Often1

There must be several dozen threads about this. With DL offering D1 on DCA-LAX, I have to guess that if UA offers p.s., it will be xDCA, not IAD. DCA is the real premium market for O&D. Nobody schleps to IAD if it's a 10-minute car service ride out to DCA. But, the problem with DCA is that limited flights means not many departures.

UA has never uttered a peep suggesting that it would remotely consider any form of upgraded service on the IAD-SFO/LAX route, although there are occasional aircraft that are somewhat more premium than others on occasion.

Problem really is whether it's a premium market. Get rid of freebie UG's and sell a full fare premium cabin xIAD and my guess is that UA will find a way to beg, borrow or steal the aircraft the meet that demand.

Hipplewm

Good grief, that is one hell of a roll of the dice there......

altbg

Your chances of getting the old barcaloungers are pretty slim at this point. There are only three birds left with those seats if I'm not mistaken.

exerda

Meh, UA moved p.s. to EWR, as if they expected people to schlep there. IAD's issue isn't the distance from downtown DC but a myriad of factors, including the fact that the terminal is a dump and there aren't any good public transit options there (bus only at this point), nor even with Metro getting there will there be (who wants a "local" train with over a dozen stops between there and DC).

Heck, there's demand for premium pax; both Fairfax and Loudoun Counties are among the wealthiest in the nation, and IAD is closer and more convenient for them than DCA. It's not like the only premium pax come from downtown DC; indeed, even for business travelers, a lot are based in Virginia and Maryland suburbs that are closer to IAD than DCA, or at best a wash given traffic.

But there's not likely to be any p.s. product ex-IAD in the near future. Too many contractor and government pax who have to book Y (and UA isn't in the business of selling Y + upgrade to lie-flats as a rule). And IAD is too much a dump.

CO_Nonrev_elite

Unlike the PS routes, the 777's that end up on this route are repositioning flights. More often than not, it seems to be the Hawaii config, and more often than not heavily delayed

Kacee

ps means no awards, no upgrades. Careful what you wish for ....

Hipplewm

ANYTHING is better than riding on 737 for 5+ hours

I want to kill myself just thinking about it.....

DELee

Well, if it met your schedule the 9 AM departures out of IAD to SFO and LAX -
and the 1 PMs on the reverse flow - were the 16J IPTE 752s for a number of years.

Given the (probable certain) advent of p.s. on SFO-BOS, the 752s moved there and may have also been folded into the LAX/SFO-EWR runs.

As Kacee and others having alluded to, be careful what you wish for. The premium service demand and costing really hasn't held up flying into IAD as a UACO fortress.

Now, if they could get the slots, SFO/LAX-DCA would be a differentiator if UACO could take it p.s.

David

WineCountryUA

There are no unconverted UA 752s in the present UA fleet -- UA would have to pull some from the boneyard or elsewhere. Plus those would likely require extensive updates / refurb.

nycflyer222

Would they consider converting 753's for flatbeds? Would be a whole new ballgame!

What narrowbodies will have flatbeds in the future?

WineCountryUA

Discussion of both has occurred in
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/unite...eing-757s.html

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/unite...st-2018-a.html

jlemon

I will be on UA 340 IAD-SFO in F in seat 2K in mid August. Right now, the 772 seat chart for this flight indicates there are just 8 seats in the first cabin on this particular aircraft.

However, I'm wondering if this will be the actual seating config on this flight or whether it might be something different. Are all the international 772 aircraft slated to get the Polaris seats?

Kacee

That's three class F, much better than the two other 772 possibilities, so you want to hope the current aircraft assignment sticks.

Theoretically. But it's definitely not happening anytime soon. Certainly not this year.

tuolumne

Cross your fingers it sticks. The UA F suite and F on 3-class AA 777s are the best seats flying in America domestically.

If you get swapped for a 2-class 777, it'll be lie flat J by then, so that's ok too, but it's no F.

prometa

The same flights every day use the 3 class 777s -- the ~7:30a SFO-IAD and the ~5:30p IAD-SFO.

The other flights I see w/777s tend to alternate between the new high density config and 752s.