When I flew the SFO flights pre-Covid several times it was full or oversold. United currently has pitiful service from OKC. Sure, they may be deploying aircraft where they think they can make more money, but they have just given up on competing with AA in OKC for now and that's sad. They have more gates than AA for crying out loud! At least on the service they do have they should be running mainline, but even that is only RJs. As we were walking to our gate waaaaay at the end of terminal B in Denver on a CRJ-700 I was shocked at some of the cities that had mainline service from Denver. Cedar Rapids, IA, with barely 1M passengers a year, has mainline service to Denver. I guess I'm glad I'm throwing most of my business AA's way.
Looking at flights to IAH in April and it appears United has reverted back to a no mainline, regional aircraft only approach. Just no love for OKC - AA and WN must be killing them here.
I wonder how their prices compare to WN/Frontier to Denver, and AA/WN to ORD/MDW, and WN to HOU? When I search they are usually the most expensive. On a random long weekend in July to Chicago, for direct flights: AA was $468. WN was $396. United was $672.
So when you have cheaper options to the only 3 cities they go to it's probably not a surprise there are no mainlines.
That's why bringing back SFO makes so much sense for them. In their eyes why bring back EWR since AA/DL have directs to LGA now? Why bring back IAD when AA/WN have directs to DCA?
United's bread and butter is business travel that books within 3 weeks of departure date. They are usually the last to load firm schedules regarding aircraft type. As such they don't sell cheap fare buckets until they know what their actual capacity on a route will be. If you want a ticket now they'll sell you one, but it will likely be more expensive than if you book it 45 days out.
Because EWR and IAD are UA's pirmary gateways to Europe & the Mideast, and EWR is more convenient to Penn Station, East Side/Lower Manhattan and Wall Street than LGA. And as Catch22 said, if you think booking a few months in advance will result in lower fares, airline pricing algorithms have changed, cheaper can often be 6 weeks or less, depending on the market. I fly 3 weeks a month and have seen this over the past couple of years.
sounds great. hope you planned a few days in YVR (Vancouver, Canada); it's worth the trip just to go there let a lone sail from there.
Oklahoma City, the RENAISSANCE CITY!
When is the best time to book long-haul international flights on United?
We go to Buenos Aires, Argentina at least every few years. I try to use points and sometimes we get incredible fares for relatively cheap (60k - 65k points for a ticket that usually runs at least $1,200). We can transfer Chase points much easier to United than other carriers so they're usually the first place we look, but sometimes it's hard to find the decent Saver fares.
International is firmed up much earlier (slots, route authorities etc) so typically 3-7 months out should still have good mix of fares. Rewards obviously may want to do even sooner.
I went to Buenos Aires in 2015, it was an amazing city and worth the long flight from the U.S. It has a very European look and feel but the overall culture is distinctly Latin American. Mendoza and the wine country is a fun side trip, about a 1.5 hour flight from BA. The vineyards are next to the Andes that are covered with snow even in the summer because the peaks from 18-20k ft high. Parts of the Pampas region west of BA looks just like the western parts of Oklahoma and even have a tornado season.
Argentina top to bottom is incredible. Mendoza, Bariloche, Iguazú, Salta/Jujuy, Buenos Aires, South Atlantic areas (Chubut, Tierra de Fuego). Tip Argentina on its side and it runs Los Angeles to New York, so it's truly massive.
It's a huge city with a distinct identity and some really cool characteristics. It has probably the richest economic history of any South American city and you can feel that, but the last generation has seen them fade into the background of Brazil.
3-5 full days is plenty to do the necessary things. A 2 week trip hitting up 3 of the locales I listed above is definitely a worthy adventure.
Parts of the Pampas region west of BA looks just like the western parts of Oklahoma and even have a tornado season.
This feels more like a reason to stay far away. If I wanted to vacation in Western Oklahoma, I'd go squat on a dirt patch.
Hahaha!!
Yeah, pretty much from Buenos Aires (Capital Federal, as opposed to the province) until the Andes it feels very similar to Oklahoma, terrain and weather wise. The same latitude Buenos Aires falls on in the Northern Hemisphere is between Ardmore and Paul's Valley.
Much north or south of those latitudes it changes drastically
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