Tomorrow, United Airlines will announced new international routes for 2022. Like last year, a video teases us with clues. Here are my thoughts and predictions.
My Predictions For New 2022 United Airlines International Routes
First, watch the video:
It’s international route announcement time! ✈️ We’ve hidden clues to our new 2022 routes in this video. Can you spot them? 🧐 Reply with your best guesses using #UnitedSweepstakes for a chance to win seat on one of these flights. pic.twitter.com/bXNLlfQW2G
— United Airlines (@united) October 13, 2021
The video is filmed at LAX and features Patrick Quayle, United’s Senior Vice President of International Network holding a cipher.
I think the MPQ is a red herring, referring to M. Patrick Quayle. MPQ is not an airport code.
For what it’s worth, here are the corresponding letters and numbers:
- A – 24
- B – 17
- C – 9
- D – 4
- E – 21
- F – 8
- G – 23
- H – 11
- I – 25
- J – 13
- K – 6
- L – 2
- M – 3
- N – 20
- O – 15
- P – 1
- Q – 7
- R – 22
- S – 19
- T – 10
- U – 17
- V – 12
- W – 26
- X – 14
- Y – 5
- Z – 16
Here are some additional thoughts, in no particular order:
- At 0:04, the passenger appears to tap NNT while using the United app – NNT is Nan Nakhon Airport in Thailand, which only services Bangkok. Could our long-awaited San Francisco (SFO) – Bangkok (BKK) route finally come to fruition? Or is she tapping something else?
Meet us at 0:04 for a clue. 🔎 pic.twitter.com/xedfjSZMIe
— United Airlines (@united) October 13, 2021
Unlikely.
Actually, if you have the latest version of the app and triple click the United logo, this will pop up:
Could “Gate 84” signify Vietnam (country code +84) and new service from Los Angeles (LAX) to Hanoi (HAN) or Ho Chi Minh City (SGN)?
- There’s a Bavarian flag shown, so I would expect LAX – Munich (MUC) (or perhaps Denver (DEN) -MUC)
- Pins on the backpack suggest:
- Porto (my guess is service from Washington Dulles IAD)
- Sweden (from Newark, Stockholm (ARN) would mark the resumption of a dormant route, so maybe Gothenburg (GOT)?)
- Prague (again, I expect service from IAD to PRG)
- Nice (from Chicago (ORD) or IAD)
- A crossword puzzles contains the words:
- Arsenal – reference to UK football club based in London? – but all hubs already have (had) London service and the BOS-LHR service has already been announced, so maybe new service to Scotland?
- Bread – France – the new Nice service?
- Curacao – new service from LA, part of United’s growing Latin network from LAX?
- Fernando – makes me sing that Alejandro song from Lady Gaga but perhaps a reference to ABBA’s hit. ABBA is from Stockholm…
- Lasagna – new service to Italy? See below.
- Lye – an airport code in Jordan – not going to happen, but perhaps new service to Lyon, France?
- Thorn – no idea…north? Like Norway?
- The United agent agent driving the buggy at LAX has the name Maximillian Patterson – he drives by the Washington Dulles sign – time for Washington – Milan (MXP)?
- There are whales pictured over and over in the video – could United be starting service from Newark to Cardiff?
- Quayle is holding a “Manila” envelope – could there be service from the West Coast to the Philippines?
Many unanswered questions remain:
- The 102 and 324 combinations on the zipper are not particularly helpful – neither are country codes, as far as I can tell and put these numbers in the cipher does not bring anything.
- Reader Jerry suggests we may have to read them backwards:
- +42 is Czechia
- +20 is Egypt – might we see new service from EWR or IAD to Cairo (CAI)?
- +31 Netherlands – a new service from LAX or DEN?
- Reader Jerry suggests we may have to read them backwards:
- The Dulles flight is listed as flight 15906, but looking at the cipher I cannot crack it.
- What is scrawled on the coffee cup?
CONCLUSION
I love marketing tricks like this – free publicity over what the announcement will be before the announcement is even made. That’s almost as clever as unveiling those supersonic planes a decade early.
What am I missing? We will know tomorrow morning at 8:00AM ET.
Fully vaccinated crew. Fully vaccinated passengers. Mask compliance for most of the flight.
Yet US Still requires COVID test for entry. Because SCIENCE.
The people you are returning to may not be vaccinated…yes SCIENCE. Try it sometime.
I guess places like Switzerland and Germany are savages because they don’t believe in your brand of SCIENCE.
I guess Germany and Switzerland are savage because they don’t believe in your brand of SCIENCE.
Check the vaccination and mask compliance rates in Germany and Switzerland (and overall population) and maybe you’ll understand the difference.
Or maybe you won’t.
