Downgrade Incoming?
 

I have a flight from PPT to SFO on March 10th confirmed in J on United. Was looking at pricing again today, but couldn't find the flight. Turns out United is only selling economy and economy plus. Looked at the seatmap for my flight, which still shows a 787 and only shows a quarter of the seats taken. United now is not selling a single business class seat for the month prior and after.

This feels like a change in metal is coming, and I'm about to be downgraded? Am I wrong?

Probably planning schedule and other changes and zeroing it out until 'done'. UA will find a solution that far out ... I would not worry about downgrades

Its a 9 hour flight, IIRC. What smaller plane can fly that far?

United is downguaging this route from 789 to 788 in Feb and Mar 2024.

Why would you be downgraded if there's a change in metal? United will only fly a Polaris aircraft on this route, IMO. Best not to oversell the Polaris cabin if they downgauge the equipment to something with a smaller cabin.

The A321XLR is joining the fleet soon which can make this flight. Possibly they're considering it based on range.

If UA were going to drop the flight/route then they would zero out all inventory. Right now the flight is O3 and Y9 so plenty of seats for sale. I wouldn't worry as the others have pointed out.

-RM

The XLR won’t be here til 2026. The stock 321Neo that starts showing up later this year won’t be able to make it that far.

Change in metal, yes. Downgrade, basically zero chance. The buckets are zero'd while they process the change to avoid an oversold business cabin being created, or in the event some flights are booked heavier to try to give flexibility to try to move some passengers around. Regardless, I think it's extremely unlikely that many, if any, days currently have more than 28 people booked in business to require downgrades, and if there is, I'd be questioning why they're decreasing the size of the business cabin 6 months in advance if there is that much advanced booking demand for J seats.