Did not see this one coming really at all. Another great international addition.

http://newsroom.united.com/2017-09-07-U ... and-Sydney

Ditto, this came out of the blue. Wonder what effect (if any), this might have on NZ's IAH service.

Well, this was unexpected.

The 787-9 must be performing pretty well and not having to block too many seats on SFO-SIN since UA is adding two routes longer than SFO-SIN with LAX-SIN and IAH-SYD. This route is a bit of a surprise, but probably good for connections assuming that the 787-9 doesn't need to many seats blocked off.

you have to admit, that's pretty darn impressive. As a DL fanboy, I am way envious.

Now if they can only get those Polaris seats on those 787's done ASAP, I think I'd actually consider..... never mind.. Congrats UA.

wow. Who would have ever thought...

Actually I'm not surprised that UA has announced IAH-SYD, what I find surprising is the start date as they will miss the peak travel season to Australia, if they had planned to start a month earlier it would be a different story however that may be a s simple as not having the aircraft to start any earlier

Congrats to UA; they are really pushing the envelope on ULH travel out of the US, first beating SQ to the punch on SFO-SIN and LAX-SIN and now starting this almost out of the blue.

I always hoped one of the US3 would use the next-gen widebody aircraft to start up some of these routes that were either unserved or just forfeited to international carriers. Having AA start DFW-HKG was nice. Getting this is better. Hoping AA can do MIA-JNB (assuming economics can work out).

Would have thought QF would launch this route first with their 789s...

In no way was I expecting in this, I was expecting:
NZ AKL-ORD
UA SFO-MEL
QF SYD-ORD

Will be great to see three UA tails in SYD, with no star alliance feed in AU, kudos to UA for holding their own!

Isn't SYD slot restricted at that hour? Wonder where they got the slot and parking position?

Wow. That was unexpected. Best of luck to them but I have to say I wonder how it will do. Most cnnx out of Houston could probably be made from LA or SF, except perhaps Latin America, right? And ULH is expensive...anyway, interested to see we how this'll work.

Well This is a surprise. But anyway well done UA. NOW IF ONLY SOMEONE WOULD CONNECT SFO AND MEL!!!

downdata wrote:

Would have thought QF would launch this route first with their 789s...

Our DFW based QANTAS sales rep has said that once QF has enough 789's on property,
they will replace their 380's with 789's on their DFW flights

downdata wrote:

Would have thought QF would launch this route first with their 789s...

QF would never launch this route. It's viability is entirely dependent on UA's huge IAH hub (which QF would only has access to through interlines), just like QF's viability at DFW is dependent on AA's huge hub being there.

smi0006 wrote:

In no way was I expecting in this, I was expecting:
NZ AKL-ORD
UA SFO-MEL
QF SYD-ORD

Will be great to see three UA tails in SYD, with no star alliance feed in AU, kudos to UA for holding their own!

Yeah surprised they found this more economical than SFO-MEL. SFO-MEL is considerably shorter, and SFO is much bigger UA hub than LAX, so was thinking there would be a good amount of connecting traffic for that flight. Is it that there are a good amount of cities served by IAH but not SFO/LAX?

Also, was thinking they would do IAH-HKG before IAH-SYD.

But good for them that they are launching ULH with B789. I may have thought routes longer than SFO-SIN were impossible, but apparently they are happening.

Who knows, we may even see ORD-SIN on UA in the coming years. ORD-SIN is 15000km, longer than PER-LHR, but would be a polar route (unlike PER-LHR). So a restricted B789 could make the distance I suppose.

Good news. Hope it works out.

For the 2/3s of the US that's east of the Rockies, IAH is a welcome South Pacific connecting hub. The number of available 1-stops to SYD or AKL on *A is pretty impressive now.
Could west coast-BNE be next?

http://www.gcmap.com/mapui?P=syd-iah,+s ... h,+mel-lax

Irehdna wrote:

Yeah surprised they found this more economical than SFO-MEL. SFO-MEL is considerably shorter, and SFO is much bigger UA hub than LAX, so was thinking there would be a good amount of connecting traffic for that flight. Is it that there are a good amount of cities served by IAH but not SFO/LAX?

