I just thought I'd start a seperate thread here for news and speculation about the effects of the US/UA merger on the respective FF programmes. Any thoughts? There is a press release on the US Airways website as of now that says that Dividend Miles will be merged into Mileage Plus, with passengers being able to merge their miles in both programmes into UA's programme. Oh, what to do?!? All of my precious miles going into UA!! All of our precious First Class Upgrades going to "United Airways" employees. I AM *NOT* LOOKING FORWARD TO THIS ONE. If I notice a significant decease in FF benefits when this happens, then that will be enough to convince me to switch to CO. Just my $0.02. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif Grr...

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I lose out all around if it happens:

(1) Combining US and AA miles will be history (and I don't have UA miles--started flying them in the strict expiring-mileage days, so my *A miles are with AC).

(2) The US credit card from Bank of America (my bank) will likely be replaced by United's card from Fir$t U$A (about which I have heard some truly impressive horror stories).

Another issue: does the merger give me a one time opportunity to turn Amex Membership Rewards points into UA Miles by transferring through my US account? I think so.

My first three flights that I paid for were on United Airlines. I was so turned off by it that I switched to USAirways and have been there ever since. Now that I'm being forced to come full circle, I too am considering moving to CO.. or even TWA (just because it's also a smaller airline,a nd that's what I really liked about USAirways).

350,000 Dividend Miles will now become 350,000 Mileage Plus miles? Feels odd. Very odd.

After the merger, US miles would be UA miles and therefore eligible for transfer to Hilton HHonors under the reward exchange for the first time.

[This message has been edited by dhacker (edited 05-24-2000).]

OK... well I have been checking the UA board ever since I heard about the buy. Some of the UA folks were now mad that they would have to share seats with US people and blah, blah, blah... But then, on the other hand, some UA FFers feel sorry for the US flyers who will now have to put up with the UA folk.

Anyways (that was just an aside), does anyone have a realistic timeframe for when my DM will become UA miles? I've been reading press releases after press releases and there is really no timeframe to speak of.

Also, do you think that the Justice Dept. will have any say in this matter? I mean, this can tremendously stifle competition in the Northeast. Or do you think the DOJ is too busy with Microsoft and will sit back and watch?

OK, I apologize for my random thoughts, but I will admit that I am excited for PHL-PDX and PHL-YVR direct flights now!

best wishes,
mike

dg1-

Right with ya - US, especially the new A330 Envoy, is so much better than UAL over all. I am not real happy about this.

chexfan - IMO this deal could take awhile - maybe even a year or so - the feds are gonna have a real close look see, and congress might even want some hearings just for fun and some news bites - the DC Air spin off is a sop so UAL can say "hey look here - local competition!" of course evey plane, part, and pilot will be leased from UAL.

If the deal is approved USE THOSE SYSTEMWIDES FAST!

MG

The press release said they expect 2001, which is in line with everything else I've heard -- about a year.

I will continue to fly US like normal this year, and burn up the systemwides with my wife. I figure then I'll still be Chairman's Preferred (or UAL 1k, ARGH!) next year and I can get other airlines to comp me to at least mid level.

Calm down guys.....this thing was only announced today.

Persoanlly, I would take a complete wait-and-see approach. First and foremost, I would fully expect AA to make a competing bid for US.

Second, the regulatory hurdles are ENORMOUS on this deal.

Finally, the labor unions at both carriers will have something to say about this--and it won't be kind words.

Therefore, I think it will take at least 6months-1year before we see any major changes at either airline, change of partners included.

And it dosen't hurt to position yourself.
Would not have hurt to buy US air stock last month on the rumor.

Overall, I think a UA+US ff plan is slightly good for UA Mileage Plus passengers and very bad for US Dividend Miles passengers. From my experience, it's easy to get US upgrade even if one is Silver, but even UA 1K (like Chairman's Preferred) fight for the last upgrade. I also think (but need to confirm) that US bonus miles for elite members is more than UA.

In fact, when I fly UA, I don't worry about elite status because it doesn't mean much except to check in at the shorter line.

From my experience, UA awards are also hard to get.

From my experience, DL upgrades are also very hard to get. NW, CO are easy to get. I don't know about TW. I rarely fly AA because they severely mistreated me a few times and the craze to get FF miles effectively extended what was suppose to be a short boycott of a few months.

chexfan- This stifles barely any competition in the Northeast. The only routes that overlapped the two were the ones out of IAD- To LGA, BOS and points south. Otherwise, intra-Northeast was all US, Northeast to the West was UA, and Northeast south was US only.

I agree that US FFers lose here because they were shielded in competition for upgrades because US had few high mileage routes for people to ues to get to elite level. Now with all these UA Premiers who got there with a few BOS-SFO flights, the short-haul Eastern flights will fill up.