I think most of us saw this coming. I’m just curious what United was thinking when it launched this route?
In this post:
United cuts Boston to London as of October 2023
As flagged by @IshrionA, as of October 29, 2023, United Airlines will discontinue its daily nonstop flight between Boston (BOS) and London (LHR). United launched this route in April 2022, and the 3,265-mile flight has operated with the following schedule:
UA24 Boston to London Heathrow departing 11:00PM arriving 10:35AM (+1 day)
UA25 London Heathrow to Boston departing 6:00PM arriving 8:40PM
United has flown this route using a premium configured Boeing 767-300ER, featuring just 167 seats. This includes 46 business class seats, 22 premium economy seats, 47 extra legroom economy seats, and only 52 regular economy seats.
United has faced quite a bit of competition in this market, as it’s also served by American Airlines, British Airways, Delta Air Lines, and Virgin Atlantic. On top of that, Norse Atlantic Airways flies from Boston to London Gatwick (LGW).
With United pulling out of the market, that will mark the end of Star Alliance service between Boston and London.
I’m not surprised to see United cut this route
I predicted this route wouldn’t last long when it was first announced, so I’m not surprised to see this. United is by far the weakest of the “big three” US carriers in Boston, as both American and Delta have a significant presence there.
Interestingly, though, United’s motivation for launching the route seemed to be to spite JetBlue. This was announced at a time when we knew JetBlue was launching transatlantic service, and the airline had plans to fly from Boston to London. It’s not that United cared about JetBlue launching that route, per se, but rather United wasn’t happy about JetBlue’s continued expansion at Newark, so seemingly wanted to send a message to the airline.
It just didn’t seem like there was any practical way that this route would have worked:
- United couldn’t compete with American and Delta in this market in terms of schedule, especially since those airlines had additional service from their joint venture partners, British Airways and Virgin Atlantic
- United just doesn’t have a significant presence in Boston, so there’s almost no connecting traffic, aside from other United hubs; United also doesn’t have a partner airline with a hub in London, for further connectivity
- United belongs to the Star Alliance transatlantic joint venture, and pricing is largely fixed among those carriers, so it’s not like United had a practical way to dump capacity and make premium fares so low that it would cause people to fly with the airline
- Post-pandemic just doesn’t seem like an ideal time to launch in a market that’s heavily reliant on international business travel, since that has been slowest to recover
United’s usually incredibly deliberate with international route planning, so I never really understood what I was missing here. Did United really think this route would succeed, or…?
This was United’s only flight to London from a non-hub, so it’s sad to see this unique route discontinued. Along similar lines, United tried to grow at New York JFK Airport, but unfortunately that experiment failed as well.
Bottom line
United Airlines will be discontinuing its Boston to London route as of late October 2023. The airline only launched this route in April 2022, so it essentially made it through three seasonal airline schedules.
The whole purpose of the route just seemed to be to spite JetBlue, though I’m not sure it proved all that successful in the end.
What do you make of United ending its Boston to London route?
I am very disappointed to lose this route, I have flown it half a dozen times in the past 18 months and found the timing was perfect.
I have flights booked on this route round trip in late August and there is no word at all from the airlines , where is this info coming from???
I have a BOS to LHR flight scheduled for November 17th —25th. Of course United has not reached out. What should my next steps be?
Lucky why is this article not showing up on your website anymore? Did you forget to republish it or something?
“I think this concept that airlines do things to "spite" other airlines is overblown.”
I can tell you that it’s not. There’s so many examples of this among all the airlines. I’ve heard the CEO of my own company say about a particular route that’s on the wish list, “We’ll save that one for when AA does something we don’t like”
To fulfill antitrust requirement, Virgin Atlantic and UA each received a pair of LHR slots from BA/AA to start BOS-LHR flights. It makes sense for UA to suspense this point-to-point route during winter season, even if it run the risk of having to return the slots.
No way does United Polaris compare to Jet Blue Mint
Sorry to see it go. I now have reroute a trip in December through either IAD or EWR (neither great choices in December). At least there are Polaris Lounges at both IAD and EWR when the connections fall apart.
Yes--The lack of a Polaris Lounge in BOS did take a way from the experience, especially since LHR does not have one. Is this the only UA Polaris route w/o a Polaris Lounge on either end?
