neekolas86

Just wondering if I can catch a direct United flight to Japan via any European airport. If not, what is the most economical way for me to travel with United from Europe (any airport) to Japan? Thanks!

jp12687

phkc070408

As JP said, EUROPE-USA-JAPAN is the only way you're going to do it with United and it looks like all of the european arrivals into the USA are after the departures to Japan, so an overnight would be required. LHR-EWR has some later afternoon-evening departures that would reduce your layover in EWR fo a little more than a good night's sleep. Most everything else would be nearly an 18-20 hour connection,

If I may ask, why does it have to be on UA? If you're burning miles, it can be done on any of the partner ailines that fly Eastward from Europe to Japan. Looking at the schedule for a random day in August, there are a lot of choices throughout the day and many of them are shorter (time) than traveling West.

cpbrunner

UA also partners with Austrian, so you might be able to do an overnight in VIE as well.

Miles Ahead

As is FRA-ORD-NRT on 945 and 881.

drewguy

That might be a makeable connection

UA 945 Dep. FRA 8:35 Arr. ORD 10:55
UA 881 Dep. ORD 12:45 Arr. NRT 15:55 +1

mduell

Whatever the fare search engine spits out; it may be an obvious connection, it may not be. The prices are generally going to be high compared to the more reasonable airline options with nonstops or more direct flights.

For some dates I picked, it's 2400 EUR for FRA-ORD/IAD-EWR-NRT as the cheapest option.

Kacee

I'm sorry, but why fly twice as long, on a materially inferior product, when you could fly NH or JL nonstop from every major European hub?

There is no level of UA status that would be worth this to me.

Mwenenzi

Why do you want to travel on UA aircraft?

jp12687

SEA-Flyer

dvs7310

It's be a bit sketchy right now with the air train down, I wouldn't want to rely on the shuttle bus with an under 2 hour connection. I've certainly landed in T5 and been back airside at domestic UA in a half hour but that's with the Air Train and TSA Pre-Check re-entering domestic.

Stuff like that happened back in the very old days, but not in recent years. UA pretty much only operates connections via their own hubs in the US, even the old 5th freedom routes intra-Asia Asia are gone now. I don't think I've ever checked departing Europe, trying to go to Asia, but I know that departing Asia to Europe, UA doesn't publish through fares, while United may price it on the website, it's essentially two separate fares tied together (Asia to US and US to Europe), which is why it's much more expensive. There are a number of airlines that do choose to compete in that east to west or west to east double long haul connection market, but most are based in a region where it makes more sense (TK and ET in *A, then EK, EY, QR outside of *A). UA's only double long haul fares I can think of that are competitively priced are Europe to South America or Asia to South America. (speaking double UA metal here, not tickets connecting to codeshare partners).

UA_Flyer

uanj

OP, it may be cheaper to find and book two separate trips that connect in the US. For example FRA-ORD and ORD-NRT. UA's booking engine will not search for this kind of itinerary but Google Flights may.

As to whether this worth the extra time and effort, that is entirely a personal decision and yours to make. For some of us, the benefits are material and worthwhile. For example I upgrade my staff with GPUs and RPUs so I don't mind going out of my way to do this. But only you know if this will work for you.

AlanInDC

I suppose if you had one of those $5000 VDB certificates good only on UA metal