United dropped non-stop Newark to Honolulu

[DCwom]

This pretty much only applies to POA cruisers from the east coast NYC metro area, but I just found out that United has dropped its non-stop service (along with my reservation) from Newark Airport (EWR) to Honolulu (HNL), what a bummer, gotta replan. There are still non-stops from JFK on Delta, JetBlue, and Hawaiian airlines.

[princeton123211]

22 minutes ago, DCwom said:

This pretty much only applies to POA cruisers from the east coast NYC metro area, but I just found out that United has dropped its non-stop service (along with my reservation) from Newark Airport (EWR) to Honolulu (HNL), what a bummer, gotta replan.

Its most likely temporary-- it's been run seasonally in the past and also when United has a widebody aircraft shortage this is a route they typically will pull them from for a while. They just had upgraded the aircraft on this route when we flew back to EWR from HNL in late April with the new Polaris suite so seems odd they would cancel it completely. Sorry it impacted you here. 

 

24 minutes ago, DCwom said:

There are still non-stops from JFK on Delta, JetBlue, and Hawaiian airlines.

Hawaiian from JFK is one of our favorite ways to get to Hawaii-- we go several times a year from the Northeast and this is our favorite flight to get there (the outbound flight is Hawaiian 51 but the return from HNL is Hawaiian Five-O). The major benefit of Hawaiian vs the others is when you step onboard you actually get the sense you are in Hawaii-- lighting, mu. Just a really nice way to start a vacation and the food overall is MUCH better on Hawaiian than the other legacy carriers.

 

They run it on a A330 widebody (already a better option than narrowbody JetBlue) and in coach you have a 2-4-2 configuration so easy for couples to have their own space. Their First Class is really a nice version of an international business class-- lie flat seats with nice bedding, dining on china, etc. For a single traveller they don't have the same amount of privacy as United Polaris suites but for a couple they work really well and overall is a better product than what United has on this route. 

[KeepCalmBearOn]

17 hours ago, princeton123211 said:

Hawaiian from JFK is one of our favorite ways to get to Hawaii--. when you step onboard you actually get the sense you are in Hawaii-

 

Yup, this ^^^ You start getting the Aloha Spirit the minute you board.

[Ellis1138]

Our nonstop United flights from EWR to HNL (round trip) are still showing up as valid. They did stop the route for a while in the summer, but then restarted it. I've been checking weekly, because I'm worried. 

[DCwom]

18 hours ago, Ellis1138 said:

Our nonstop United flights from EWR to HNL (round trip) are still showing up as valid. They did stop the route for a while in the summer, but then restarted it. I've been checking weekly, because I'm worried. 

We're going mid May 2024, I did some poking around and they are still bookable until mid April, then they disappear.

 

I will say that I had a most surprising customer support experience when I called United.  My call was immediately picked up by a human, there was no press 1, etc. The agent was very friendly and booked us on a direct flight from Ohare, which has the "purple" seats of the premium economy class we had on the Newark flight. At least we'll have the wider more comfortable seats for 9-10 hours of the flight, the downside, a 6:00AM flight out of Newark to Chicago 😴, a very early start to a very long day.

 

I did read that a United 767-300R was badly damage by a hard landing at Houston in August (no injuries) and since the 767s are scheduled to be retired in 7 years they may decline to repair it (https://simpleflying.com/united-airlines-boeing-767-fuselage-damaged-hard-landing/).  The Newark to Hawaii run uses 767s and my flight change was blamed on equipment changes.

 

[princeton123211]

So United did confirm that EWR-HNL service is suspended starting on April 13, 2024 but will most likely return the next winter as a seasonal service. 

[Ellis1138]

On 10/29/2023 at 8:04 AM, princeton123211 said:

So United did confirm that EWR-HNL service is suspended starting on April 13, 2024 but will most likely return the next winter as a seasonal service. 

It's odd that they suspend it in the spring/summer, which I would think would be the busier season. But I'm thankful that our nonstops will probably still be there in February. 

[DCwom]

13 minutes ago, Ellis1138 said:

It's odd that they suspend it in the spring/summer, which I would think would be the busier season. But I'm thankful that our nonstops will probably still be there in February. 

I suspect that United doesn't have a choice due to equipment availability, when these extended range planes break, they don't have spares just sitting around. If you look at the EWR-HNL schedule you can see that the same plane flies back & forth everyday with an hour or so on the ground at each end, so basically the aircraft flies about 21+ hours a day 7 days a week. After a bunch of hours they will swap out the plane to do maintenance (some times for weeks). They adjust schedules so that maintenance cycles roll across the fleet.

[princeton123211]

3 hours ago, Ellis1138 said:

It's odd that they suspend it in the spring/summer, which I would think would be the busier season. But I'm thankful that our nonstops will probably still be there in February.

The opposite. You’re thinking with an East Coast mindset around school vacation- the real season over there is in the cold months- especially from the West Coast. West Coasters crowd Hawaii in winter. 
 

We spend extended periods of time in Maui every year and only go in the winter to get to out of the Northeast winter. 

[CruiserBruce]

3 hours ago, DCwom said:

I suspect that United doesn't have a choice due to equipment availability, when these extended range planes break, they don't have spares just sitting around. If you look at the EWR-HNL schedule you can see that the same plane flies back & forth everyday with an hour or so on the ground at each end, so basically the aircraft flies about 21+ hours a day 7 days a week. After a bunch of hours they will swap out the plane to do maintenance (some times for weeks). They adjust schedules so that maintenance cycles roll across the fleet.

You are on the right track. Airlines seek to keep their planes committed to flights 16 to 20 hours a day. That includes some time on each end of the flight for cleaning.  Committing a single plane for 21 hours a day stretches that goal to it's max, with little or no room for any complications.  I suspect it requires 3 planes to meet this schedule, if it is as you described. 

 

There have been discussions about updating and modification of these planes for extended life. Taking these 767s out of service for that purpose has to be considered as well.

[princeton123211]

9 hours ago, CruiserBruce said:

There have been discussions about updating and modification of these planes for extended life. Taking these 767s out of service for that purpose has to be considered as well.

They did update the front cabin on the 767s on this route earlier this year to the new Polaris suites-- a huge improvement from the old configuration that didn't provide direct aisle access. Given this is an 11 hour ordeal it was stupid they didn't do this sooner.