Today’s mo is connecting routes… without United being a hub at Boston it becomes a potentially subsidized route so how much good money should be thrown at bad… business passengers in Boston probably dont want to connect at JFK so the United brass knew this going in especially during covid strains so either they were naiive and are overpaid or it could be more deranged Jetblue syndrome.
"On top of that, Norse Atlantic Airways flies from Boston to London Gatwick (LGW)."
I thought that only starts in September...
Yes. BOS-LGW starts in September. Sub $300 rt available for much of sep and oct right now. Other than indicating how soft fares are in the market, Norse had nothing to do with UA pulling out.
"United also doesn’t have a partner airline with a hub in London, for further connectivity"
Yeah but does Delta, really have one via Virgin Atlantic? Very limited route network to Europe, Asia, and the Middle East...
Prime time LHR slots are expensive to waste, 3500 miles is a lot of fuel to burn, and crew/plane can be reployed profitably. Would be better to use the slot time from its IAD or EWR hub instead.
I’ve used this flight a few times and while that’s only a few data points, my experiences were always a mess. 11 pm departures becoming 4 am departures is pretty rough. Last time there was no food other than popcorn chips because by the time we finally left all the catering had aged out-and of course there had been nothing open in the terminal during the hours of delay. Boston is not a 767 base...
I’ve used this flight a few times and while that’s only a few data points, my experiences were always a mess. 11 pm departures becoming 4 am departures is pretty rough. Last time there was no food other than popcorn chips because by the time we finally left all the catering had aged out-and of course there had been nothing open in the terminal during the hours of delay. Boston is not a 767 base for UA, so when their ancient plane went tech in the middle of the night there were no backup possibilities either for plane or crew. I regret there won’t be Star Alliance service between Boston and London, but I’d already decided not to keep rolling the dice on this flight.
You mean a spite flight, like Latte Larry's spite store.
Probably has more to do with wanting to use that asset in a more profitable market.
Also, United probably wants that LHR slot for another hub.
As a Boston native, not surprised, there is a lot of competition for BOS to London.
What was NOT mentioned was that JetBlue operates BOS to Gatwick, and having just flown it, it was a very successful flight, despite it being "narrow body," with seemingly the right mix of business ("Mint") to economy, which really is like premium economy on any other airline, with the amount of legroom, and other touches like amenity kits...
As a Boston native, not surprised, there is a lot of competition for BOS to London.
What was NOT mentioned was that JetBlue operates BOS to Gatwick, and having just flown it, it was a very successful flight, despite it being "narrow body," with seemingly the right mix of business ("Mint") to economy, which really is like premium economy on any other airline, with the amount of legroom, and other touches like amenity kits and customizable menus (you order on the screen). It will be interesting to see what happens with the dismantling of the "Northeast Alliance," as it was never really a good fit for JetBlue in some sense (e.g. that BA and AA codeshare for international service and that AAs poor reputation leads those that like JetBlue (they do have a very favorable opinion in Boston despite getting poor scores in the various rankings that I personally don't really pay attention to). Whenever I would see an "alliance" flight that was really AA (e.g
Boston to New York) I would NEVER fly it and many in Boston feel that way too, as AA is the current trash domestic airline. The only bad thing about JetBlue to London is using Gatwick as that is the trash airport in the U.K. (and that is definitely the prevailing opinion).
We had intended to fly the BOS-LHR route but in the end the connection via EWR was significantly less expensive
I’m very disappointed! I have taken two round trips on this route and found it convenient and reasonably priced.
This makes me wonder how AA sustains Boston to London. Since BOS is not a hub or focus city for AA (just like with UA), are there really that many connections on the LHR end to support it? And doesn't JV partner BA already serve BOS? The Northeast Alliance plans being unsuccessful makes me a bit doubtful about the future of this route.
AA and British Airways operate a joint venture hub at London Heathrow
Too bad, it was a good place to find reasonable mileage space.
The only surprise is that United thought the route would work in the first place. This just solidifies that Boston is Delta’s hub and other airlines shouldn’t expect any more success than Delta would have on a long haul international route from Houston, American’s BOS to LHR being an obvious and clear exception
JetBlue is laughing at you and your theory right now.
This route actually began on April 14, 2022 not in March as it was planned. It was also announced to begin in 2020, way back before Jet Blue had announced to begin the route, so if anything it was Jet Blue that put their route on to combat United. The actual start was of course delayed two years due to the pandemic. United's connecting traffic was heavy from the hubs, with more than 1/3 of...
