What's up with GEG service?
 

I know this isn't "new" news, but does anyone else find it rather strange that GEG does not have non-stop flights to SFO? Did this flight even exist in the old Shuttle days? I think Spokane is the only western city in WA/OR/CA/NV/AZ with mainline UA service but none to SFO....not even on UAX which I am suprised hasn't picked this route up long ago....odd :confused:

Seems like a good opportunity to de-lurk here... :)

There used to be a daily mainline roundtrip to SFO until about 2001, and I can't understand why they discontinued it either, other than as part of the overall domestic capacity reduction. There also used to be 6x UX flights to SEA but now are only 4x. They said something about it not being profitable, though the loads were always high. I work for a company that has lots of travel to the Bay Area, and they lobbied UA pretty extensively to keep the route, but now there's lots of folks who fly WN into OAK instead, as it's the only nonstop to the Bay Area (unless you count SMF!). :eek:

On the bright side, they have been adding a fourth flight to DEN during the summer, which is nice, but I'd love to have that SFO flight back, too! While I'm at it, GEG-PDX would be nice, too. ;)

No mainline service to the left coast...
 

I've been complaining to UA about this since they discontinued the GEG-SFO long ago. The only connections to the West are now UAX/Airworst through SEA, what, four times a day? I have had now three misconnects to Sydney due to UAX issues. It really is pathetic. I agree that it is part of their overall reductions in domestic service. :(

So, I am now switching to Alaska to either SFO or LAX to make my UA international connections to SYD or HKG. It's just gotten abominable on Airworst. At least Alaska/Horizon have almost hourly options if weather or equipment fouls up.

But I keep sending the 1KVoice friendly reminders that we need something to SFO or LAX like Alaska and SW offer. Not sure it will help though...

Welcome to FT!

GEG has a special place in my heart. I last traveled there from DEN on the evening of September 10, 2001. Needless to say the return was cancelled.

Wasn't there GEG-LAX service too at one point or am I dreaming? I never took the flight myself.. but I vaguely recall there being one...

Yeah, "Airworst" in the Pacific NW is pretty sad on a number of levels...I think it's the only Skywest operation that is 100% Non-Jet :p You just have to keep reminding yourself of the EQM's you're getting and try to pretend Horizon doesn't exist...that's what Skywest seems to be doing :)

For some odd reason I remember GEG-YYC service.

Interesting...was that AC or UA? I don't think GEG has any Canada flights now on any airline

A few reasons why I think that UA pulled out so much from GEG (used to live and work in GEG awhile back):

1. AS and WN have more flights every day
2. UA flights were very expensive when offered
3. UA service is/was poor
4. Did I mention AS and WN have more flights and better service?

It's odd that Pacific NW Skywest flights compete on every route with Horizon/Alaska and yet they act like they have a monopoly...I recently flew PDX-EUG on Skywest and the flight attendant said it wasn't "scheduled" for a beverage service but since there were so few of us, she would offer beverages...like she was doing us a favor...the exact same flight on Horizon has free Starbucks before you board, whatever beverage you want, and snacks (*gasp*)...EQM's...EQM's...gotta remind myself of that :)

It was UA on a 737-500. I never flew it, but remember it coming up when searching for fares to YYC. This was in the early to mid 90s, IIRC. It may have been a tag from SFO or DEN.

Yeah, it was probably an enroute stop...BOI, a similar sized market, has multiple flights to SFO a day on UAX so I'm suprised GEG doesn't have at least a CRJ-200 heading up there, my guess is that it would be packed...both WN and AS fly between BOI and GEG so it would make some sense if the UAX Boise flights went on to GEG...just a thought

how long does it take to give out a bottle of water (8 whole ounces!!!) and a bag of pretzels?

My thoughts exactly ^ I've been on a 30 min. SEA-PDX flight on Horizon where they served chips and salsa...lol...it's been a long time since I've seen pretzels (or peanuts....or any non-liquid edible object) on Skywest

the bottom line (is that if you live in either Seattle or Spokane, AS/Horizon is the only way to go. Since SEA and GEC are so linked, when UA got basically driven out of SEA by AS's expansion/success GEC went with it. All you have to do is look at the N terminal at SEA, it used to be all UA and was a mini-hub, now more than half the flights out of N are AS, all UA does is ORD, IAD, SFO (and not the 10 flights a day they used to have), perhaps LAX, DEN, and one flight to NRT. Only miniplane service is the 4 to GEC.

and yes, got to love the free beer of the month on Horizen.

Just finished about 12 flights to/from GEC to SFO, all on UA, and I paid for those miles with agony, all to make sure that 1K was easy last year. If I had it to do this year (where I'm already at 50K), I would do it on AS/Horizen