LAX is a far bigger market than SFO from Australia. Just like QF's SYD-DFW, UA will be able to offer passengers a one stop flight from far more cities in the US not to mention other markets as the Caribbean and Central/South America from IAH compared to what is currently available through the LAX/SFO-SYD flights

Sooner787 wrote:

downdata wrote:

Would have thought QF would launch this route first with their 789s...

Our DFW based QANTAS sales rep has said that once QF has enough 789's on property,
they will replace their 380's with 789's on their DFW flights

That's not a surprise. The word is that with the 4 789's based in BNE (that's frames 5-8) 2 frames will replace BNE-LAX-JFK and the other 2 will either do ORD, DFW or YVR and I woild say DFW is probably the front runner

Holy smokes. 8,596 statute miles. IAH provides a plethora of rather unique 1-stop connections. I guess they think it can work. 789 is likely the minimum-trip-cost aircraft that can do the route. A competitive plus. I agree this will overlay the SYD-DFW flight with largely the same connections, but a less costly airplane.

Great add in a string of great ULH adds by UA.

They are showing the advantages of the 787

Wow! I really did not expect this. Espcially remembering Smisik cancelling the proposed IAH-AKL route several years ago. It will provide good 1 stop connection opportunities from smaller East Coast and Southeastern cities that are not as easily available in the UA network to SFO.

Sooner787 wrote:

[Our DFW based QANTAS sales rep has said that once QF has enough 789's on property,
they will replace their 380's with 789's on their DFW flights

Are you sure you heard that correctly? IIRC Qantas couldn't wait to replace the B747-400s on DFW-SYD because they wouldn't have to take the weight penalty (or at least not as significant a penalty). I'd heard that QF might use the B787 to start BNE- and/or MEL-DFW, though...

I'm really curious to see how they will fly this route. They must be expecting a lot of high demand up front on this route because they will have to block a serious amount of seats. In the Summer this is consistently a 16.5 hr flight. In Winter it will easily exceed 17 hours.

flyguy84 wrote:

wow. Who would have ever thought...

I did! I've been saying this for over 2 years now! I even emailed UA after finding out IAH is the largest business destination from SYD not served nonstop after reading that in the Sydney newspaper online.

I'm feeling an extremely smug sense of "I-told-you-so" satisfaction, as well as professional satisfaction in the sense that I want to be a network analyst and that my instincts have proven me right.

qf789 wrote:

Actually I'm not surprised that UA has announced IAH-SYD, what I find surprising is the start date as they will miss the peak travel season to Australia, if they had planned to start a month earlier it would be a different story however that may be a s simple as not having the aircraft to start any earlier

Don't have the aircraft. United gets 2 new 787s in DEC and 1 in JAN and the last -9 on order in FEB.

Wow..................whatever next!

Excellent news, kudos to UA and the 787.

Ouch for NZ IAH-AKL. Great for SYD.

Excellent add! Especially in the face of the 'gentlemen' in the Houston Harvey diaster thread that said the city would no longer be economically viable after the storm! What affect would this have on NZ? I flew it last summer and the flight was full.

17H30M Westbound
15H50M Eastbound
That's a long time.

Wow surprising. What are the starting prices for the flight? I hope award travel is also good on it.

jetblastdubai wrote:

For the 2/3s of the US that's east of the Rockies, IAH is a welcome South Pacific connecting hub. The number of available 1-stops to SYD or AKL on *A is pretty impressive now.
Could west coast-BNE be next?

http://www.gcmap.com/mapui?P=syd-iah,+s ... h,+mel-lax

There are many airports east of the Rockies that have UA non-stops to SFO, and for which xxx-SFO-SYD will be shorter (in flight distance or time) than xxx-IAH-SYD. IAH-SYD will improve connectivity from some origins that have decent PDEW to SYD.

NZ321 wrote:

Ouch for NZ IAH-AKL. Great for SYD.

AKL-IAH still serves alot of routes continuing on from AKL that SYD cannot serve.

