Flying To/From Melbourne On United
 

Just a curious question.

Are we able to purchase Sydney-Melbourne only tickets on UA, or is the Sydney-Melbourne flight only for those who are going to or coming from the USA?

No its not possible as they are an 'international' carrier, I know what mean though like people do on QF flights, but as QF flies domestic they can consider that sector a 'domestic' sector.

United was allowed to sell tickets MEL-SYD & v.v just after Ansett went bust.

They charged $50 each way and they put a lot of people in J class on the the sector, probably in the hope of getting more long haul custom.

UA don't have Domestic rights in Australia to open the SYD-MEL-SYD route up for fare paying pax.

That said, I've been lucky to fly it a couple times ;)
The loads to/from MEL are usually quite full.

Will the new Open Skies agreement allow UA to sell the domestic segment?

No as an airline needs to be more than 50% Australian owned.

The most I've seen myself at the gate is around 180 on SYD-MEL

There were a few times when the 839 and 863 arrived on different piers (due to shortage of gates) - really annoying to have to get the pax to transfer from the 863 (SFO-SYD inbound) to the 839 (SYD-MEL) because it's such a long walk!