The US Airways elite travellers will realy loose from the merger.
A little depressing comparison of the US FF programm to United from the 50.000 miles elite perspective called Gold Preferred or Premiere Plus on both programms.
There are five areas of depressive facts
Upgrades, availability of upgrades, ENVOY much better than Uniteds business class, availability of premium international award seats and the visual appearance of both airlines.
1) On United you get 4 fo 500 miles upgrades for 10.000 miles flown on US you get 8 for
799 miles each and two extra for every 20.000 miles. In real live that means for a return First class seat from east coast to west coast a UA member needs 10 upgrades and a US member only 6 upgrades. In other words after 20.000 miles flown a USAirways member has 18 upgrades which are good for 3 First class tripps where a United member with unbelievable 8 upgrades is still short 2 for just a single first class return. In any comparison of FF programms that is the most unbelievable disparity I ever encountered.
2) From the UA boards I took that very often you can not get the fist class seats. My upgrade sucess rate on US on discounted tickets is at about 90 % for rhe last couple of years meaning I fly domesticly first close to all the times making coach a very unlikely place to be.
3) The pitch in ENVOY is 60 inch or 55 inch on A 330 or B 767 on Uniteds Business class it is 48 inches. Even Uniteds first on B 767 and B 747 with 60 inches isnt better and US new First Class has 94 inches pitch compared with 78 inches on UA on there best First class seats only available on B 777 with 78 inches.
4) I never had a problem getting my award ENVOY seat for 80.000 miles on US.
Judging from UA board messages sometimes they can not get seats for international business or first for months on specific routes.
5) Who the hell is designing the look of United
Compared to US new image being modern classy and very business like and looking nice even compared to top european carriers the United planes and corporate ID looks like a cheap spanish charter airline especially on the old planes and even there newer look is dad beat last of all big American carriers.
And on a personal note at US they cared about their elite travellers especially in Winston Salem at the preferred center and many gate agents and check in people.
At United I fear you are just a number in a big marketing tool no more a very valuable customer they try to keep.

I think someone said it best when USAirways had that 'small airline' feeling -- we all benefited because of it. United is a goliath, by any definition of the word, and we're just peons to them.

I hope that the other smaller airlines will do the right thing and try to steal us away if this merger goes through http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif I'm just waiting for a good invitation!

You are not the only one who hates the United paint job. ATC(Tower staff) find United planes the hardest to spot becuase they blend in with the sky.

eurousair--

I believe Wolf designed the current UAL paint scheme-- much like he did the new USAirways one-- and they really are similar if you look at it (one is just updise-down from the other; UAL dark blue on bottom, gray on top; US the other way). If you can't stand the UAL look how can you like the US one?

In your seating comparisons you are leaving out totally the new United First Class Suites, full flat private beds.

That's a pretty big chip you are walking around with there! I doubt it will be THAT bad to have to ride UA (IF all this talk happens at all).

Hey bear,
Uniteds new First suite has a 78 inch pitch which is less than US Airways new First with 94 inches. International flights we are talking.The old first still on many flights B 767 and B 747 for example has the same pitch you get on US Airways Envoy Business class.
Visual things are subjective and the new United paint is better than the old look I still see on some planes which was defnitely like a old charter airline.And also that might be subjective at all US Airways new logo and corporate ID are just very American and modern at the same time. If it wouldnt be for UNITED being one of the oldest brand name in the industry there would be no question what name and logo the new airline would have. Only American similar symbolizes automatically in the same way as US that they are an american carrier.


[This message has been edited by eurousair (edited 05-28-2000).]

The US First Suite is a flat, private, 6-1/2' long bed.

I am having trouble picturing a seat with a 94" pitch. Are you saying the rows in USAirways FC are nearly eight feet apart? What good is that if you don't have a bed to go along with it?

Just trying to picture U's product...

The old orange UAL paint scheme was indeed ugly; no argument there. But I think that is now totally gone. I haven't seen that on anything in at least a year.

Come on people. . . . All paint jobs in the 70's/80's were ugly. The real question is what we will think of the current logs 20 years from now.

The real losers with the merger are FF's that use upgrades.Can you imagine a flood of US Air FF's wanting to use Upgrades on UA flights say to HNL,LAX,OGG and etc.

The merger may not go through ,I pray it won't be so.

My birthday is coming up on 21 June. Christmas is on 25 December. Those are the two times of the year I usually receive gifts. My wish list for this year? NO US/UA MERGER!! That's it. I don't think I'm asking too much here. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/wink.gif

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I second that motion! Anyone got an address for the part of the DOJ who's going to investigate this, especially the farce called DCAir?