United Is Adding Four New Routes Next Spring, Including San Francisco to Charleston and a Chicago-Bermuda First

United Airlines has lined up four route launches for spring 2027, with three new transcontinental links from San Francisco and a weekly hop to Bermuda from Chicago O'Hare — a route no other airline flies nonstop.

From 28 March, San Francisco International will gain daily flights to Hartford, Connecticut and Oklahoma City, plus a four-weekly service to Charleston, South Carolina. The Charleston flight runs on Mondays, Thursdays, Fridays and Sundays and joins United's existing Charleston network of Chicago, Denver, Houston, Newark and Washington Dulles — bringing its total there to six destinations. Hartford and Oklahoma City will be the only nonstop links to San Francisco from those cities, and United is banking on demand from both business and leisure travellers wanting easier West Coast access. Oklahoma City is the sole route flown by regional arm United Express; the rest use United's mainline narrowbody fleet.

The international addition lands on 3 April: a once-weekly service from Chicago O'Hare to Bermuda's L.F. Wade International. United currently serves the island year-round from Newark, but this is the first nonstop Chicago link, giving the Midwest a straightforward island escape. A handy bonus for the return leg: Bermuda has US Customs preclearance, so you clear US immigration before boarding and arrive home as a domestic passenger — much smoother connections.

Bermuda isn't short of US service — American, Delta, JetBlue and local carrier BermudAir all fly there — but the Chicago route is genuinely new capacity. Over in Charleston, the San Francisco flight fills a gap too: until now, the only transcontinental options were Breeze's seasonal Los Angeles flights and Alaska's year-round Seattle service. United holds just 12.8% of Charleston's traffic, behind American (25.9%), Delta (23.7%) and Breeze (14.1%), so this push grows its presence at an airport best known as the home of Boeing's 787 Dreamliner plant.

For travellers, the practical upshot is simple: if you're based in Hartford, Oklahoma City or Charleston and want one-stop-free access to San Francisco and United's Pacific and Asia network beyond, tickets for late March onward should be worth watching. And Chicagoans get a weekend-friendly Bermuda option with a far easier arrival experience than most Caribbean-and-back routings.

Via Simple Flying.