expert7700 - 36K



Seatmap below shows FTers in red. Valid as of 11/6.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/rrwq0gdcdb...FTers.jpg?dl=0

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Official: Final United Boeing 747 Flight Was SFO-HNL on 7 Nov 2017 {SOLD OUT}

Old Sep 18, 2017, 3:35 pm
  #46  
 
Join Date: Apr 2005
Location: LAX
Programs: UA Silver, AA, WN, DL
Posts: 4,081
Nice scoop Matthew!

I'll have my own farewell I guess on my 9/29 SFO-PVG flight... Good luck and congrats to those who can get on this flight.

Thank you United for making this final flight a tribute to the original.
MatthewLAX likes this.
luv2ctheworld is offline  
Old Sep 18, 2017, 3:36 pm
  #47  
 
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Would have been nice of UA to maybe give a bit of priority to Multi-million milers or something. Oh well - guess it wasn't meant to be - glad we did our final 747 flight last month going to London.
LASUA1K likes this.
SF1K is offline  
Old Sep 18, 2017, 3:55 pm
  #48  
 
Join Date: Dec 2011
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Booked one seat (S class) for myself and shortly found out I can't fit it into my schedule. Anyone who want this seat can PM me and I will try to book it under your name 1 second after I cancel mine...
Please aware looks like there is only 1 aisle seat left while all others seats are middle.
Cant guarantee it will work since there might already have some ppl on waitlist, but we can give it a try..
update: currently working with expert7700

Last edited by gokeeper; Sep 18, 2017 at 4:22 pm
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Old Sep 18, 2017, 4:39 pm
  #49  
 
Join Date: Mar 2009
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I'm curious what they're going to do with the entire downstairs biz cabin on this flight. When the flight went live, it looked like they loaded only F and Y for sale, with the entire biz cabin grayed out. Did anyone see the C cabin for sale?

Last edited by pushmyredbutton; Sep 18, 2017 at 4:46 pm
pushmyredbutton is online now  
Old Sep 18, 2017, 4:44 pm
  #50  
 
Join Date: Apr 2012
Location: DTW/MBS
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FYI: I see a whole lot of Y seats opening up that weren't there a bit ago, so keep looking if you're trying to get in on this.

also, if anyone is coming from ORD on the 6am flight let me know! As mentioned above only $54 for Be and 94 for Y

Last edited by BThumme; Sep 18, 2017 at 5:03 pm
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Old Sep 18, 2017, 5:31 pm
  #51  
 
Join Date: Nov 2006
Location: COS/DEN
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Posts: 693
By the time I got word of this at work, ~just under an hour after the announcement, the UA site was crashing and a phone agent told me I may have missed it by "just minutes."

This literally brought me to tears (yep, I teared up and got the sniffles and have been kicking myself all afternoon). This flight would have a lot of sentimental meaning to me that words cannot even begin to describe; and of course be a once in a lifetime opportunity. Even in the very middle seat of the very last row - I know as a lowly silver I'm not a hardcore business traveler or VIP in UA's eyes, just a big aviation enthusiast. I missed getting booked on the ORD-SFO final flight and was really hoping another, special domestic retirement flight. Apparently this was my last chance that I missed - and boy is it a stomach punch.

Guess the best I can do is keep searching for 24 hour cancellations tomorrow. If ANYONE at all can't go or needs to cancel, I'd really, truly appreciate if you could let me know. Don't know what good it might do but I would love to find some way of locking in or transferring a ticket. I was fully prepared to purchase a full fare ticket and/or drop every single mile I have in my account. International isn't really in the cards for me right now.


Best I'm looking at now is maybe a mileage run from DEN to SFO just to watch the festivities from the gate.


Thanks.
CaptKornDog is offline  
Old Sep 18, 2017, 5:48 pm
  #52  
Moderator: United Airlines
 
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Originally Posted by pushmyredbutton
.... Wonder what the chances of my CPU clearing are?
There just might be some gate upgrades
Customers seated in United Polaris first class and United Polaris business class will be entered into a drawing that will take place at the gate prior to boarding for an opportunity to occupy one of a select number of seats in the upper deck during the flight.
WineCountryUA is offline  
Old Sep 18, 2017, 5:52 pm
  #53  
 
Join Date: Mar 2013
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so.... are we now living in a world where TPG will get all of the apparently blocked middle seats?

