United Adds Chicago-Tokyo and SFO-Sapporo Routes for 2026

United Airlines just dropped two new Japan routes for winter 2026. Daily year-round service between Chicago O’Hare and Tokyo-Narita starts October 24, 2026, on a Boeing 787-8. Starting December 11, United will fly San Francisco to Sapporo (CTS) three times a week through March on a Boeing 787-9, the first nonstop between the continental US and Sapporo by any airline.

Tickets went on sale May 14. The award side is where it gets interesting: new long-haul widebody routes usually launch with the best premium-cabin availability they will ever have.

Chicago-Tokyo Narita: Daily 787-8

The new Chicago-Narita flight makes United the only US carrier flying between ORD and NRT, complementing the existing daily Chicago-Haneda service. The route runs year-round, daily, on a 787-8 configured with Polaris business class, Premium Plus, Economy Plus, and Economy. (United’s tiered Polaris and Premium Plus fares introduced in April apply.)

Why open Narita in 2026 when Haneda is closer to central Tokyo? Two reasons:

1. Onward connections. Narita is United’s connection bank for the rest of Asia. From Chicago, the new flight unlocks one-stop access to 21 destinations across Asia-Pacific, six of them on United metal (Cebu, Guam, Kaohsiung, Palau, Saipan, Ulaanbaatar), the rest via ANA codeshare. Jakarta and Kuala Lumpur are the two that stand out.
2. Slot flexibility. Narita is easier to grow into for a daily 787 than Haneda, which keeps its slot pool tight.

San Francisco-Sapporo: First Continental US Nonstop

The Sapporo flight is the more unusual addition. United has flown there before via Tokyo, but this is the first nonstop from the continental US by any airline. It runs three times weekly on a 787-9 from December 11, 2026 through late March 2027, timed for ski season and the Sapporo Snow Festival.

What makes Sapporo worth flying for beyond the snow:

• Hokkaido skiing. Niseko, Rusutsu, Furano, and Kiroro are 1.5 to 3 hours from CTS by car or bus. For anyone who currently routes through Tokyo or Seoul to get there, the nonstop cuts roughly 8-10 hours of total trip time.
• The Sapporo Snow Festival, held annually in early February, draws around 2 million visitors. December-March demand spikes hard in that window.
• The food. Sapporo ramen, miso variations, fresh Hokkaido seafood, dairy. Worth flying for on its own.

The 787-9 on this route operates in United’s standard four-cabin Pacific configuration (Polaris, Premium Plus, Economy Plus, Economy). Polaris cabins on the Pacific 787-9 sub-fleet typically seat around 48, though exact counts vary.

How to Book These Routes With Points

MileagePlus uses dynamic pricing on both Saver and standard awards. Saver inventory exists on these routes at launch but disappears fast. For Polaris specifically, a Star Alliance partner is almost always the smarter route, and our Star Alliance award booking guide walks through which program books which route best.

For Sapporo specifically, MileagePlus is usually the smoothest at launch because the routing is a single United operating segment. Partner programs sometimes need a phone call for the first few weeks while new routes propagate through GDS inventory feeds.

If your dates are flexible, a Flex Alert is the right tool. If you have a specific week locked in, set a Live Alert on those dates. Either way, you’re not refreshing search pages manually for the next six months.

Finding the Award Seats on AwardFares

Two practical search URLs to start with:

• ORD-NRT in business, all Star Alliance programs
• SFO-Sapporo (CTS) on United

A few practical notes for these specific routes:

• Set the Aircraft Filter to 787-8 (Chicago) or 787-9 (Sapporo) so you’re looking at the actual new flights, not legacy connecting itineraries through other hubs.
• Use the Timeline View to see availability across the whole booking window in one glance. For Sapporo, the December-March window is small enough that this is the fastest way to spot a multi-day opening.
• Pull up the Seat Map before you commit on Chicago-Narita. Polaris award seats sometimes sit in the rear of the business cabin near the bassinet positions, which matters if you’re flying with family or want a window.

We covered the broader United Pacific expansion in 2025 when Bangkok, Ho Chi Minh City, Adelaide, and Manila launched, and the same pattern applies here: a healthy initial release of award space, a long quiet period, then a second wave four to six weeks out from departure. Alerts handle both windows so you’re not refreshing search pages for months.

For broader context on what United’s been adding lately, the October 2025 summer-2026 expansion post covers the European routes that started flying in late April, and our March 2026 United updates walks through the earlier-year program changes.

AwardFares’s Take

New routes launch with the best award space they will ever have, and these two are no exception. Chicago-Tokyo Narita gives the entire Midwest a clean Polaris option with onward Asia-Pacific connections. SFO-Sapporo is the rarer kind of route, the kind that disappears in shoulder seasons and shows up for a few months a year. Both are bookable through Star Alliance partner programs at noticeably lower rates than MileagePlus dynamic pricing, especially in business. We already see plenty of seats available using AwardFares (check the screenshots above).