trk1

He was referring to summer. April and May are not summer. IAD to Berlin is a go

PGHflyer

My September direct flights just got cancelled, so I think these are dying............now the question is next steps. They rebooked me to leave at 12:45 through EWR (as opposed to direct at 17:45), which will cost me a day of vacation and a long layover. Of course, I could let it ride and not accept the change and use that if our trip plans change between now and September.

When they make a change and put you on a suggested replacement, how much do fares affect the options they will let you move to? Oddly they moved me to what is currently one of the most expensive options, apparently to have me arrive around the same time. If I wait it out, will they likely limit my replacement options if fares go way up?

Artpen100

I was looking at TATL flights ex-IAD just a few days ago for mid-September and the BER flight was coming up as a connection.

I always thought the absence of an IAD-BER direct was odd just because they are two major capitals.

cfischer

on a paid ticket they should be able to easily re-route you via FRA/MUC/ZRH to BER. Just call.

RobOnLI

Going over for the marathon? I am as well but didn't book flights yet (simply because I don't know where I'll be based come September). Surprised to see IAD-BER can't sustain a non-stop flight.

Due to the schedule change and adding a stop you can get a full refund of your ticket or just wait until later to make a change to a "better" schedule for you. Revenue ticket or not you have very goof flexibility to make whatever change you want. They'll let you route through just about anywhere that has a seat for sale and is within reason (don't ask to route IAD-PEK-BER type of thing - but IAD-ORD/EWR/FRA/MUC/LHR/LIS-BER would work). With the schedule constantly in flux and September being 6 months away I would probably wait for a few months as more flights are likely to be dropped.

-RM

dkc192

They might have just trimmed the operating season of this flight to end in mid-September rather than late September or early October (I forget when the previous scheduled end date was).

PGHflyer

The new route is still on the website for May 26 but the flight is now gone for booking on that day and random days I searched in June too

https://www.united.com/en-us/new-routes

Feels like it is gone. Thanks for the advice, I am going to hit a cruise and a little taste of Oktoberfest (I know not official since not in Bavaria, but still closer than USA)....but with cruises cancelling/ changing daily sounds like I should wait until closer to move to more optimal routing in case I need to cancel and use this to get a full refund.

skylane

Auto rebooked BER-IAD-SAN to BER-EWR-IAD-SAN for a June trip. Looks to be gone as part of the trimming (due to fuel costs?). BER-EWR is Y0 for several days probably until Revenue Management updates.

I'll rebook BER-EWR-SAN but the online change is bombing out...

wakko11

Our July LAX-IAD-BER got changed to LAX-EWR-BER...

Which is actually not as great for us since there are no CPU on LAX-EWR...

dkc192

OK, I stand corrected. The route is gone for the entire summer. Maybe Scott and team should've thought more carefully about this one before rolling out all the fanfare.

UALPilotDC

I mean who knew last October when it was announced that there would be a major conflict in Eastern Europe and fuel prices skyrocketing up.

I’m sure if they knew back then what todays conditions were going to be like they never would have announced it. Silly them for not having that good of a crystal ball. .

dkc192

The airlines themselves say that overall TATL demand hasn't been impacted by the conflict, and I don't see a reason why this route in particular would be more affected by it than other routes.

This feels like a business-oriented route connecting two important capitals. Sure, tourists go to Berlin, but I think they were aiming for the high yields that business traffic brings. They could definitely have foreseen that international business traffic would still be relatively weak this summer.

WineCountryUA

I suspect the further east you go, the greater the impact. Note PRG wad dropped also but increases for LHR. And if a prolonged conflict, hard to see how it will not damping demand.

And other then a marketing play -- the captial to captial play, IMO, is a weak reason. Business travel is more EWR/NYC, ORD, SFO, ... based and the EWR-BER works well for that.

JimInOhio

The current environment creates more of a problem for *A than it does for OW and ST. The biggest real destinations in Europe are London, Paris, and Rome which are major strongholds for OW and ST. By contrast, *A is more of a business oriented alliance with some huge hubs such as FRA, MUC, and IST. Only Munich and Istanbul would be considered real destinations but are 2nd tier for Europe. It's a great network for business travel but not nearly as much for leisure travel. Consequently, 2022 Europe travel won't be as kind to UA as it likely will be for DL and AA.

PsiFighter37

I wonder how many of the 2022 summer routes end up sticking around in full. Feels like maybe taking shots at the dart board wasn’t the greatest idea (as some of the routes seemed to be).