AM flights from Dulles to Heathrow

[RMVET]

We took a United morning flight from Dulles (Washington) to Heathrow and the plane was less than half full--leaving us with three seats each to stretch out on. We are wondering if that flight is usually less traveled. We are flying to Heathrow in January to meet a ship in Southampton and debated booking Premium Economy where we get a little more leg room or taking the early flight and getting thee seats each.

 

Have any of you taken the United AM flight to Heathrow and found lots of empty seats. We want to make sure our one flight with them wasn't a one-off thing.

 

Thanks,

Grace and John

[6rugrats]

I personally love this flight. You were lucky it was so empty. Most flights are pretty full; no one can tell you if it was a "one off" or not.

[FlyerTalker]

no one can tell you if it was a "one off" or not.

Unless you either work for UA and have access to the load factors OR you stand at the gate each day and count how many people board the flight.

 

:D

[waterbug123]

the plane was less than half full--leaving us with three seats each to stretch out on. We are wondering if that flight is usually less traveled.

 

My guess is it was a one off. Two reasons: 1. If that was the norm, it wouldn't take long before the airline quit offering that flight, and 2. If that was the norm, it wouldn't take long for word to get out, and then EVERYONE would book that flight.... and then wonder why it was so full, when they've always heard how empty it was.

[fbgd]

I've taken it several times in Business and First, back when it was a 767, and there wasn't an empty seat.

[Zach1213]

I've done ORD-LHR daytime flight on AA several times, and will be doing it next month too. Quite nice. It really depends on the day of the week, too.

 

Business Class has always been pretty much full in my experience. In Economy, I've seen it packed and I've seen it very quiet, even when Business is packed full.

 

The flight I'm taking next month appears pretty empty in Economy (based on ExpertFlyer, not the seat map), but Business already looks quite full...even five weeks out.

[FlyerTalker]

My guess is it was a one off. Two reasons: 1. If that was the norm, it wouldn't take long before the airline quit offering that flight, and 2. If that was the norm, it wouldn't take long for word to get out, and then EVERYONE would book that flight.... and then wonder why it was so full, when they've always heard how empty it was.

Or as Yogi Berra said: "Nobody goes there anymore. It's too crowded."

[Globaliser]

My guess is it was a one off. Two reasons: 1. If that was the norm, it wouldn't take long before the airline quit offering that flight ...

One problem is that the OP can only report what was happening in the economy cabin (no premium cabin has 3 seats to stretch out across, AFAIK). And on many flights, what happens in the economy cabin can be barely relevant to profitability.

 

AIUI, the daylight flights facilitate same-day connections across LHR to other European points (even though the timing is tight for this). If there are businesses for whom this ability is important, there may be some high-yielding premium cabin traffic which makes the flight viable even if the economy cabin is routinely lightly loaded. That might match what Zach1213 has seen, although all of this is theoretical and speculative as we have no data from which to draw inferences.

[Budget Queen]

We took a United morning flight from Dulles (Washington) to Heathrow and the plane was less than half full--leaving us with three seats each to stretch out on. We are wondering if that flight is usually less traveled. We are flying to Heathrow in January to meet a ship in Southampton and debated booking Premium Economy where we get a little more leg room or taking the early flight and getting thee seats each.

 

Have any of you taken the United AM flight to Heathrow and found lots of empty seats. We want to make sure our one flight with them wasn't a one-off thing.

 

Thanks,

Grace and John

 

Think about it. Flight's ONLY goal is revenue. IF a flight consistently flies empty - then yield management is going to change it to make it more profitable.

 

A "funny" case happened several years ago, when a particular flight was "canceled" in Syr- due to the management finding it had "no growth". A glitch in the system was a hard sell by maintenance- who were scratching their heads, due to it always being FULL, every day, nonrevs never getting on (well known :) ). So they certainly do keep on track with load factors and make changes= although- clearly no "human" interpretation of the facts, years ago in that particular case. :)

Edited September 2, 2015 by Budget Queen

[fbgd]

Think about it. Flight's ONLY goal is revenue. IF a flight consistently flies empty - then yield management is going to change it to make it more profitable.

 

Not always on a flight by flight basis.

 

Airlines may reposition aircraft from one hub to another using an aircraft far bigger than is needed, or operate a ghost flight with no passengers to keep slots.

 

British Airways for example have about 10 flights per day between London and New York in order to maintain an almost shuttle like service which keeps business travellers happy. As it happens they do a pretty good job keeping the front cabins full.

 

Also some airlines make so much in cargo on certain routes that the cabins can fly with a fraction of the seats taken and still make a boatload of cash.

[TruckerDave]

We took a United morning flight from Dulles (Washington) to Heathrow and the plane was less than half full--leaving us with three seats each to stretch out on. We are wondering if that flight is usually less traveled. We are flying to Heathrow in January to meet a ship in Southampton and debated booking Premium Economy where we get a little more leg room or taking the early flight and getting thee seats each.

 

Have any of you taken the United AM flight to Heathrow and found lots of empty seats. We want to make sure our one flight with them wasn't a one-off thing.

 

Thanks,

Grace and John

 

One small note...United doesn't have Premium Economy, the extra legroom seats are called Economy +. Premium Econ is a separate class falling between economy and business. (No us based airline has Premium Econ)