MBS MillionMiler

Into December too. I had flights updated tonight as far out as Dec 10th.

Flying Machine

I had one to GRU in October and one from SCL in November minor changes though

cfischer

781 --> 772 change for me. Maybe that also caused the change in schedule?

QTFLYER

Yes ac change too. moved from 781 to 772. Also my flight from LHR to SFO has changed from a 789 to 772

cfischer

Got January changes last night. Luckily BOS-SFO still showing as 752.

wxguy

They've been changing it to the 7M9 about four months out consistently. Let's hope it sticks this time!

cfischer

no, they haven't. Most recent changes were to a mix of 73M and 752 for BOS-SFO beginning later this year.

wxguy

I have a trip for early October, initially 752 then flipped to 7M9 then back to 752 and now back to 7M9. Fingers crossed the 752s come back to stay!

threecap

I do business (and look for new businesses) mostly in secondary and tertiary US cities -- can anyone with an insider's understanding of scheduling/route decisions explain to me why United hasn't brought back a number of regional routes from EWR that they previously ran, even during COVID?

I believe EWR direct service to/from XNA was stopped in April 2022 and was slated to come back in late September. But I haven't seen it added back yet in any future month.

PNS was cut as a direct route to/from EWR with COVID. UA also cut the ORD-PNS route in Jan 2021 but it has returned.

I'm using PNS and XNA as examples because both currently have direct service to/from DEN, ORD and IAH but not EWR (and selfishly because I need to travel to both, haha). Should we expect more direct regional routes from EWR if/when the labor shortage eases up? I'm sure profitability also plays a role, but it feels like between the beaches/military bases near PNS and Walmart/Ozarks in XNA, these are decent business-leisure combo destinations which helps demand, am I wrong? Does Terminal A's opening and available UA gates at EWR play a role in this, since so many regional routes used to use the old Terminal A?

Thank in advance for any insider views on whether/when I can expect to see these routes return to the EWR route map...

(Obligatory hopefully the schedule thread is the appropriate place for this question...)

jsloan

I'm not an insider, but the answer seems obvious to me. EWR has been slammed all summer, and UA announced that they were cutting flights in order to try to reduce the frequency of delays. (So, imagine how much worse it would be if they had a bunch more flights).

I doubt that they would be adding new service to tertiary US destinations until they can handle their existing EWR flight load.

Repooc17

The solution is easy. Fly Delta, as there are services for both (XNA / PNS) ex-LGA.

Mr.Nuke

I had a change this weekend on an OMA-SFO flight in October, downgraded to an A319 to an E175, the latter making more sense on the route. Hopefully this flight resuming actually sticks this time. Looks like it is scheduled to resume on 9/7 now.

AirbusFan2B

Yes. If HNL-IAD-YUL or HNL-ORD-YUL looks better in terms of timing, aircraft or seat availability, particularly if all on UA, you might be able to have UA switch you if you call in. The schedule change is a great impetus for this type of dialogue with UA.

DFWFairy

thanks for the suggestions.

threecap

I hear ya - I'm Diamond on DL because I do that. It takes me about 2.5x longer to get to LGA than EWR, so it's meaningful time advantage to go to EWR. And honestly I like UA a lot more than DL.