I see that the chat with Robert Sahadevan (President, United Mileage Plus)is being rescheduled due to observance of the anniversary of the events of 9/11??? I was hoping this chat might shed some light on progress and details of the workings of the US/UAL marketing partnership. I guess I'll have to wait.

I'm not really sure why "observance of the anniversary of the events of 9/11" prompts the rescheduling of the chat on 9/12, I think that the real reason may be that too many dteails in the UA/UAL thing remain unknown and Sahadevan isn't ready to deal with the flood of questions. If this is true it is pretty poor that he is using 9/11 as a scapegoat.

Or maybe I just have a hard time believing anything airline executives have to say these days....

If the reason was really for the "observance....", then why did they schedule it for 9/12 to begin with??! Giving no reason and simply providing a new date would have sufficed.

The consensus is that the explanation is bogus (http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/Forum50/HTML/014274.html).

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With the ideas they have in mind for us, these guys don't want to talk to anybody. United Airlines. Now there's a product. Just talked to a pal of mine heading for China. 7 Grand roundtrip, in Business Class, in a middle seat. 2-3-2 configuration.

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by cockroach:
With the ideas they have in mind for us, these guys don't want to talk to anybody. United Airlines. Now there's a product. Just talked to a pal of mine heading for China. 7 Grand roundtrip, in Business Class, in a middle seat. 2-3-2 configuration. </font>

First of all, this seems like a strange topic for the USAir forum. What's compelled me to chime in, however, is that I fail to see what the source of your disgust is with the "$7K c-class to China" bit. Is it about the money? (I'll be the first to admit that 7 large is a lot to fork over for a plane ticket, but everyone here knows that trans-oceanic premium tix fetch huge amounts of dough from the uninformed. Ever checked out published fares on JFK-LHR?) Or are you vexed by the configuration? (IMO, UA has the best cabins/amenities in the business between the US in China. Everyone else also stacks 7 seats across their 777 and 747 fleets, but falls short of UA in terms of pitch and seat features.) Or do you have a problem with the service? (While service isn't generally considered one of UA's brightest feathers, aside from NH and JAL, I can't of any other carriers that provide markedly better service to China than UA.)

The reason for my lengthy post was not to pick a fight, but rather to correct a possible misconception about one of the few FT issues with which I'm presently involved. In the past 8 years that I've been traveling between the US and China, I've tried to abandon UA at least five times, but I've kept coming back because they really are the best option. (MU and CA -- the only other carriers that fly non-stop -- are dreadful; NW requires an NRT connection, has old airplanes, and crappy service; KE and OZ have questionable safety records and limited schedules; NH and JAL usually require long layovers in NRT or KIX and 70% FF miles for cheap tix isn't too cool either; CX/KA via HKG makes for a very long trip.) In conclusion, while UA may well have it's share of problems right now, IMO its US-China service is the best of its breed.

Good, fly them.