It sux to be in SEA
 

On June 8th, UA is converting their 3-class international 777 service from ORD and DEN to 757. Over the last few months at least 1 flight has been dropped from every hub city and the aircraft size hasn't increased.

I wonder if killing NRT is far behind. I just hope there's enough O&D between SEA and NRT to maintain it.
Sigh...

I'm not sure there is much correlation between running three-class planes between SEA and DEN/ORD and SEA-NRT service. Even without widebodies to ORD/DEN, there is plenty of connecting traffic to justify a SEA-NRT flight.

Good. I LOVE stopping at "home" for an evening before heading to Asia. It's a great way to split up the long haul from the east coast.

I’ve heard that SEA-NRT-SEA is the MOST profitable flight UAL has. Considering it is one of the hardest to clear upgrades on I don’t doubt that.

Connecting traffic from where? Pasco, Bend and Spokane? Everything else could just as easily go via SFO (and is better off there, with multiple NRTs and nonstops to a host of other cities...) Sure there are Microsoft, Boeing and Starbucks contracts that help drive traffic, but now that NW has its A330 on that route, who knows how long UA will keep 875/876.

Don't get me wrong -- I don't want to see it go -- and I booked an upcoming trip to DEN on UA for one last ride on it in the 777 (and paid more than I would have for a ride in a crummy AS 734)

Most profitable flight? I highly doubt it. Try ORD-HKG, which is in a 744 (now run at same pilot costs as the 777), with more C and F seats to sell and then cargo on top of that.

I wouldn't go as far as saying THE most profitible. But I can offer insight that as of about 12-18 months ago it was well within the top MOST profitble flights for UA. Obviously with the disappearance of certain contracts, that suffers some, but that was roughly around that time anyhow.

We still have it pretty good at SEA, especially when it comes to ground and in-flight staff.

ORD-SEA was quite often "empty" on the 777, which made it a favorite cause even as a 2P using 500-milers at check-in you were guaranteed a C seat. So I am not surprised they are downgauging it to a 757. I imagine SEA-DEN-ORD was also pretty empty, so those two 777s can be used somewhere else.

And we still get 757 service to all the hubs, which helps with upgrades (especially SFO) as well as Airbusses and now all of our 737s have E+.

I don't see UA875 or UA876 going anywhere, to be honest. While upgrades in C are often plentiful, they actually sell a number of C seats, as well, and even F does decent enough. And Y is often stuffed in baseball season with all the Japanese tour groups coming to see Ichiro.

The same 777 can serve UA875 and UA876. The only problem is if it goes down for maintenance, and I don't recall that happening in the past few years. And if it ever does, UA can always divert another plane from LAX/SFO/NRT/KIX to take over if needed, or funnel folks through SFO/LAX.

June 7th will be a sad day...I will miss the ORD-SEA & SEA-DEN 777 flights. I also agree it doesn't seem likely 875/876 will go away anytime soon. AA gave up its SEA-NRT flight a couple years ago leaving UA & NW as the only airlines on the route. There is a sizeable Asian population in SEA that contributes to the need for having direct flights.

I'm not sure I understand your math. The ORD-HKG flight is 40% farther than SEA-NRT, but a C seat sells for only a 15% premium. Combine that with the cost per seat/kg. of cargo per mile is less on the 777 compared to a 747. Pilot costs are small compared to fuel costs these days.

I fly these routes on a fairly regular bases and never had to much problem on the ORD-HKG route, but there have been times I could not even buy a C seat on the SEA-NRT flights, and it is one of the few flights I've ever had trouble upgrading on.

They may have lost a few contracts, but SEA-NRT still seems to be full of people who are actually paying $$$ for their seats.

Darn, I sure will miss that 777 from SEA-DEN. Never had a problem upgrading to those comfy intl biz seats....vastly superior to the 757 F seat.

The NW A332 is a plus for UA as it has fewer J and Y seats then the 747-200 previously used. Traffic hasn't dropped off and there are fewer seats in the market so yields have likely gone up.

KE's new service to ICN and CZ to TPE have probably hurt UA more.

Have there ever been any rumblings about bringing back (PDX)-SEA-HNL? IIRC the route went away when they retired the glorious DC-8s.

Only in Tigger's head :D

At least SEA-NRT has a few other places people can go (BKK, HKG, SIN, TPE, ICN), with SEA-HNL there is only the way-out-of-the-way NRT and KIX to go to. ie, it'd have to survive entirely on O&D. Not gonna happen.

I'd either guess it is ORD-HKG, SFO-HKG, ORD-PVG, or ORD-PEK that is the most profitable. ORD-NRT is also big and one direction of HNL-NRT (can't remember which) is almost always booked. ORD-PVG and ORD-PEK have tons of premium traffic (I think AA said, based on UAs prices, they would get like $200 mln a year from ORD-PVG) and are almost always booked full or over in F and C (and like half full in Y). A lot of the Asia flights have tons of premium cabin traffic, so that definitely helps with yields and all.