Originally Posted by minnyfly
By the time I could think about trying to go, it looks like the flight is pretty much sold out.
as with any smoking flight deal, book immediately and then consider the logistics in the subsequent 24h cancellation window.
riphamilton is offline  
Old Sep 18, 2017, 6:04 pm
  #54  
 
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Originally Posted by riphamilton
so.... are we now living in a world where TPG will get all of the apparently blocked middle seats?
I haven't quite figured out the seatmap logic, but according to ExpertFlyer they're not actually blocked, but considered occupied. Seems UA is 'releasing' seats in bulk for selection, but not actually offering the inventory for sale.
pushmyredbutton is online now  
Old Sep 18, 2017, 6:16 pm
  #55  
 
Join Date: Nov 2009
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Originally Posted by riphamilton
as with any smoking flight deal, book immediately and then consider the logistics in the subsequent 24h cancellation window.
Yup this is rule number 1!
Madone59 is offline  
Old Sep 18, 2017, 6:25 pm
  #56  
 
Join Date: Aug 2011
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Originally Posted by BThumme
FYI: I see a whole lot of Y seats opening up that weren't there a bit ago, so keep looking if you're trying to get in on this.

also, if anyone is coming from ORD on the 6am flight let me know! As mentioned above only $54 for Be and 94 for Y
No matter how many times I refresh I'm not seeing any seats for sale. This final flight is on my birthday and I was all ready to treat myself but it's not looking good.
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Old Sep 18, 2017, 6:31 pm
  #57  
 
Join Date: Apr 2011
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Originally Posted by riphamilton
as with any smoking flight deal, book immediately and then consider the logistics in the subsequent 24h cancellation window.
That was my goal, but before I could figure out what airport I could start from to make a booking, the price was going up. I don't have an unlimited budget, so it quickly went far beyond my range. Even the initial price was likely going to be too high. Oh well.

I'll go for the hub-to-hubs they'll announce later.
minnyfly is offline  
Old Sep 18, 2017, 6:57 pm
  #58  
 
Join Date: Jul 2013
Location: IAH
Posts: 488
Originally Posted by 1P
With all the interest in flying "the Queen of the Skies" you'd think it would be in their interest to continue using the plane, not scrapping it, even if it costs a bit more to run. The divergent attitudes of "We're really proud of this plane. Send us your memories and "We're scrapping it" are hard to reconcile.
Lots of money to run these and very few people really care. You're looking at a very odd set of the market here - most people wouldn't realise... In fact, due to the fact they aren't getting refitted, most people I know who are aware of UA 747s actively avoid them if in Y.
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Old Sep 18, 2017, 7:07 pm
  #59  
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My first United flight was HNL-SFO in 1979 on a 747-200. I remember flying to both LAX and SFO on 747s named after Justin Dart, Thomas F. Gleed, and William A. Patterson. I got to fly in 1A a few times as well as upstairs; I have fond memories of the tetra-packs of Mauna Loa macadamia nuts, the roast beef and ice cream carts, and Hawaiian music playing at boarding and arrival. What a nice way to honor UA's legacy of 747 service to HNL!

p.s. I wonder if they will dig up some of the old Hawaiian patterned uniforms for the flight attendants. There was a pastel pattern from the early 80s that was quite the sight to see,
FlyinHawaiian is online now  
Old Sep 18, 2017, 7:21 pm
  #60  
Moderator: United Airlines
 
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Originally Posted by princeville
No matter how many times I refresh I'm not seeing any seats for sale. This final flight is on my birthday and I was all ready to treat myself but it's not looking good.
EF is still reporting
F0 A0 J0 C0 D0 Z0 P0 Y0 B0 M0 E0 U0 H0 Q0 V0 W0 S0 T0 L0 K0 G0 N0
for the flight even you numerous seats showing unassigned.
WineCountryUA is offline  

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