The only thing this hurts is SYD-AKL-IAH because United has no onward connections from SYD.

If you want to get to anywhere besides Sydney and want to fly *A from anywhere near Houston/South East you're still taking ANZ to AKL...

If anything this helps IAH-AKL by giving more room for non-SYD connections that would be more premium as AKL is the only way to get to many airports on *A...

MIflyer12 wrote:

jetblastdubai wrote:

For the 2/3s of the US that's east of the Rockies, IAH is a welcome South Pacific connecting hub. The number of available 1-stops to SYD or AKL on *A is pretty impressive now.
Could west coast-BNE be next?

http://www.gcmap.com/mapui?P=syd-iah,+s ... h,+mel-lax

There are many airports east of the Rockies that have UA non-stops to SFO, and for which xxx-SFO-SYD will be shorter (in flight distance or time) than xxx-IAH-SYD. IAH-SYD will improve connectivity from some origins that have decent PDEW to SYD.

MIFlyer, please list all of the "MANY" destinations east of the Rockies (or east of the Mississippi is what we're really talking about) for which XXX-SFO-SYD will be meaningfully shorter than the "SOME" destinations for which IAH will improve connectivity. DEN is probably about it.

The ridiculous anti-UA bias shines through yet again, as it did on the Hurricane Harvey thread.

NZ321 wrote:

Ouch for NZ IAH-AKL. Great for SYD.

They have a South Pacific JV covering Australia, IIRC.

Not sure what connections SYD offers unless UA is signing a new codeshare. AKL, on the other hand, connects easily with BNE, MEL, and, most importantly, PER.

Remember UA/NZ have a JV. The effect the route would have on the NZ IAH-AKL route was no doubt looked at.

fun2fly wrote:

17H30M Westbound
15H50M Eastbound
That's a long time.

NO, it's a TERRIBLE long time.

Great news for IAH! With UA drawing back focus on IAH I would say this is great news, especially after watching the hurricane come through.

With NZ converting to the 789 in December it will be great for leisure and business travelers heading to SYD.

It's been really excitng watching UA take advantage of the legs of the 789 for some truly unique routes. UA has an impressive network across the Pacific and doesn't seem afraid to try out new routes. I wish DL were as adventurous although I expect they will maintain their one token flight to Oz from LAX.

Nice to see UA do something at IAH but I'll stick with NZ to get to Melbourne. I fly there 3 times a year and love the NZ service and easy connection. Auckland is so much easier to navigate than Sydney. Just wish NZ would offer a nonstop to Hobart and then my life would be complete!

On United.com, it shows that all the Polaris seats are booked, with a total of 17 economy and economy plus seats booked. Not bad for just announcing it 2 hours ago.

aviationjunky wrote:

On United.com, it shows that all the Polaris seats are booked, with a total of 17 economy and economy plus seats booked. Not bad for just announcing it 2 hours ago.

I suspect Polaris seats have to be reserved for VIPs as they usually are on inaugruals. Doubt they're actual bookings. Same goes for most of the Y seats.

Of course I could be wrong.

jetero wrote:

NZ321 wrote:

Ouch for NZ IAH-AKL. Great for SYD.

They have a South Pacific JV covering Australia, IIRC.

Not sure what connections SYD offers unless UA is signing a new codeshare. AKL, on the other hand, connects easily with BNE, MEL, and, most importantly, PER.

Sorry but the words AKL connects easily with PER do not belong in the same sentence. A flight ex PER with connections to the US normally requires a layover in AKL of at least 10 hours if not longer.

qf789 wrote:

jetero wrote:

NZ321 wrote:

Ouch for NZ IAH-AKL. Great for SYD.

They have a South Pacific JV covering Australia, IIRC.

Not sure what connections SYD offers unless UA is signing a new codeshare. AKL, on the other hand, connects easily with BNE, MEL, and, most importantly, PER.

Sorry but the words AKL connects easily with PER do not belong in the same sentence. A flight ex PER with connections to the US normally requires a layover in AKL of at least 10 hours if not longer.

