It’s no surprise that we’ve seen a big decrease in demand for flights to & from Hong Kong, given the protests that have gone on there for months. Cathay Pacific is already scaling back their schedule, including eliminating frequencies on many popular international routes.

United is the strongest US airline to Hong Kong — they’ve historically offered three daily flights to Hong Kong, while American offers two, and Delta doesn’t offer any.

Well, they’ve now downgraded all of their Hong Kong flights.

United Already Suspended Chicago To Hong Kong Flights

A couple of weeks ago I wrote about how United suspended their Chicago to Hong Kong flight as of September 8, 2019. Not surprisingly, this followed weakened demand for travel to Hong Kong, and United found that Chicago had less “local” traffic flying to Hong Kong than San Francisco and New York.

United Downgrading Newark & San Francisco Flights As Well

When United cut their Chicago to Hong Kong route, their plan was to maintain their other flights, including:

Their Newark to Hong Kong flight, which is operated daily with a 777-300ER

Their San Francisco to Hong Kong flight, which is currently operated daily with a 777-300ER; as of October 2019 United will add a second daily flight, with both flights then being operated by 777-200s



United 777-300

Well, as it turns out that’s not the case anymore, as United has adjusted their schedule:

From December 3, 2019, through March 27, 2020, United will downgrade their Newark to Hong Kong flight from a 777-300ER to a 777-200 with their old business class seats

From December 4, 2019, through March 27, 2020, United will downgrade their San Francisco to Hong Kong flights from 777-200s with new business class seats to 777-200s with old business class seats

United 777-200

So on all three flights, passengers in business class will go from having these seats…

United’s new Polaris seats



United’s new Polaris seats

To having these seats…



United’s old business class seats



United’s old business class seats

On the plus side, arguably this is good news for those in economy, as they’re going from 10 seats per row in the new configuration to nine seats per row in the old configuration.

Bottom Line

Airlines put their best products on the most competitive routes, so it shouldn’t come as much of a surprise that they chose to take these seats off Hong Kong route, and put them on higher yield and more competitive routes instead.

I’m surprised that United is still choosing to move forward with their second daily San Francisco to Hong Kong flight, given the current situation.

(Tip of the hat to Terence)