as the prop turns
Senior
Yup, told them that in PHL, that Shares would implode the system. They no listen!
AWA + USAir = Total Mistake
- Thread starter usair_begins_with_u
- Start date
Okay, I may just be a cavewoman, but are you implying that is was a good thing to fly a near empty 747 across the Pacific because it was carrying little cactus plants? 100 passengers on a 747 is dismal. Where were my facts off about Nagoya?
Widebodies on short haul are not uncommon. Until quite recently UAL flew 747s and 777s between ORD and DEN. DAL regularly flew widebodies from ATL to Florida, that's where all that international expansion came from. PSA (also unsuccessfully) was crazy enough to buy L1011s for it's LAX-SFO Expressway. Even US has a daily 767 between PHL and CLT and has had an occassional A330 too.
US1YFARE
Veteran
- Joined
- Mar 31, 2004
- Messages
- 3,932
- Reaction score
- 54
In the 80's I used to fly UA from IAD-PHL on a packed DC-10.
rsv4ever
Is your avatar the 767 that is missing a movie screen, so ghetto west taped some printer paper on it?
If it is, will you please enlarge it and put it in the B767 Envoy Class Reconfigured? and Defining Business Casual threads?
There is just a little bit more to it than that. Right at the time AWA started that service the gulf war broke out. Now from what I understand, the asian community will not travel internationally on carriers who's country is involved in war. Maybe there is the fear of being shot down, I really don't know. There was another question of which carrier's were running transcon's in a 747. A bunch!! People's express was one, who remembers them??? Not fully a transcon but have done 747 on UAL to both DEN and ORD. Who remembers Tower Air?? SFO to JFK in you guessed it the 74.
Oh, pulease. Wrong, wrong and wrong. Do not ever again try to speak for us asians.
I know of a carrier that flew a full load of cherries from SFO to Korea. The profit paid for five round trips. Sorta like PSA flying 50 nmi from Bellingham to Seattle with flowers and fish, one trip paid for over five round trips, passengers were considered "gravy". Until rectal mayhem decided that he did not want the holds to smell of fish or flowers, no one could figure out which.
Since CLT does 767 maintenance, I would think the use of the 767 PHL-CLT would be purely for positioning purposes only, revenue be damned.
cageyjames
Member
I was joking with you as it was actually HNL-NGO and anyone could tell you that route was stupid, unless you were HP of course...
As for the cactus plants, I'm not really sure what else would have been on those flights from PHX to NGO. I mean who would trust anything important to HP in the early 90s?
Flying a 747-200 between PHX/LAS and JFK because you bought the airframe before actually having a route to fly it on is idiotic. Especially when you are just a regional carrier from Phoenix.
Well sure considering it is the largest two hubs in the network. What you wouldn't see is such a flight between LAS/PHX and CLT or PHL. No way this airline makes money on such a flight.
Travelpro72
Veteran
- Joined
- Jan 30, 2005
- Messages
- 4,964
- Reaction score
- 455
I wouldn't poke anymore fun at HP for their past flop attempt at asian service considering the old US was bigger pre 9/11 than we are today. LOTS of bad moves and ideas happened here. I think we can all agree on that.
JAMAKE1
Veteran
When I first started with United in 1995, it was commonplace to work a scheduled DC-10 flight between ORD-DTW and ORD-OMA. In fact, DEN-OMA service was also on DC-10's, if my memory serves me correctly. In the days of Shuttle by United, with SFO-LAX departures every 20 minutes, a bad weather day in SFO would cause multiple (full) Shuttle flights to cancel. Out would come the 747-400's from the maintenance base to operate 4-5 scrapped Shuttle flights between SFO and LAX...that was always fun.