Only timed well westbound? Seems short sighted with the connectivity to other NZ destinations from AKL as well.

The UA/NZ JV does not currently cover US-Australia traffic. So technically no conflict of interest at the moment, although Australia should be added soon

LHUSA wrote:

The UA/NZ JV does not currently cover US-Australia traffic. So technically no conflict of interest at the moment, although Australia should be added soon

Thanks for the update. It's a full codeshare, though, right?

Incidentally just tried dummy booking IAH-PER via AKL on united.com for December--$8k in Y.

And the westbound connection is a little less than 5 hours (27 hour travel time).

Eastbound very easy, 1 hr 15 min (20 hour travel time).

Not sure where 10 hours referenced above comes from.

These have to be the fastest connection.

Well this is a shocker. (No really, I was very shocked.)

I don't think there's room for both IAH-SYD on a 789 and DFW-SYD on a 380. DFW-SYD will be downgauged to a 789, I would even bet money on that if I were a betting man.

jetero wrote:

LHUSA wrote:

The UA/NZ JV does not currently cover US-Australia traffic. So technically no conflict of interest at the moment, although Australia should be added soon

Thanks for the update. It's a full codeshare, though, right?

Incidentally just tried dummy booking IAH-PER via AKL on united.com for December--$8k in Y.

And the westbound connection is a little less than 5 hours (27 hour travel time).

Eastbound very easy, 1 hr 15 min (20 hour travel time).

Not sure where 10 hours referenced above comes from.

These have to be the fastest connection.

Actually if you book non code-share flights, Y is often $2000 or less. See below, direct from Sabre:


1 NZ 29L 08DEC F IAHAKL*SS1 800P 555A 10DEC S /DCNZ /E
2 NZ 175V 10DEC S AKLPER*SS1 1040A 105P /DCNZ /E
3 NZ 178V 15DEC F PERAKL*SS1 700A 605P /DCNZ /E
4 NZ 28L 15DEC F AKLIAH*SS1 720P 155P /DCNZ /E

08DEC DEPARTURE DATE-----LAST DAY TO PURCHASE 10SEP/2359
BASE FARE TAXES/FEES/CHARGES TOTAL
1- USD1920.00 151.76XT USD 2071.76ADT
XT 36.00US 5.50YC 7.00XY 3.96XA
5.60AY 7.00KK 47.90AU 5.70WG
28.60WY 4.50XF
1920.00 151.76 2071.76TTL

AAIL86 wrote:

jetero wrote:

LHUSA wrote:

The UA/NZ JV does not currently cover US-Australia traffic. So technically no conflict of interest at the moment, although Australia should be added soon

Thanks for the update. It's a full codeshare, though, right?

Incidentally just tried dummy booking IAH-PER via AKL on united.com for December--$8k in Y.

And the westbound connection is a little less than 5 hours (27 hour travel time).

Eastbound very easy, 1 hr 15 min (20 hour travel time).

Not sure where 10 hours referenced above comes from.

These have to be the fastest connection.

Actually if you book non code-share flights, Y is often $2000 or less. See below, direct from Sabre:


1 NZ 29L 08DEC F IAHAKL*SS1 800P 555A 10DEC S /DCNZ /E
2 NZ 175V 10DEC S AKLPER*SS1 1040A 105P /DCNZ /E
3 NZ 178V 15DEC F PERAKL*SS1 700A 605P /DCNZ /E
4 NZ 28L 15DEC F AKLIAH*SS1 720P 155P /DCNZ /E

08DEC DEPARTURE DATE-----LAST DAY TO PURCHASE 10SEP/2359
BASE FARE TAXES/FEES/CHARGES TOTAL
1- USD1920.00 151.76XT USD 2071.76ADT
XT 36.00US 5.50YC 7.00XY 3.96XA
5.60AY 7.00KK 47.90AU 5.70WG
28.60WY 4.50XF
1920.00 151.76 2071.76TTL

Funny, I picked the exact same dates for my UA run.

About 9.5 cents yield on a 10,800 mile flight (21,600 roundtrip)? Not bad.