UA or B6 SFO-BOS non-stop lie flat in March
 

Good evening Flyertalk gurus,

I have been trying to go SFO-BOS on lie flat seats several times since last March and the flights were canceled and substituted with 737 or A319 aircraft. I have a flight booked non-stop on B6 in June. In March I see a great price to to BOS on UA and a higher price by about $300 to fly on B6. Should I take a chance on the UA flights to hopefully remain lie flat or buy the B6 flights which will probably remain lie flat?

UA's domestic schedule / aircraft beyond Dec is just a placeholder. UA has dramatically reduced SFO<>BOS schedule, it is an under preforming route. Presently I would put no faith in UA in operating lie-flats on the route in the near future

Had two SFO > BOS turns that went from lie flat 752s to 738s in December. Got rebooked via EWR to catch the flatbed for the transcon sectors.

If your goal is to guarantee a flatbed then either look to connect at EWR or research what B6 is doing with ensuring Mint is consistently operating on SFO > BOS.

B6's schedule is unreliable. For example, they just dumped most of their very recently announced SFO-CUN nonstops, going from 14x per week to 2x per week. Only rebooking option I was offered for a Dec. 29 departure was two days earlier. Refunded and booked on AS at a much higher cost.

Basically anything you book right now on either B6 or UA for March is just a placeholder.

B6 Mint every time, if the price is reasonable. Outstanding.

B6 mint single if you can

Although you may have to settle for a 2x2x2 United lieflat via EWR

With the uncertainty in the future of travel, I'll book whatever is cheaper.
From a comparison point of view, Mint is better IMO and JetBlue hasn't axed the SFO-BOS route (1~2 daily in December so I don't see this route being canceled altogether), but JetBlue will not offer as much flexibility in schedule change (can reroute via EWR on UA with potential Polaris configured a/c, while on B6 you will need to stick with a short-haul segment in Core in light of schedule change).

Having just stepped off a Mint Transcon where I flew in 2A, I’d pick this product over anything AA/DL/UA have on offer right now. I think the only exception would be AA 77W flights from MIA to LAX where I would go based mainly on price because I do like the AA F seat comfort. The current B6 soft product destroys anything else in North America though.

Personally, I find the Mint seat uncomfortable. It's the subpar Thompson Vantage, with a weird air cushion. And difficult to book a single, though booking now for next March you might get one. Mint service is much better than UA. The food reads better on the menu than it tastes IMO, but still certainly better than UA.

One nice thing about the carriers' current flexible booking policies is you can book a back-up on a different carrier (assuming you'll be able to use the flight credit down the road if you cancel).

And best of all, Mint is very consistent compared to AA and UA's premium products

you are comparing a new route they added and might not stick around vs one of their core routes. They've been consistently running 2 to 3 flights a day on BOS-SFO, about the same as UA.

It's simply not the same thing.

Also, BOS-SFO is no longer listed a premium transcon route on united website
https://www.united.com/ual/en/us/fly...-services.html

ouch, that's new. Also the addition of JFK which was not there a few days ago. Interesting that United.com is selling lounge access for SFO-JFK but not SFO-BOS ... so it hasn't fully percolated in the systems yet.

BOS-SFO gone for good (I assume) is a huge loss for the BOS market ... that'll hurt once my business travel resumes. Sigh ...

The point is that B6's scheduling, especially four months out, is not reliable. You actually dispute that?

While the schedule may shuffle a bit, the actual amount of flights is unlikely to change much and it shouldn't be difficult to be reaccommodated on a different flight.

With that said, the schedules at most airlines are shuffling heavily on about a monthly basis at this point so I'm not sure that criteria is specific to B6. AA and DL do major schedule changes each month right now to reduce flights.

I would not spend a second on this issue until 4-6 weeks prior to iintended travel. That is particularly true when it is down to a specific aircraft required for lie-flat. By making a decision as to B6 vs. UA now, you may limit yourself later. If it comes to pass that there is a vaccine and the virus is wiped out next week, this advice will change.

no doubt their schedule 4 months out is not reliable, so you will have to base it on what they have been operating. They have been operating 2 to 3 flights a day on that route for several months and it's all on mint.

No need to base anything on anything.

If one purchases B6 or UA today, it may turn out that the other carrier would have been better for any number of reasons sometime next year. Thus, wait until close in and then book. If for some reason the world opens up again, one can always reevaluate. Not as though there is a particular benefit to early booking these days.

Agree with this, I don't really see any reason to be booking more than a month out at this point. Pricing is certainly not any better and you're likely to have some kind of a schedule change no matter which airline you're flying.

The only reason I would do so would be booking very far out due to finding some kind of excellent deal (in the premium fare deals forum for example).