IAD to BER -- delayed launch, EWR-BER now operating
 

My June flight from IAD to Berlin direct on United (a newly announced route) now has me going through Newark. Did United abandon this direct route already?

When in June? Looks bookable daily starting last week in March (no service the last Sunday in March)

sorry, meant may 23. United website only showing me the one stopper.

Looks like the start date has been pushed from March to May 26. So much for Scott Kirby's confident TATL outlook. :rolleyes:

wonderful. Without announcement either. Wonder if they scuttled their other “big” announcements that accompanied this one last year.

Odd still shiwing in EF's Timetable but not EF Flight availability nor united.com

When the situation changes, plans change. Not a lot has been static in the airline world recently

Airlines rarely announce cuts, came across this a couple days ago but IAD-BER was not included

Yes, EWR-BER still appears to be on the schedule

so IAD BER is definitely pushed back without the announcement.

Not sure what announcement you were expecting, you got the notice of the schedule change. Airlines rarely make press releases for this kind of change and even if they did you would probably never see it.

I wouldn't be too positive that IAD-BER will start anytime soon.
Business travel is still down and BER is still very low-yield.

Yeah nonstop options from the US have always been limited.

My guess is that UA will focus on BER-EWR to rebuild any nonstop flights to the US. And UA will watch and see how the yields will develop.
UA cannot sustain this route with just tourists and VFR. Business travel must pick up.
I know many Berliners who are not in the mood to fly longhaul at the moment - too much hazzle with tests, too much bad surprises in the last 2 years (the Biden+Trump Travel Ban), too much drama with airlines (letting pax hang out for dry).

BER-IAD in my eyes is just a bridge too far at the moment. LH has failed in operating that route in 2001 (TXL-IAD). Government traffic won't sustain that route, as well.
Combined with Covid and changed travel patterns, I wonder why that route (BER-IAD) was announced at all.

My guess is that BER-IAD won't be happening in 2022.

Ugh. If I were the original poster, I'd be tempted to take a train up to Newark and board there, if that could be done without penalty.

I had been booked for the inaugural nonstop IAD-BER (with miles) for May 6. Unfortunately, I was also rebooked via EWR when they canceled the flight.

I recall that it had an odd note, when it showed up in award searches, that it was subject to approval by the authorities or something like that. In hindsight, since it showed up as saver award space for 60K or something and I was only looking at it as the first leg of a connection on to Brussels, I should have booked it as saver and maybe gotten it then switched to the IAD-BRU direct when it fell through. (Instead, I booked KLM and AF saver awards with connections.)

I thought he was referring to Summer?