US Airways Dividend Miles (Pre-FlightFund Merger) - US/UA Upgrades

Now that everything seems to be going smoothly for the code share agreement etc.....what are your thoughts on how CP,GP and SP upgrades are going to work? It now says on the US web site that upgrades will be made available to US prefered members...but does not give any details....I was under the impression that UA 1 K's don't have unlimited NA upgrades like us CP's...and the upgrade certs are only 500 milers for the lower tiers....thoughts????

Just a hunch, but I'd expect US upgrade policy to mirror UA's pretty soon. First of all, there's the 500 vs 799 mile gap. I'd predict US "refining" down to 500 over UA moving up to 799. It's already no guarantee to upgrade on UA at mid-tier (PremEx) based on 4 free 500s ever 10K. Why allow US Golds who earn 8 799ers every 10K to upgrade as if they were UA 1Ps? I can't imagine UA given their 1Ps more - US will have to "right-size" (sic) their program and only give Golds 4 500s per 10K. If this does not happen, people like me will go to US and get 8 799s and then flood UA with even more upgrade requests than can be handled now. This agreement is good news to UA flyers- it is even better news to US flyers. But it's going to result in the US program being "right-sized" or "harmornized" (I know these terms seem euphemistic, but sorry they fit here)to UA standards.

How about Chairman"s Unlimited upgrades? Do UA 1 K's get unlimited also? What will happen here...this will be a tough one to swallow for us CP's here at US.

No unlimited upgrades to UA 1Ks. On the bright side, maybe US will add something like MRTC or EPlus. There are obviously a lot of differences to be sorted out. If it's any consolation, just imagine the issues that will come up if DL tries to link with CO- all those CO people who are used to upgrading at no charge on any fare now dealing with DL and their limits on upgradable fares. We're at the cusp of a whole new world (and i can't imagine the best options for elite flyers prevailing).

Darn...I'm CO PLAT as well...bad luck , huh? These are the only 2 accounts that I use....oh well..life goes on. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif

Don't mean to be pessimistic, but wouldn't it make sense that as the airlines realign to provide fewer competitive alternatives, there is less reason for the smaller airlines to provide better benefits than the bigger ones? It can't imagine it's just by chance that US, CO and NW offer better upgrade ops than AA, UA or DL to their elites.

I personally think it will be a "hybrid" of changes...not all one sided to say that US will make all of the changes. After all...this alliance still has AA and the NW/CO/DL thing to compete against. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif

My theory is that US upgrades policy will stay the same on US equipment and UA policy will be in place on UA equipment...there of course, will have to be a new policy implemented for upgrades on opposite agreement...I don't think that this is too far fetched.