Germany at 65%, the Swiss at 60 and the US at 57, with populations of 80mil, 8mil and 330mil, respectively. I am not exactly sure of your point, because the 2 examples aren’t exactly blowing the US out of the water in terms of % . Of course when I was in Switzerland a month ago their rate was at 53%, with virtually no social distancing. So yeah what’s your point again?
But not if you illegally cross into the US from the southern border.
Wow you are fixated on illegals. There’s less COVID there than in your average Southern Walmart.
Ah, a post backed by statistics and logic.
I’d just be happy if they beef up European flights out of summer season.
The lock has to mean something. If you read the locks backwards and across:
+42 is Czechia (PRG) likely
+20 is Egypt (CAI). There’s a clue on the crossword about Egypt.
+31 Netherlands. AMS isn’t that exciting, but maybe a west coast flight.
NCE, OPO, PRG, and MUC are certain. Maximilian may refer to Maximiliansplatz?
This is fun, I wish I had all day.
Jerry, all good thoughts and the Twitter team since to beam at the suggestion new CAI service was coming. LAX-AMS would be great…
As I mentioned on OMAAT, “thorn” is a letter in the Icelandic alphabet (Þ). I wouldn’t be shocked to see an IAD-KEF flight from United, to complement the ORD and EWR flights, and to go head-to-head with Icelandair’s nonstop from IAD.
Earlier this week, I read on a link in Yahoo News that United is cutting several flights from the Bay Area. I did not pay attention to which cities but I remember SJC-ORD (wow!) and SFO-XNA being cut.
I still believe that the pandemic limits me to important trips. To me, that means essential trips and important trips, but not leisure trips or trips of low or medium business value. Unlike the US, in the state of New South Wales, 90% of people over the age of some teenage that I don’t remember are vaccinated. In Singapore, more than 80% of people of all ages, including infants who cannot be vaccinated because of regulatory approval and enough data, are vaccinated.
I wonder if M.PQ in one of the first photos is YUL Montreal? The crossword puzzle show Arsenal. That’s also the name of a big football (soccer) team in the UK.
Totally crazy thought, but how about actually resuming the international routes that are currently scheduled and available for sale, rather than cancelling them 1-2 months out and then introducing brand new routes?
JLA – Liverpool John Lennon Airport 13, 2, 24
I take that back
I have to guess MUC is from DEN, I couldn’t imagine that UA would start LAX-MUC flights before LAX-FRA
While i agree from an O&D Point of view, I would not be surprised if they choose MUC. I believe LH owns part of the airport operator at MUC and has been pushing MUC over FRA for a good part of the last decade. Since UA and LH are JV partners on TATL that would make sense. Maybe they get favorable rates to land at MUC
LH owns 8.44% of the owner/operator of FRA, Fraport. MUC is owned and operated by Flunghfen München GmbH which is owned by the State of Bavaria (51%), Federal Republic of Germany (26%), and City of Munich (23%).
You are right that LH has been pushing MUC on their own metal, however that is due to slot restrictions at FRA, so it makes sense to push traffic to MUC. However, there is still a significant amount of traffic that goes through FRA.
Could that be GYE instead of LYE?
On the crossword puzzle on the newspaper, one of the clues read “ancient Egyptian region”. I thought it might have been to stay on theme, but with your interpretation above referencing Egypt’s country code, I think Cairo may be a valid contender. That would be so cool!
I’m excited to see which routes will be with Polaris pods (and will ignore those with old continental seats).
I’ll be happy as long as it’s not the old 4-across United “dormitory style” business seats. I’ll take the Continental seats over those in a heartbeat.
Will say that the UA ID badge looks fake. Might be a clue?
I’m excited for 2022 new international routes.
1. We need to RETURN to MOSCOW AND VIET NAM – The HKG-Saigon 747 flight was completely full!
2. CAIRO was about to begin non-stop flights from the USA to Egypt – that was put on hold years ago.
3. I’m hoping for a flight to VLADIVOSTOK/KHABAROVSK, Russia.
It’s a long shot, but might we see the resumption of Asia service from ORD? I noticed the appearance of Gate 82 (country dialing code for South Korea) and the music in the woman’s phone was at 1:25:29, which is close to the roundtrip distance from Chicago to Seoul. ROK recently began letting it’s vaccinated citizens return from foreign travel without a quarantine and SFO-ICN flights have been reasonably full for a few months. Add in lucrative Asia cargo market and the importance of Chicago as a cargo hub, and it doesn’t seem too outlandish. But still, would be unlikely. Also, I see ORD-Curacao in the cards since it’s probably a bigger Caribbean market than LA because it isn’t so close to beaches on the Mexican west coast and the route is not yet served.
Other predictions:
IAD-OPO/PRG/ARN/MXP
EWR-NCE
LAX-MUC
This is almost as good as your prediction about France banning Americans over the Australia sub deal!
Well, Biden interceded with an olive branch. Had the US not done so, I believe my prediction would have been accurate.