usbusinesstraveller

With the nicely priced interline fares connecting to CX this will give a great option for getting to/from BKK (and others of course). Taking the night flights and connecting to CX will get you into BKK before lunchtime, and on the return you can depart BKK mid-late afternoon. The westbound arrival into SFO at 6.50pm will allow decent connections up and down the west coast. For me (PDX) this is a great option.

EWR764

So, the existing flight goes down to 772 for the winter, and 4 new 77W are entering the fleet during the same time. I am looking forward to seeing this year's winter schedule as there will definitely be some new 77W flying... AU/NZ, maybe, with 789s starting Polaris mods?

2x 772 is also a good solution, especially for those concerned about a potential 77W>2x 789 flight would be a downgrade in the premium cabin.

The late-night SFO TPAC bank is starting to fill up:

SFO-SIN 10:40 789
SFO-AKL 10:45 77W
SFO-MEL 10:50 789
SFO-HKG 10:50/11:05 772
SFO-SYD 11:05 789

The eastbound timing could be useful, especially for a shorter HKG visit... dinner in Hong Kong followed by a long night's sleep with a morning arrival the "next day" is OK by me, rather than blow the bulk of an entire East Coast day in transit. Though I'd still much prefer UA one day adding an afternoon/evening HKG-EWR like Cathay's JFK schedule. The late HKG-SFO-EWR is similar to the schedule of the CX HKG-YVR-JFK through flight.

drewguy

For the exSFO legs, getting in earlier than the posted schedule seems okay, although I suppose a 4:50am arrival (potentially earlier) may not be ideal, and could lead to a later SFO departure for that flight. For the exHKG legs, the morning flight currently leaves ~11:15, so presumably that would remain through the DST changeover. For the evening flight, seems like a later arrival in SFO doesn't change much - you get home a bit later, and your connection to a redeye is just a bit shorter.

oopl

This is a great! Glad to see another frequency to HKG. I'm also curious how UA will deploy the freed up 77Ws.

JimInOhio

Help me out as I must be missing something here. What's the advantage of arriving SFO in the evening and then connecting to a redeye? I guess I could see it if traveling to IAD as there's a widebody from SFO but other than that? Even then, it's still quite a bit further than connecting through ORD or EWR.

dkc192

I will point out that SFO-CTU operates on a M/W/Sa schedule (well, in reality Tu/Th/Su after midnight), the same days the new SFO-HKG is pushed back by 15 minutes. Maybe something to do with the Polaris lounge being open later on the days that SFO-CTU operates?

riphamilton

the late departure is awesome for SDC purposes!

uastarflyer

EWR764

50 Polaris seats, so a loss of 10 on the frequency, but a net gain of 40 over the course of the day, with a new departure time.

GoSh4rks

Last time I counted, LAX-HKG was served 33x a week by AA, CX, and HX. It's a slaughterhouse down there.

1353513636

I think SFO-HKG is worse now. Because LAX has 4x daily CX, 1x daily AA, and 1x daily HX, whereas SFO has 1x daily HX, 2x daily UA, 1x daily SQ, and 3x daily CX, making 7 flights a day vs 6 from LAX. Although maybe we shouldn't count the SQ flight since it's not really aimed at SFO-HKG traffic.

uastarflyer

CApreppie

Much better timing for the choice of onward connections. Also the 777-200ER have a slightly improved economy seat compared to the 777-300ER.

MostlyUA

This is a great move on United's part. Now, if they can bring back the BKK and SIN legs from HKG, then I would be really happy.

IAH-OIL-TRASH

As will the Polaris Lounge....

Probably a function of available slots and/or gates. I'm pretty sure UA would rather have same departure times seven days/week.