United Airlines will add year-around service between San Francisco and Amsterdam as well summer seasonal service between New York/Newark and both Prague and Naples, Italy.
United teased us on Twitter yesterday with a hint at these routes using anagrams, but the news is now official.
San Francisco to Amsterdam
United will begin year-around service between San Francisco (SFO) and Amsterdam (AMS) on March 30, 2019. UA will utilize a 787-9 on this route, going head-to-head with KLM. You can read my review of KLM World Business Class on the same route, also on a 787-9, here.
|
Flight |
Frequency | City Pair | Depart | Arrive | Aircraft |
|
UA 968 |
Daily | SFO – AMS | 2:55 p.m. | 10:20 a.m. +1 |
Boeing 787-9 |
| UA 969 | Daily | AMS – SFO | 2:50 p.m. | 4:50 p.m. |
Boeing 787-9 |
This new route will compliment existing nonstop service from San Francisco to the following European cities:
- Frankfurt
- London
- Munich (seasonal)
- Paris
- Zurich (seasonal)
United also serves Amsterdam from Houston, Chicago, Newark, and Washington Dulles.
Newark to Naples
United will operate seasonal daily service to Naples, Italy from May 22, 2019 through Oct. 4, 2019. By next spring, 767-300s operating out of Newark are expected to have “real” Polaris seating onboard. Meridiana (now Air Italy) has suspended its Naples to New York route, leaving an opening for United.
|
Flight |
Frequency | City Pair | Depart | Arrive |
Aircraft |
|
UA 964 |
Daily | EWR – NAP | 5:25 p.m. | 8:05 a.m. +1 |
Boeing 767-300 |
| UA 965 | Daily | NAP – EWR | 10:10 a.m. | 2:05 p.m. |
Boeing 767-300 |
Newark to Prague
From June 6, 2019 through Oct. 4, 2019, United will operate daily flights between Newark and Prague. The new service will also utilize a Boeing 767-300, which should have United’s latest Polaris product onboard. The evening departure time allows for one-stop connections from 60 destinations.
|
Flight |
Frequency | City Pair | Depart | Arrive |
Aircraft |
|
UA 188 |
Daily | EWR – PRG | 6:05 p.m. | 8:25 a.m. +1 |
Boeing 767-300 |
|
UA 187 |
Daily | PRG – EWR | 10:10 a.m. | 1:30 p.m. |
Boeing 767-300 |
United will compete with Delta (from New York JFK) and American (from Philadelphia) on this route.
Other Routes Return
In addition, more than 20 seasonal international routes will return next year including service to Reykjavik, Iceland and Porto, Portugal. Earlier this month, United announced new service between Washington Dulles and Tel Aviv.
CONCLUSION
I travel to Amsterdam often for business so the year-around new SFO-AMS route is particularly valuable to me. But service to Prague and Naples is intriguing. Space will be loaded shortly. If you are looking for award space for next summer, now may be the time to book it.
Will you fly any of United’s three new international routes?
image: ohitsbenji/Instagram via United
Are they cutting other routes to get the planes for these or is this genuine extra capacity to Europe?
The worst airline company I have ever had to deal with
Cool story Dennis. I would give that award to Delta, but to each their own.
As NYC flyer I love direct options to Naples and Prague, but the timing of the routes is really frustrating (like most of the flights to central/eastern Europe).
For a long weekend I can leave work and get to any of the three airports in time for a 7pm flight. To do these I’d need to take a half day, which is I guess is okay, but then the return flight leaves NAP/PRG early as well and the last day is wasted.
I’m sure the reason is that the later transatlantic departures go to routes that can get more of a revenue premium (London,Frankfurt,Paris) but as someone who bases a lot of where I go (for both award and revenue travel) on availability and scheduling this is a tough sell.
Frustrating for who – only you. Just take an extra day off from work so you can get the extra day on the return. It’s not rocket science (eye roll).
Like most Americans I get far less time off than my counterparts in developed Europe and Asia. Of the time I do get I like to use every possible hour in somewhere I want to be. If I take a long weekend and have to leave my destination at 10AM, thats a full day wasted whether I’m coming home on a Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, etc. Its not as big an issue if I’m going away for ~10 days, but for a long weekend its enough to make me travel somewhere else.
I realize this won’t apply for everyone but I know anecdotally I’m far from the only one that feels this way.
People still fly United! I pay extra, up to double, to avoid United like the plague!
So what are they doing with their LAX “hub” that would justify the outlay to be the name sponsor of the LA Coliseum, as well as build out a Polaris lounge in T7? I count only 5 Polaris-worthy destinations remaining out of T7 once Singapore goes away, and these new routes never seem to be brought to LAX. For as much as Kirby claims to be on the offensive, these appear to be defensive moves to protect SFO and strain to build EWR.
Perhaps when you get your sitdown with Oscar, you can ask him if the Coliseum deal is just a way of getting United to front a donation to his alma mater.
Plenty of space available with miles but none at the Saver rate. Kind of bogus.