grapegrower

Thanks to you both.
Hawaii not on the radar.
An aged Australian wanting to catch up with a daughter working in NYC and his dual citizenship partner wanting to catch up with her mid west family.
Just assessing the risk factors at this stage.

docbert

According to the seat map, last nights UA863 SFO-SYD went out with 72 passengers. Whilst that's only about 30% of capacity, it's also probably the most passengers UA has flown on a single flight to Australia in over 18 months.

UA839 LAX-SYD only had 28 passengers, but that's not surprising given they have some more competition on that route, with Qantas re-starting flights LAX-SYD last night.

Due to crossing the international dateline, these flights land early morning November 1 - the first date that quarantine isn't required for some/most passengers.

UA_Flyer

Any news on whether Australia will open to vaccinated Americans?

Australia just announced vaccinated Singaporeans will be not to subject quarantine starting November 21st.

flights are selling well between SIN and SYD/MEL.

Aussienarelle

I have been looking at flights for January and they are still expensive on UA. I certainly understand UA needs to make money so with low loads the fares need to be high.

I will eventually bite the bullet as want to visit my parents and neither they or I are getting any younger.

Mwenenzi

Nothing announced that I have seen.
Would expect AU to be closed to non AU citizens/PR's this calendar year. Late Jan 2022 is the AU tennis open, so expect AU will be open to vaccinated travellers then. Melbourne FI GP is on April 7-10 2022
But all guess work.
Keep an eye on the master AU CV19 thread-->Australia’s response to Covid-19 [general border control thread]

Aussienarelle

Bit the bullet...a few extra dollars is well worth the benefit. Polaris upgrade came through for outbound. Waiting for the return but did get the Premium Plus upgrade for the return (interestingly the same number of points for both cabins).

Called my parents and they are thrilled!

phkc070408

Keep in mind, two parties need to OK anyone in - The State and the Feds.

From what I gathered, the state of NSW is allowing anyone in who is properly vaxed - it's the feds who won't issue the visa to US, and most other non-australian travelers.. Similar situation exists in Victoria but might be effective later this month. Queensland and South Australia announced they will be fully open to anyone when 90% of their 12+ population is double-jabbed, expected sometime around New Year. Again, we'll need the federal government to be on board and issuing visas.

I highly suspect that by March the vaccinated will be moving freely again. Probably well before that since everything is moving much faster than expected. I snagged Mrs. and I each a round trip next July back in August, before prices went up.

phkc070408

Service Update:

The IAH-SYD Nonstop is on the schedule starting 26-Mar-22 with daily service. When Iast checked a few months ago, it was starting sometime in Late June or Early July.
The LAX-MEL Nonstop is on the schedule starting 01-Feb-22 with daily service.
The SFO-MEL Nonstop is on the schedule starting 13-Jan-22 with service 3X weekly.

iainmc

Hi - I was looking at a trip to oz in December or January and noticed in January they switch from a 787-9 to a 777-300ER on both the SFO and LAX routes. just FYI (i'd prefer the 787 every day)

Mwenenzi

Which I would take as a good hint as to when AU will be open to general travel. The airlines will have the ear of the govt bureaucrats.
In late Jan 2022 is the AU tennis open. A big event for Melbourne (~13 Jan flights)

mikeyf

They have just dropped IAH/SYD/IAH for March, just had my booking updated to SYD/LAX/IAH

kirkwoodj

To quote Airplane: "Golly!"

sabbasolo

I'm trying to understand why UA90 MEL LAX on 6 Mar 22 suddenly went from J9 C9 Z9 P9 and Y9 etc, to J1 C1...P1 and Y7, ..T7
The seat map (which while not reliable, is still some indicator), shows only 2 bus seats and 10 Y seats occupied - so the discrepancy is unreasonable.

After seeing my flight to MEL on UA cancelled, (and rerouting at my expense through SYD) I put an alert on this - expecting that if they are thinking of cancelling the MEL-LAX flight I would get early warning when it went to J0 Y0. Instead, this has me puzzled. Why would UA reduce availabilty this way?

Your thoughts and ideas are appreciated.
[Mod, if you think this should be in the UA forum please move it]

Globaliser

Had you seen that that is (now) the first MEL-LAX flight? Without knowing anything about what UA is doing, that would seem to be potentially relevant - particularly if UA will rebook disrupted passengers into inventory that is not displayed on EF. In special situations, one problem is that a seat map is backward-looking evidence, showing what reservations have already been made in the past, but inventory is a forward-looking indicator, showing something of what the airline expects future demand for the flight to be.

sabbasolo

I hadn't noticed that - makes a lot of sense, thanks