evol

Iʻm finding it quite arduous to deal with how little advance notice with which they are coming up with the subs each day. Iʻm looking to fly back to HNL ex SFO on Monday and they are still listing the grounded airframes. Sometimes you see the 777-200 shown but the seat map will be updated.

Seems that they are throwing 763s, 788s, and 773s at the Hawai‘i routes with no rhyme or reason to the existing schedule. Admirably scrambling to cover the loss of that dedicated fleet.

arjaok

I would have been happy with any of the options you listed. I got switched to a 753 last minute and had to sit next to a lady who seemed to only keep her mask on when the FA was looking. Much better than the polaris seat I'd paid for specifically to not be next to someone during covid...

I get that equipment swaps happen, but it just sucks knowing that you'll be disappointed on United basically every time.

dkc192

What route was this?

Kacee

Wow that sucks.

Unless I had to be home on that flight, I probably would have refused and insisted they rebook me on a lie-flat.

arjaok

OGG-SFO on the 25th.

arjaok

Normally I would have done this, but my other options were: 2 737 flights that same day. Flying OGG to HNL to catch a 777 with 2-4-2 lie flat, or a 767 with lie flats the next day that had 0 available seats (probably because everyone switched from my flight to that one) and I needed to be home the next morning so the 767 wouldn't have really worked.

Again, I get that equipment swaps are needed sometime, but when I book a lie flat with United and tell my wife I expect United to not honor what i booked, they announce that "only a handful of passengers will be inconvenienced" and of course its me, it just becomes the most United experience ever. There have probably been 10 times I've told myself it might be time to give up on United because they always seem to give up on me. This one might be the straw that breaks the camels back.

Before anyone says "the same thing would have happened with AA or Delta." At least for the few days after the DFW storms, AA was flying 2-3 777-300ers back and forth to make sure their passengers were comfortable. United just pulls a crap plane out of service and pretends like switching from lie flats to 2-2 recliners is totally fine and that you shouldn't receive any compensation for them relying on a fleet of poorly maintained 25+ year old planes. Because who would have thought those planes might be pulled out of service? Oh well, lets never invest in our fleet and just let it run into the ground. Who cares if our customers suffer? we dont like them anyway.

Kacee

Yes, pretty typical UA.


They could not have operated a 2-4-2 aircraft, those are all grounded.

For anyone else in this situation, note that switching from lie-flats to recliners qualifies as IRROPS under Rule 24 of the CoC, and triggers a rebooking or refund obligation on UA's part.

evol

This is excellent information!

I had wanted to fly back to HNL tomorrow 3/1 either via SBA->SFO or LAX but they completely removed the affected wide body flights from the schedule from both LAX and SFO ?!

Apparently they were zeroed out in both F and Y, which i found so odd. (They’re now back up for sale, go figure!) But i bought for Tuesday 3/2 and it’s a 773 Polaris so i’m happy i guess.

cesco.g

Looks like LAX-EWR-LAX got hit as well with a 753..

littlejt1

Anyone been on these IAH-HNL the last week or this? Scheduled on it Friday 3/5 and a while back they swapped from a 777 to 767, no worries but noticed the flight today was the newer Polaris cabin, as is another later this week. My flight still showing the older style...curious if they’ve been doing swaps in T-48 or later? Have some blocked seats in F as well so likely some overselling.

evol

The listed equipment as well as seat maps are entirely inconsistent right due to the grounding of the fleet of wide body planes normally flying the HNL routes.

littlejt1

Our swap happened over a month ago and before the 777 had issues. I think it was due to the aircraft not getting full so they opted for a smaller wide body to accommodate etc. I’m more curious if folks have seen the 767s swapped for the Polaris versions this week. It’s like flats either way and frankly since it’s several couples traveling with the wife and I, we like this style 767 better.

WineCountryUA

Blocking is also done to allow a swap to a smaller aircraft -- alot of that is happening on the Hawaii routes at the moment responding to the grounding of the larger Hawaii 777s

UAL757222

Power by the hour contracts are a more recent phenomenon but not when these were ordered. UA owns several of the engines for these and has the most experience in the world flying them.

littlejt1

not understanding why my thread was moved here...my question had nothing to do with the 777 grounding!!??