UA Announces South Pacific Expansion Including SFO-CHC, LAX-BNE & LAX-AKL (2023Q4)
Apr 18, 2023, 10:58 am
#16
Join Date: Jul 2005
Location: NYC
Programs: UA-1K MM, AA-Gold, DL-Silver, AS-MVP
Posts: 2,518
Yes there's demand but what about the fares. And also the opportunity cost of using the aircraft on another more profitable route.
Apr 18, 2023, 11:07 am
#17
Join Date: Jul 2008
Location: IAH, YYC
Programs: UA 1K
Posts: 760
great news from this announcement. hopefully this will help significantly with the upgrade situation which over the past year has required even more flexibility and creativity than it did in the past. it has been rare to see anything sub-$2,200 in Y for my regular IAH-SYD route. I'm not offended by that price if the upgrades clear, but there's been a couple of times where I've routed via MEL, or made a same day change to the next day to be sure of it. Hopefully with a ton of new flights that won't be required quite as often.
Apr 18, 2023, 11:17 am
#18
Join Date: Mar 2015
Location: NYC (Primarily EWR)
Programs: UA 1K / *G, Marriott Bonvoy Gold; Avis PC
Posts: 9,082
Apr 18, 2023, 11:38 am
#21
Join Date: Jun 2021
Location: Houston, TX
Programs: UA silver, Bonvoy gold
Posts: 2,864
Apr 18, 2023, 11:56 am
#22
Moderator: United Airlines
Join Date: Jun 2007
Location: SFO
Programs: UA LT Plat 2MM, Hyatt Discoverist, Marriott LT Gold, Hilton Silver, IHG Plat
Posts: 67,289
Suspect UA's answer is the former and FT desire is the latter. Again, it is not to UA's benefit to increase capacity that leads to excess seats (used for awards / upgrades).
Apr 18, 2023, 11:58 am
#23
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Oct 2001
Location: Austin, TX
Posts: 21,804
IIRC, the last time they entered new routes, they messed up and opened I and PZ availability for an hour or two before they got it corrected -- somehow, not right when the flight was loaded, but later that day or maybe the next.
In general, though, expect them to be the same upgrade difficulty as the other AUS/NZ flights, meaning very seasonal.
Apr 18, 2023, 12:26 pm
#24
Join Date: May 2012
Location: ORF, RIC
Programs: UA LT 1K, 3 MM; Marriott Titanium; IHG Platinum
Posts: 7,088
Apr 18, 2023, 12:37 pm
#25
Join Date: May 2007
Programs: UA 1K, Hyatt Globalist
Posts: 5,872
UA did not launch new routes in order to make upgrades or awards easy.
IIRC, the last time they entered new routes, they messed up and opened I and PZ availability for an hour or two before they got it corrected -- somehow, not right when the flight was loaded, but later that day or maybe the next.
In general, though, expect them to be the same upgrade difficulty as the other AUS/NZ flights, meaning very seasonal.
IIRC, the last time they entered new routes, they messed up and opened I and PZ availability for an hour or two before they got it corrected -- somehow, not right when the flight was loaded, but later that day or maybe the next.
In general, though, expect them to be the same upgrade difficulty as the other AUS/NZ flights, meaning very seasonal.
1) When EWR-CPT went from seasonal to year round, some of the newly added flights (non-weekend days in northern summer 2022) were loaded with PN5 PZ5 IN5 I5 right away. It stayed for the whole day, and I watched as FT and the blogs caught on, people booked the seats (including myself), and the inventory slowly incremented down. By the evening, any inventory that hadn't already been booked was wiped.
2) SFO-BNE had a bunch of dates with PN and PZ (not sure about IN or I) show up about a week after the route was initially loaded. There was no space in the opposite direction. Not sure how long this space lasted.
3) The new TATL routes this summer also had PN, PZ, IN, and I show up a few days to a week after the routes were initially loaded. I think this lasted for more than a day, because I remember Gary/VFTW blogging about it multiple times.
Apr 18, 2023, 3:47 pm
#27
Join Date: Mar 2015
Location: NYC (Primarily EWR)
Programs: UA 1K / *G, Marriott Bonvoy Gold; Avis PC
Posts: 9,082
After this expansion, are there really any other routes UA could realistically add to OZ/NZ that makes sense at all with their current fleet? The only one I could think of would be EWR-AKL, but at over 8800 miles, I think that's challenging even for the upgraded 789s.
Apr 18, 2023, 4:02 pm
#29
Join Date: Feb 2022
Location: LAX
Programs: UA
Posts: 1,620
After this expansion, are there really any other routes UA could realistically add to OZ/NZ that makes sense at all with their current fleet? The only one I could think of would be EWR-AKL, but at over 8800 miles, I think that's challenging even for the upgraded 789s.
Apr 18, 2023, 4:32 pm
#30
Join Date: May 2003
Programs: NZ Elite, AC SE100K, Westjet, Marriott, Nexus, Global Entry
Posts: 6,204
The American tourists are looking for experiences, particularly anything to do with wilderness and adventure. The South Island of NZ is prime for that.
Queenstown, served by ZQN as an airport, is the hot destination and must see spot for most of these tourists. Many other great or better places in the SI as well.
This SFO-CHC will sell well with people paying for premium cabins.
If you live in the SI and want to go to NA or points beyond, a direct flight from CHC to SFO thus avoiding a connection in AKL is awesome.