How can multiple flights magically disappear? What’s happening here?
 

Two days ago I planned out to fly from SFO to OGG.

I found the following great connections for 267$:

• SFO-OGG: Fr, Dec 1, 16:55-20:33 (UA1749)
• OGG-SFO: Mo, Dec 4, 23:30-6:30+1 (UA1639)

Stupidly I did not book immediately. Last night, a mere 24 hours later, both flights were gone. Completely dissolved into nonexistence. Not to be found on Google flights, other flight trackers and even United directly.

It is extremely hard for me to believe that BOTH flights completely booked out within just 24hr. Especially since it’s not prime season, lots of seats left on any other flights, the prices are super low. And finally, I’d expect that the cheap basic economy seats go first but premium seats still being sold. But entire flight has VANISHED completely and the availability just 24hrs ago included Basic Economy.

I also can’t imagine that they just canceled BOTH flights because chance is high that at least one person booked it and what they do then?

How is that possible?


is there any conceivable chance these flights will show up again?

Their sudden disappearance just destroyed my entire trip because all other options are entirely throughout the day.

Obviously, the situation on Maui has caused UA to alter its schedule subsequently. All the carriers are figuring out how the effects of Lahaina's destruction are going to affect traffic in the next couple of months and will be adjusting accordingly. They may have just removed the flight from the schedule (vs selling them out). You can still book flights to Maui, yes? Just not the ones you saw? If you bought the tickets you saw and the flights were cancelled, you would have been given option of refund or accommodation on remaining UA flights.

I see a 9am flight December 1 SFO-OGG and coach is pretty cheap. UA is running only 1 flight SFO-OGG on a Friday. That's a huge cutback from pre-fire.. One could count on a morning, midday, and late afternoon flight out of SFO to OGG in the past.

Got it. So you think it’s most likely that they really canceled a half full flight and bunch of people got refunds/accommodation on different flights?

in other words, even if I would have booked a day earlier it would not have helped me because they would have cancelled me? That would make me feel at least a bit better.

yes, they killed exactly the flights that had the best time, ie., after a work day. The remaining flights are all starting during the day. I can book them but they just don’t work for the schedule. Painful.

For 1 Dec SFO-OGG, all that is on the schedule now is one daily morning flight. Suspect UA has removed other flights as the demand is not there. The lower price you saw was also indicative of low demand.

If you had booked, UA would have moved to the morning flight, or refunded. Possible thru HNL but that would have meant a HA.

Yes I may book this instead but I need to take a vacation day now which makes the whole trip very expensive and probably not worth it at all.

yes precisely, these flights are not running, regardless of if you had purchased immediately two days ago or not. You would've been refunded or re-routed.

and in this case they would send everyone an email “Sorry we canceled your flight, we can refund or rebook you?”. is this a very common scenario?

Normally that not common, but when it does happen, most take the reroute (and some cases get better flight for the cheaper price). Also usually happen 3+ months out. So far out lookers are more likely to see this than does booking 2-3 months out.
In a situation like Maui or other areas recovering from a disaster or during COVID schedules can be very fluid and changes should be expected, even close in.