b52murph From United States of America, joined Feb 2006, 234 posts, RR: 0 Posted (6 months 2 weeks 6 days 20 hours ago) and read 2248 times:
Here's an odd one...was taking a look at departedflights.com at international routes in July, 1983, and a significant oddity stood out.
I didn't think UA serviced Asia or the Pacific at all beyond HNL before the Pan Am route purchase? Yet...that OAG shows a SEA-HKG routing with a DC-10 (presumably a -30 series)?
Was this service successful? Was it the only Asia service before the PA purchase or am I mis-remembering completely?
LAXintl From United States of America, joined May 2000, 22219 posts, RR: 51 Reply 1, posted (6 months 2 weeks 6 days 20 hours ago) and read 2239 times:
Yes UA indeed served Hong Kong as well as Tokyo (from SEA & PDX) prior to the PA Pacific Division purchase.
From the desert to the sea, to all of Southern California
Without a doubt it was. when the Pan AM pacific division purchase was finalized we had to give up the SEA-HKG route and if I remember correctly it went to Continental and then I haven't the foggiest idea because they didn't fly the route very long at all.
PlanesNTrains From United States of America, joined Feb 2005, 4568 posts, RR: 28 Reply 3, posted (6 months 2 weeks 6 days 17 hours ago) and read 2011 times:
I believe in 83 they started SEA-NRT, SEA-HKG, and PDX-NRT. All were relinquished IIRC after the purchase of Pan Am's Pacific Division.
LAXintl From United States of America, joined May 2000, 22219 posts, RR: 51 Reply 5, posted (6 months 2 weeks 6 days 8 hours ago) and read 1630 times:
Quoting gardermoen (Reply 4): I was living in HK at the time and I remember it well. It was a SEA-NRT-HKG DC10 service, not sure if it was daily or not.
Not quite - the pre Pan Am purchase route for United was a standalone SEA-HKG nonstop.
Same with its standalone SEA-NRT and PDX-NRT routes.
A NRT-HKG link did not come until after the Pan Am Pacific Division purchase.
From the desert to the sea, to all of Southern California
WA707atMSP From United States of America, joined Oct 2006, 2056 posts, RR: 12 Reply 6, posted (6 months 2 weeks 6 days 8 hours ago) and read 1614 times:
Quoting strfyr51 (Reply 2): Without a doubt it was. when the Pan AM pacific division purchase was finalized we had to give up the SEA-HKG route and if I remember correctly it went to Continental and then I haven't the foggiest idea because they didn't fly the route very long at all.
UA had to give up SEA-NRT as a condition of the PA route purchase, but they were not required to give up SEA-HKG.
UA chose to give up SEA-HKG because "losing SEA-NRT made SEA-HKG uneconomic", but once UA could route HKG passengers via SFO, UA did not need SEA-HKG.
UA operated SEA-HKG with DC-10-30s. UA didn't have any DC-10-30s when they were awarded the route, so they swapped three of their DC-10-10s with CP Air in exchange for three of CP's -30s.
UA's SEA-NRT route subsequently went to CO. When CO filed Chapter XI for the 2nd time in 1990, CO sold SEA-NRT to AA.
dc1030cf From United States of America, joined Sep 2012, 34 posts, RR: 0 Reply 7, posted (6 months 2 weeks 6 days 6 hours ago) and read 1512 times:
United did not have any DC10-30's back then, Those operating SEA-HKG were leased from CP Air. There were three of them, all had Canadian Regs. Back then I just graduated from UW and landed a job with a major international investment company that required me to tralel to HKG four or five times a year. Sometimes I also had to stop by TPE and MNL as well. Great and exciting job for a youngster back then. That was when I first joined Mileage Plus. Still had to fill out a coupon for the flight sector which I remember was 6489 miles each way. The business class was 2-3-2 and in the beginning those armrests were not movable but UA fixed them later. The DC10's were replaced by ex-PA 74L's and the route was still being flown for a while after they took over Pan Am's Pacific operations. I switched to CX's YVR-HKG-YVR flights after that. Thank you b52murph for bringing back those good memories
Viscount724 From Switzerland, joined Oct 2006, 21679 posts, RR: 23 Reply 8, posted (6 months 2 weeks 6 days 3 hours ago) and read 1352 times:
Quoting gardermoen (Reply 4): I was living in HK at the time and I remember it well. It was a SEA-NRT-HKG DC10 service
No it was nonstop SEA-HKG. UA didn't get 5th freedom rights NRT-HKG until they acquired Pan Am's Pacific routes 3 years later.
Quoting WA707atMSP (Reply 6): UA operated SEA-HKG with DC-10-30s. UA didn't have any DC-10-30s when they were awarded the route, so they swapped three of their DC-10-10s with CP Air in exchange for three of CP's -30s.
They were also converted to DC-10-30ERs with an additional fuel tank in the cargo compartment.
During that 3 or 4 years lease/exchange deal, CP used the 3 UA DC-10-10s on domestic and shorter international routes. They were frequently used on Toronto-Amsterdam and Toronto-Lima.
Many CP flight attendants didn't like working on those UA DC-10s due to the lower-deck galley which complicated CP's very high standards of inflight service.
jjeff From United States of America, joined Nov 2003, 132 posts, RR: 0 Reply 10, posted (6 months 2 weeks 4 days 6 hours ago) and read 709 times:
For me it was SEA-HKG-NRT-HNL-SEA in 1988. Summer between junior and senior years of college. It was 74L for the first segment. Flight came from JFK at the time. Second and third segments on UA were 742 and D10 although I don't recall which. And of course HNL-SEA was D10. First solo international trip and really a big deal for me. Set the path for my career as I think about it.
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