United Airlines is finding its mission to expand to secondary cities in China is not as profitable as initially hoped for. The carrier will suspend service to Hangzhou effective October 16, 2017.
We have no official announcement from United yet, but the flight has been pulled from the schedule after 10/14/17 (leaving SFO) and 10/16 (returning) and does not appear again, dashing hopes that at least the route would stay seasonal.
I flew from San Francisco to Hangzhou in June — just to check out the new Park Hyatt Hangzhou — and had no trouble securing an upgrade. Though the flight went out with only a few open seats in business class, it was mostly empty in economy class.
Being over 12hours, the flight is long enough to experience the entire Polaris soft product, but apparently a refreshed menu, pajamas, slippers, and the best business class bedding in the world was not enough.
United does not compete with any Chinese carriers on the SFO-HGH route. Sichuan Airlines operates the route from Los Angeles, but does not even have lie-flat seating in business class.
United still offers service beyond Shanghai and Beijing to Chengdu and Xi’an. I’m hearing that loads are particularly bad on Xi’an (a seasonal route) so it would not shock me to see that route dropped as well.
United Playing Hardball with Rebooking
Numerous reports on Flyertalk suggest that United is only offering rebooking from Shanghai. That seems to violate at least the spirit of United’s new customer service commitment if not its explicit guarantee.
Shanghai and Hangzhou are 109 miles apart, a 2hr30min drive. That’s like saying, “Oh, we’re cancelling service from Austin. Just drive to Houston.” It’s insulting.
If your flight to/from HGH has been cancelled, do not accept United’s paltry offer to re-accomodate you to/from Shanghai. Star Alliance partners Air China (via Beijing) and EVA (via Taipei) serve HGH and United seres both PEK and TPE.
CONCLUSION
It takes time to build up a customer base and this route is only a year old. A pity United could not give it a bit more time…
You are wrong. Its not because the route is not profitable. Its because United is facing unfair competition from Emirates, Etihad, & Qatar. They were highly subsidized by their current government, which clearly violates open sky agreement. They also taking away US jobs by forcing United to close the routes. And now, how in the world is United is going to transport the heroes of USA to those aforementioned cities?
Give UA to figure a few days to work out rebooking, from FT, it appears people are proactively calling in vs UA automatically rebooking. I was booked on the UA SFO-AKL flight when it went seasonal and I called right away and the agent said I could only be rebooked in Y on NZ (I was on an award ticket). After a few days UA was able to rebook me out of SYD in J (after About 5 HUCA and SYD was preferred). A week later I heard of reports of UA rebooking everyone on NZ in J if they were in J.
Flying SF-Hangzhou in August, in economy. With no status, am I right in assuming there’s no affordable way to get an upgrade? Think I have a chance at scoring a window row to myself? Thanks!
It would not surprise me if you get at least an open middle. Upgrades will be available at time of check-in…maybe for as little as $599. Keep checking.
I will flying this route in Nov, as well as Feb of next year. One booked via AC and another via United. Has not received any rebooking info from united, but AC rebooked me to TPE with departure a day earlier than original itinerary! Not sure what i should do, since i really want to get to HGH in shortest amt of time. Now it seems like my best option is to transfer via Tokyo or Asiana via Seoul but ANA does not do one way?! hmm…
Not shocked to see this route dropped – Hangzhou it doesn’t have either the business traffic or population size to support this route, given the proximity to Shanghai, which is only 1 hour away by high speed rail (it takes longer, of course, to get to PVG airport). Will be interesting to see if United tries any more second-tier cities – if I were United I might take a stab at Chongqing.