A lot of the SF tech crowd don't chase status and prefer flying SQ for SFO-HKG so I think it'll survive

I got into a routine on this flight. I think it has something to do with the B789: I found it very easy to sleep. Most of the time, I flew to SIN twice each week: Sun - Tues then Tues - Thurs. I added Thurs -Sat twice. I survived easily; I didn’t find it taxing. Most of the time, I sat in 24L. On about a third of flights, I got the row to myself. It is easier if the cabin is light, but I never found a full flight a problem. If anyone is interested in generating lifetime miles, check out SFO/SIN, when it returns I all its glory.

Yes, I'm very much aware of that. I already feel like I got burned by crediting all of my *A flights to OZ, but that's a different story and I already explained how I feel in another thread. There's another guy, forgot if it's a mod or not, who missed LT membership in both SQ and OZ. So a lot of wasted time and money. Nonetheless, I want to credit my *A flights to a program that I feel may last even though I'm aware of UA's history of broken promises. I get it. I'm not saying that you're saying it and sometimes I get the feeling that FT people think they know what I'm doing based on my posts, but in fact they don't. I'm not blindly chasing status. Unless it's dirt cheap and easy like it is with Hyatt and even that seems controversial, I would do it. Higher tier status is very expensive. To be clear, at this point in time, I'm not going to be chasing UA status. I'm going to stick with my UA Silver status. It's tough enough maintaining my DL Gold status and DL will be my main carrier. I like their fleet modernization plan. Having said that, if I'm going to go to SIN and if the price is right, then I would UA. My last trip to SIN was with MU and it wasn't all that bad as I had a 4 hour layover in PVG. I don't want to completely rule out SQ, but if I'm going to make all that effort and fly 17 hours to SIN, I rather do it with UA if pricing is similar. I know what UA is like on tpac routes on Y. I've flown UA to PVG and TPE before. Actually, I think UA's food is worse than the seats. I apologize for going completely OT, but UA's economy food is some of the worse food I've ever had in my life. I've mentioned this a number of times on the UA forum. It's absolutely garbage. I don't know how Munoz even let that fly. I think I should write an email to Kirby and ask him to try it.

I want to make sure I'm reading this properly. So as soon as you get back to SFO on Tuesday, you'll fly back to SIN with the evening flight? That's crazy...

My biggest problem with the 789 are the windows. I'm not happy with them. I really prefer the A350 more. I really wish UA went with Airbus for their LH fleet.

I can never really understand how people sleep even with the row all to themselves. The seats aren't completely flat. I tried this before on a different flight and it wasn't comfortable. I think I need some sort of pad to even things out if that makes any sense. Otherwise, I rather sleep sitting upright.

The longest economy flight I've ever taken in my life was YVR-SYD and back.

What kind of pillow do you have? I've tried the neck pillows and I don't want find them comfortable. The problem with sitting for 10+ hours is the lack of back support. I find the pillows in economy for almost all airlines to be way too soft. It would be nice to have some sort of lumbar support if that makes any sense.

Thanks for the perspective. Having done this route in Business a few times, I hadn't wanted to consider riding in the back, but an empty middle or an entire row would make a huge difference.

I will be riding this route like Seabiscuit to 3 Million Miler status once Singapore opens again...

Yes, but I fly up and back to LAX first. There’s no 12 hour stay requirement for flights from LAX. United imposed the condition some time in 2018 for flights originating from SFO. I’ve no idea if it’s still in effect.

Sleeping on a B789 is key. I am out like a light on any aircraft (on any seat), but I sleep very well on a B789. I take the late night departure, so I can get eight hours of sleep after the meal. I have a neck pillow and something called a posture corrector that I bought on Amazon.

if you can sleep on a plane, I wouldn’t knock this approach. I keep my body clock on west coast time, which is important.

Try row 24 in the old B789 configuration. I’ve had good luck with getting two empty seats. I use ear plugs too. I forgot to mention that point earlier. My only bad experience is with NRSAs trying to get me to move. I’ve had to smack a few demands down. Otherwise, it’s a great flight. I take a shower at what’s still called the Ambassador Lounge. The showers are better than the lounge United uses.

I don't think that's the case. UA's contracts with big tech companies are strong.

That said, some flew SQ for scheduling reasons. With UA flying SFO-SIN 2x/day, that need disappeared.

Once UA drops the Polaris seat & PP into the 789, SQ's decline will accelerate on that route.

Agree - pre pandemic, I could not fly SQ via a corporate booking tool even if I was willing to personally pay the fare difference. We have 100,000+ employees, I suspect we are more the rule than the exception. I'm skeptical all those Apple employees heading to China all head there on UA by free will.

​​​​​​I'm pretty sure I read somewhere that Apple and UA signed a contract where Apple is guaranteed a number of Polaris seats on SFO-PVG. It's supposed to be very lucrative for UA.

That's a lot of flying in Y! Why? ;)

One way to help survive the 17 hour flight will be wifi. What's the wifi coverage and speed like? I'm assuming UA doesn't fly over the poles so coverage is likely to be good throughout the flight?

:confused:

No such requirement exist?

I was just wondering what was meant by a 12 hour stay requirement.

But thinking about it more, I'm assuming it was the Minimum stay requirements in the fare rules.

That's correct. UA wrote a 12-hour minimum stay requirement into several of their fare rules. It wasn't to prevent out-and-back -- they didn't care about that. It was to make sure that they didn't cannibalize other fares by allowing people to construct something through the target city.

Example -- suppose SFO-HKG is $1000 RT and SFO-SIN is $800 RT. If SFO-SIN allows routing via SFO-HKG-SIN, and free stopovers, then you could fly SFO-HKG / HKG-SIN-SFO for $800, using HKG as a stop and SIN as a "destination." The 12-hour rule was intended to discourage that.