Stuck in Hawaii and looking to get back to the Mainland? Trying to secure an upgrade? Look no further than a special 777-300 from Honolulu to Newark tomorrow morning.
Yesterday I wrote about United’s immediate suspension of its Newark to Mumbai route due to escalating tensions between the United States and Iran. The cessation of service was so immediate that an aircraft was stranded in Mumbai.
Since avoiding Iranian airspace was a necessity, today the aircraft left Mumbai on a “ferry flight” to Honolulu. Tomorrow (Sunday, June 23rd), United will operate a special 7:00AM departure from Newark to Honolulu using the 777-300 aircraft, UA2824.
Currently, the flight is wide open: not a single seat in business class has been assigned and very few seats in economy have been selected. This flight represents an ideal use of miles if you happen to be traveling to the East Coast or beyond tomorrow from Honolulu. Business class on the 777-300 is United’s private Polaris Business Class seat and the cost is 50K United miles, which is an excellent price for this usually-full flight:
Theoretically, this award space should be bookable on the phone with other Star Alliance carriers as well, since United has made “I” class space available, meaning saver award space. I just called Aeroplan and an agent was able to see the flight even though the space does not show up on the Aeroplan website. Cost is 40K miles. I don’t know about you, but 40K miles for a 9+ hour flight with a nice lie-flat seats seems like quite a good deal to me.
Oddly, United has not discounted economy class space…at least not yet. An economy award is 45K or $932 while a business class award is 50K or $1109 one-way. That’s about the biggest no-brainer in the history of award bookings. It also means that only business class awards are available with partners.
CONCLUSION
If you are traveling back from Honolulu tomorrow, especially if you are heading to a non-hub city on the East Coast or even Midwest, consider this flight. An upgrade makes a huge difference on a flight this long. If you have MileagePlus Premier status, check with United on a free “confirmed same-day change” to this flight.
Flight 2824 has been cancelled because of an unexpected operational issue.