There was a brief time period back in the late 1990's when United would position a 747-400, fresh out of SFO maintenance, to JFK so it could operate the JFK-NRT flight. The Premium Trans-con 767 flight would depart from SFO at 10:30 pm, filled to the gills. The 747-400 positioning flight, which operated 30 minutes later, would have no more than 30 passengers booked on it. We would work the 11pm all-nighter to JFK, have about 13 hours in NY, then work a 747-400 that had just come off the NRT-JFK trip, as a positioning flight back to SFO (for its scheduled maintenance check-up). The return to SFO was much of the same: The 6:30 pm dinner flight (a 767) would depart for SFO, filled to the gills, and our 7 pm dinner flight (the 747) would have about 30 passengers booked on it. The best trip I ever worked in my UA career, was one of those JFK-SFO 747 positioning flights. We had a minor mechanical problem, in which all 30 passengers were re-accommodated on the 6:30 pm departure to SFO. Here we were, a crew of 12, with galleys fully catered for 30 First Class and Business Class customers, and no passengers...ferrying the aircraft back to SFO. Debauchery and hedonism ensued that night...the entire way home to SFO. A good time was had by ALL.
There was a brief time period back in the late 1990's when United would position a 747-400, fresh out of SFO maintenance, to JFK so it could operate the JFK-NRT flight. The Premium Trans-con 767 flight would depart from SFO at 10:30 pm, filled to the gills. The 747-400 positioning flight, which operated 30 minutes later, would have no more than 30 passengers booked on it. We would work the 11pm all-nighter to JFK, have about 13 hours in NY, then work a 747-400 that had just come off the NRT-JFK trip, as a positioning flight back to SFO (for its scheduled maintenance check-up). The return to SFO was much of the same: The 6:30 pm dinner flight (a 767) would depart for SFO, filled to the gills, and our 7 pm dinner flight (the 747) would have about 30 passengers booked on it. The best trip I ever worked in my UA career, was one of those JFK-SFO 747 positioning flights. We had a minor mechanical problem, in which all 30 passengers were re-accommodated on the 6:30 pm departure to SFO. Here we were, a crew of 12, with galleys fully catered for 30 First Class and Business Class customers, and no passengers...ferrying the aircraft back to SFO. Debauchery and hedonism ensued that night...the entire way home to SFO. A good time was had by ALL.
I bet pax would sooner drive PHX-ABQ than hassle with the airlines but, good point.
For a little perspective, however, I know former VP Marketing Tom Legow, the only truly successful marketing person US has seen in decades, used to lament that engineering would not let him do CLT-Asheville with a 767 stating that the yield was such that costs were saved over using two, or more, narrow-bodies.
Sorry to go off topic, but that doesn't make sense. There were two or three (depending on the time of year) daily 747s operating SFONRT then. Why position an empty 747 SFOJFK? I recall it being more of a W pattern (SFONRT NRTJFKNRT NRTSFO).
AstroLounge
Veteran
- Joined
- Oct 10, 2005
- Messages
- 1,491
- Reaction score
- 213
Actually it is EXCITING......at least the flight will OPERATE. The CANCELLATION Key in the Flight Ops Center is usually the most frequent key stroke done by Tempe . Either RUN the Airline or Get The Heck OUT!
JAMAKE1
Veteran
Bear:
It may not make sense, but it did in fact, occur. Do you remember the 747-400 OA? They were specially configured for the JFK-NRT-JFK pairing. They were configured with 36 First Class sleeper seats, and a very expansive Business Class cabin (then branded as Connoisseur) that extended past doors 4 L/R? The First Class galley was very large as well. The economy cabin was quite small with less than 100 seats, if memory serves me correctly. Anyway, I flew those SFO-JFK-SFO trips on the 747-400 OA for two months. I was able to get so much studying done on those empty all-nighters. The return home to SFO was like playing house: 12 flight attendants for 30 passengers...
It may not make sense, but it did in fact, occur. Do you remember the 747-400 OA? They were specially configured for the JFK-NRT-JFK pairing. They were configured with 36 First Class sleeper seats, and a very expansive Business Class cabin (then branded as Connoisseur) that extended past doors 4 L/R? The First Class galley was very large as well. The economy cabin was quite small with less than 100 seats, if memory serves me correctly. Anyway, I flew those SFO-JFK-SFO trips on the 747-400 OA for two months. I was able to get so much studying done on those empty all-nighters. The return home to SFO was like playing house: 12 flight attendants for 30 passengers...
