JFK-EWR ??
 

Yes, I know this is likely just a repositioning flight. But being stuck at EWR with a delayed outbound flight makes you do strange things, like just stare at the Departure and Arrivals boards. There's a JFK-EWR flight showing arriving at gate 138. If you pull up flight status of UA523 on the app the heading does show "New York, NY (JFK) to New York/Newark, NJ (EWR)" but the flight is actually a 5:30pm JFK-SFO-EWR same flight number turn this afternoon.

Sad that with all the EWR entertainment options, solving this mystery is what I decided to pursue. After that, I'll try to figure out why there is a EWR-EWR flight (UA 2750) delayed waiting for crew to arrive.

https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...43423b9039.jpg

My initial thought was that it was a repo flight but since it is in the schedule as JFK-SFO-EWR on one flight number I guess it displays as a through flight. Though I’m sure no fare is published as such and United does not intend to capture some of that lucrative EWR-JFK traffic 😂.

I know traffic in NYC can be pretty bad, but a direct flight by way of SFO seems a bit extreme of a solution. ;)

It seems perfectly reasonable if you are chasing 1MM

If it's a single flight number, wouldn't the flight miles be 20 instead of about 5000?

I have done my shares of JFK to EWR via SFO cheapo MRs over the last two years. Too lazy to cross the Hudson with other means of transport.

Still faster than driving.

I don't think they do that any more.

Interesting flightaware show no ewr<>jfk flights in recent days, earlier in the week that was a non-UA cargo flight and JB aircraft, no UA
Also nothing under UA523
Display error? of JFK-SFO-EWR with same flight number but change of aircraft

As for the UA2750, EWR-EWR. flightaware does show that, maybe an aircraft check flight? No a great weather day for that.

This is not the first time a U.S. airline has run an intracity flight to get out of traffic.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-c...76D4GK20110714

Define cheap here?

I did numerous LAX-JFK/EWR-SFO flights last fall for $180-$200. As a bonus it was only 20 PP to upgrade both flights.

$189.20 in late January 2022 was the most recent example - UA523 outbound (JFK-SFO), UA1666 inbound (SFO-EWR). Also and as mentioned, you would only need 20pp for business cabin on both segments, which cleared weeks ahead.

$189 + pubic transport costs to travel across the country and back - pretty cheap. Also 3.67 cpm

Yeah those were cheap. Looks like they've gone up by $100 now (non BE anyway)

I saw the same flight about a month ago flying Jfk-Ewr. It was funny I was listening to Atc on my phone in line (we were number 30 or something) and the captain of the UA 757 said “we can lots of time and plenty of fuel” as ground control was moving planes around on that rainy night

PMCO ran intracity flights in Houston for years from EFD Ellington Field to IAH. I enjoyed those flights a lot. I never flew them but am told in the 80s they ran Hobby to IAH flights also.