HkCaGu

Premium transcon pax pay a lot more than your regular domestic F fare. When those HD lie-flats or now Polaris beds serve non-premium routes including Hawaii, it costs the same as the 737/757 recliner. So those pax are happy. Premium pax, not so much.

ExplorerWannabe

As a long time resident, you can see the effects of the salt air by looking at the cars in Hawaii and that runway is pretty darn close to the water. When I was a kid, almost anything older than 5 years that wasn't washed regularly had rust spots developing; of course, corrosion control has improved greatly since then. While the humidity in Hawaii is rarely high, it is moderate and omnipresent and as I said, the runway is pretty close to the ocean. I expect United and other airlines are well aware of that and are taking appropriate measures while they wait for the required inspections.

Kacee

Sorry, you're not making any sense at all.

I typically pay to sit up front on both Hawaii and premium t-cons. I won't consider the HD 772, which means UA was mostly off the table for me on those routes prior to their grounding.

Repooc17

772HD had not been the major representative on premium TCON routes prior to the incident/grounding. The stable fleet usage for premium TCON routes recent periods have been 78J, 789, and 752.

Kacee

That's not true at all for SFO-EWR.

Repooc17

I don't know what time frame you are referring to, but giving the present tense, now (at 3x daily)? Anyway, I traveled weekly between the east coast and the west coast during Q4 of last year and Q1 of this year. Between SFO and EWR, UA operated mostly 4x daily (up to 5x during the holidays), and throughout the past six months, I saw at most one 772 HD on the schedule daily (none between LAX and EWR). 752s took up most of the flying; 78J was also a permanent fixture, also flew 789 a lot (even a few times on the retrofitted model) with inbounds from GRU or NRT; as well as retrofitted 772, 77W, and 788; in other words, it was easy to find flights other than the 772HD (when it appeared on the schedule). Side note, I actually like the HD when flying backwards in one of the window seats.

N830MH

Wow! I did not expect this. That's that. It's time to retired. Bye bye!

uastarflyer

Cant remove 737s off Hawaii routes soon enough...

dkc192

The 772HD was a staple on PS transcons during pre-pandemic times, and maybe at times last spring/summer. Before the pandemic, when UA had 12+ flights a day between EWR and SFO/LAX, at least two flights a day on each route were on the 772HD (IIRC it was double redeye 772HD on LAX-EWR).

ual1960

I'm looking at a a needing to plan a number of TATL trips this summer. I can see the current state of the schedule with the PW 772 groundings (eg no SFO-LHR etc). However I see the notional summer schedule shows those planes flying again. I am trying to assess the odds that the PW 772s will be back in the air to support the summer schedule. Any intel on their return to flying would be greatly appreciated. Is there a set timetable for their return, or is it there a notional plan? Or is the grounding at this point open-ended? Many thanks in advance.

HNLbasedFlyer

Likely not going to happen - the MAX planes were supposed to be coming here - and scheduled until they were grounded - and I expect they will return.

EWR764

The grounding is open-ended and the summer schedule (past MDW) is little more than a placeholder.

If I were a betting man... I substantially am not... but if I were, my wager would be no PW 777s until July at the earliest, and at that point maybe only a handful of ER frames slowly being reintroduced. The fan blade testing is thorough and time-consuming.

The JL 777 retirements theoretically make a lot of replacement engines and fan blades available, but those blades still need to be tested, and if a cowling redesign if necessary (it is categorically not supposed to fail in catastrophic manner if a fan blade is "liberated"; that's now happened twice edit: three times), the timetable will lapse even further.

HNLbasedFlyer

United plans to return the P&W 777's back to service - selfishly disappointed in this news as I've enjoyed the mix of polarized 777-200's and the 777-300 substitution.

United Airlines plans to resume operations of grounded 777 planes | Reuters

United Airlines Holdings Inc (UAL.O) said Tuesday it plans to resume operations of its grounded Boeing 777-200 planes with Pratt & Whitney engines at some point in the future.

United's 52 777 planes with the PW4000 engines were grounded in February after an engine failure on a United flight to Honolulu from Denver. The Federal Aviation Administration ordered immediate inspections of those planes before further flights. United said there had been progress. "We look forward to getting that aircraft back to safe operations in the future," United chief operations officer Jon Roitman said.

selo

Please after my June 1 LAX-HNL flight! But I suspect "at some point in the future" may be sooner.

HNLbasedFlyer

You've already got the polarized 777 in the schedule in June so you are safe. In fact, he entire summer season LAX-HNL has polarized 777 flights loaded. Would be very problematic to swap to a P&W 777 with much fewer F seats.