A Phone Call I Knew Was Coming: Full Details on United 787 Route Changes

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Today, I was driving home and got a call from United. It went a little like this:

“Hello, This is United. We are calling about your upcoming trip on our new 787 Dreamliner. Please press 1 to continue”

After pressing 1, I was told that United hadn’t received their second Dreamliner and that they would be making a few changes to the equipment that was to be flown on these routes.

The phone number they gave to call was an INSTANT answer hotline only open 9AM- 8PM Central Time.

Phone Number: 1-877-826-0254

Of course, I knew this was coming because of all the rumors that were out on the internet. Just today, The Wandering Aramean & Mommy Points confirmed that there would be schedule changes to the new 787 routes.

After talking to the representative for a good two hours, this is what I found out:

• Only affected passengers were contacted. If you were not contacted, you’re still on the 787 (for now.)
• The 787 schedule change goes into effect Saturday, October 27th 11:59PM Eastern
• You can be rebooked +/- 14 days from travel if you choose.
• You can get a full refund if you choose.
• You can reroute your trip. For example if you had LAX-IAH-EWR, you can do LAX-IAH-ORD-EWR
• There is no change or cancellation fee.
• The inaugural flight will run on November 4th between Houston and Chicago.
• For now, they are switching affected routes to the Boeing 767-200 & 767-400. The 767 is internationally configured to have lie-flat seats.
• They are also offering free changes to transcon flights such as P.S. flat bed service between LAX-JFK.
• The inaugural flight is sold out in BusinessFirst. Economy seats are still available! (Remember United’s 787 is a two-cabin plane.

I had two opportunities to fly the 787 and was scheduled to fly on November 4th from Newark-Houston-San Francisco. I was also able to book Los Angeles-San Francisco-Houston-Newark on the 787 on another date but I quickly changed that to the route that’s leaning more towards the 787. That route right now is Houston-Chicago.

Again, this is what I have been told by two United agents “specially trained” to handle just the 787 schedule changes.

Whose heart was broken by the 787 changes?