United Airlines, as with most American carriers, is not anywhere near the top of my list of preferred airlines, given their recent PR catastrophes.
However, the very same PR team has also done some pretty remarkable stuff, such as introducing non-stop flights to Singapore from San Francisco and Los Angeles, even before Singapore Airlines did.
However, good things don’t last forever.
Barely one year after United Airline’s Los Angeles-Singapore daily service commenced, the airline has decided to drop that service from October 2018, in favour of a second daily San Francisco-Singapore service. The additional service will depart San Francisco at night and arriving in Singapore in the morning.
New schedules below:
| Route | Flight | Departure | Arrival | Flight Time | Aircraft type |
| SIN-SFO | UA2 | 1000 | 0935 | 14h 35m | B787-9 |
| SIN-SFO | UA28* | 2220 | 2155 | 14h 35m | B787-9 |
| SFO-SIN | UA1 | 2240 | 0650(+2) | 17h 10m | B787-9 |
| SFO-SIN | UA29* | 1155 | 2015(+1) | 17h 20m | B787-9 |
*UA29 commences 30 Oct 2018; UA28 commences 31 Oct 2018
What I love about United Airlines is the fact that they have not once, but twice, one upped Singapore Airlines by (re-)introducing non-stop services between Singapore and United States in the last couple of years, quite some time after Singapore Airlines retired the A340s and ‘suspended’ the non-stop services to Newark and Los Angeles.
That’s quite a PR feat, considering that Singapore Airlines has been leading headlines for routes of those sort.
If your memory served you well, back in January 2016, United Airlines surprised the world by announcing a non-stop San Francisco-Singapore service using its Boeing 787-9, and even numbered in UA1 & 2, thereby giving it flagship status. The service started in June 2016.
Singapore Airlines was then forced to quickly announce a similar non-stop Singapore-San Francisco service, albeit starting four months later in October 2016, using its A350-900.
Then in 2017, United Airlines once again triumphed Singapore Airlines by announcing a non-stop service from Los Angeles to Singapore, which commenced in October 2017. Singapore Airlines held its posture this time, preferring to wait till the delivery of the A350-900ULR later this year before commencing that service.
Well, given this move, Singapore Airlines will certainly be making a fanfare out of the Singapore-Los Angeles non-stop service they plan to introduce next year. And I bet fares won’t be cheap.