This route actually began on April 14, 2022 not in March as it was planned. It was also announced to begin in 2020, way back before Jet Blue had announced to begin the route, so if anything it was Jet Blue that put their route on to combat United. The actual start was of course delayed two years due to the pandemic. United's connecting traffic was heavy from the hubs, with more than 1/3 of the passengers connecting each night, but the time change in the winter to a 10pm departure from the 11pm departure saw connecting traffic drop to nearly zero. This past winter the loads on every LHR departure from BOS were very light on all airlines, as discussed by the fellow gate agents working on BOS, with some nights all of us having so few passengers that we could have combined all of the different airlines onto one flight and still not filled it. The other airlines have a bigger presence in BOS than United so they can keep up the route in spite of the light loads off season. All in all the route has been very successful in season with loads being consistently full and United offering great service to our customers with a much better aircraft than Jet Blue's narrow body that they serve the route with.
I've flown this route several times with family. I had 100% success in upgrading to Polaris using Plus Points, even from coach. I once got upgraded on an award ticket from coach to Premium Plus (along with 2 family members) without using any upgrade instrument. The flight was too short to truly enjoy the flat bed though.
Clearly not enough OPM traffic.
Too bad
Ben, if you were a betting man, what about the other market LAX-AKL between DL, AA, and UA? When might we see DL backing off ;)
You forgot NZ in that market also. That being said, Delta's A359 is undoubtedly the best offering on that route, whether in J or Y. They have no reason to give that one up, unless they can't fill the plane because the rubes are saving a buck on AA.
Lol. The best in the market? They’re using the latam a350s on that route. Delta is, by far, the worst product to auckland
Delta already backed off. It was supposed to be year round and they’re cutting it completely after April 2024
They’re using the ex-LATAM configured frames so quite the contrary… I’d argue they have the worst offering in J being the only ones without all aisle access. Not to mention they’re the only ones without Premium Eco.
I think this concept that airlines do things to "spite" other airlines is overblown. They're not schoolyard kids.
Most likely, they had extra frames due to decreased demand during covid, and figured Boston-London was a big business route with good yields and decided to try their hand at it. It didn't work out and also, overall demand came back faster than expected, so now they have a better use for that frame elsewhere in the...
I think this concept that airlines do things to "spite" other airlines is overblown. They're not schoolyard kids.
Most likely, they had extra frames due to decreased demand during covid, and figured Boston-London was a big business route with good yields and decided to try their hand at it. It didn't work out and also, overall demand came back faster than expected, so now they have a better use for that frame elsewhere in the network.
It was the same story at JFK: in covid they managed to (temporarily) get a couple of slots, so tried to bring back transcon service. But they realized a single frequency or two wasn't enough to bring back pax. They lobbied to permanently get some more slots, but were denied, so they dropped the flights.
It's fun to speculate that CEOs sit in front of a map of the world, stroking their kittens in their lap while contemplating how to destroy their enemies by throwing darts on the map and yelling "Take that JetBlue! Muahahaha!!" I'm pretty sure the reality is much more boring. Well, except maybe at American ;-)
Overall I think solid, especially your opening sentence. Spot on.
I will note, however, that the business market was the last to come back (and arguably still is...), so I'd disagree about trialing BOS-LHR for the business market during COVID. Also being weaker than AA/DL in BOS means that they would also be disadvantaged with corporate contracts in the city/region.
I do think that an airline utilizing the fleet to its maximum is often not...
Overall I think solid, especially your opening sentence. Spot on.
I will note, however, that the business market was the last to come back (and arguably still is...), so I'd disagree about trialing BOS-LHR for the business market during COVID. Also being weaker than AA/DL in BOS means that they would also be disadvantaged with corporate contracts in the city/region.
I do think that an airline utilizing the fleet to its maximum is often not understood by the average aviation enthusiast...
I'm sure they have plenty of other routes to utilize the equipment.
The only interesting question is - what happens to this slot
It probably gets used for another EWR, IAD, or ORD run.
It was a relief slot, it goes back to Heathrow
Oh interesting do you have a source on this? I wonder what will happen to ORD/SFO/EWR-LHR since those hubs got frequency cuts to LHR. Although I think there’s a slot relief thing going on for summer 2023 at LHR.
Just like the last time United operated BOS-LHR (pre-merger, legacy UA) this addition made no sense.