UAL: ORD-CDG 777 switchero????
 

Scheduled to depart TODAY on UAL from Chicago to Paris. The booking suggested the flight would be on a 767-300; however, checking the website today I see that the originating flight (out of Denver) is supposedly on a 777-200.

Anyone know which plane we might be on? It will inpact our seat assignments quite a bit...Thanks!

I may re-post this to the general France section, as I am curious and am leaving in a few hours...

Go to the UAL website and check the flight status for 942 (I assume that's the one you are talking about), then click "details" for each segment.

It looks like the DEN-ORD is on a 777 and the ORD-CDG is on a 767. You'll see that the DEN flight comes into a different gate (C16) than the CDG flight leaves from (C11), so there appears to be a change of planes in Chicago.

Hope that helps.

Paco...It is in fact a 767...UA Flight 942 is a "change of gauge" flight which allows an airline to market flight 942 as a "direct"(not to be confused with non-stop) flight between Denver and Paris when in fact it is a scheduled change of equipment at some intermediate point in this case Chicago.As long as the flight is scheduled to do so, then this will happen on the days it is scheduled to operate.Many airlines do this.American Airlines can advterise that they have "direct service" between for example DFW airport and Madrid, when in fact their Flight 68 flies between DFW and Miami where a change of equipment takes place (757 to 767) before continuing on to Madrid.Enjoy your trip!

Interesting stuff, thanks both of you!

Odd that they would not just use a 777 the entire trip (or, originate in Denver with the 767).

Keeps us on our toes, I suppose.

Paco..who knows! The 777 aircraft actually becomes flight 940 from ORD to FRA at 9.00pm, also a change of gauge flight originating in MSP...a 737 from MSP to ORD and then 777 to FRA....this way United can tell the universe they have "direct service" from all these points to all those points!!

For today, 3/31, the flight 942 arrives at Gate C16 in ORD at 4:15pm. If you check the outbound flights, you'll find that C16 is used for the second of three flights to Heathrow, UA 928 6:35pm. It's almost certain that it's using the same 777-200.

If you examine a little broader UA's Atlantic operation from ORD, you'll see the same pattern across the board...

928: PHX-ORD (752) ORD-LHR (772)
938: SEA-ORD (752) ORD-LHR (772)
940: MSP-ORD (733) ORD-FRA (772)
942: DEN-ORD (777) ORD-CDG (763)
944: DEN-ORD-FRA (772)
958: DEN-ORD (320) ORD-LHR (772)
and so on.

The only flight that uses the same plane, not just plane model, is UA944.

And you can see that by linking the numbers, you have direct service to Europe from SEA, PHX, MSP and of course DEN. And since DEN already has a "direct" service to LHR with flight 958 (even though it's a change of plane), they can use the flight number 942 through to Paris, so that gains another city-pair with direct service.

As to why they put two 772 flights between DEN and ORD, this is how I undestand it. First, UA has a hub there, so you can get other passengers coming throughout the West and Rockies region to connect. Second, DEN-ORD is relatively short. A 772 cannot make a Westcoast-ORD-Europe round trip within 24 hours. But UA can schedule a couple of the earliest returning 772s from Europe for two short runs to DEN, and then put them on the later flights out to LHR or FRA. While the planes that return late from Europe will just sit there at ORD and fly the earlier flights back to Europe. It's about utiliization.