US Airways Dividend Miles (Pre-FlightFund Merger) - Do you feel like a poor relation on US?

I'm an occasional US flyer, and frequent UA flyer, so I've spent a bit of time on both boards. Since US joined the Star Alliance, the redemption possibilities have obviously increased significantly for you Dividend Miles members.

Having said that, do you feel like a poor relation as a US customer? Given that US is seen as the worst-off finacially speaking of the American carriers, and plays a distant second-fiddle to United even in the Star Alliance, do you feel less well treated in Star than a typical UA customer does? Do you notice this in your award redemption availability on other carriers? Do you feel 'slighted' in any way when entering a Red Carpet Club or other partner lounge?

I'm sure the same feelings might be shared by members of the regional partners' programs as well (e.g. Spanair, Blue1), but State-side, I'm curious to see how you all feel.

I travel Domestic and international on many *A carriers. I have never felt like I was tread bad on UA, JK, LH, AC.

Having said that, I am not sure which is in worse condition as far as ch11 goes. It's up in the air between US and UA at this point with UA still trying to figure out what it's plan is going to be as far as exiting ch11. As far as US I guess we will know this Tuesday the 15th. And as for Delta, losing 2 billion in the last quarter and over 5 billion for the year. It will not be too long for them to catch up unless they are creative really, really soon. Out of any carrier DL is bleeding far worse than anyone.

But back to your question. All of the *A carriers have treated me very well.

T

I've not been too thrilled with my UA experiences (though United Express) as a US elite. I've not felt particularly well treated, nor have I been overly impressed with UA agents. However, that's just my own experience and I know most have a different view.

I don't see why a US ff would be any more of a second-class citizen than an ff of any other airline-- all airlines seem to treat partner ffs as second-class citizens. There are any number of threads featuring some LH MM elite complaining about being assigned the back row on a UA codeshare, and vice versa with some UA MP elite on LH metal. *A Gold is maybe be like a super-citizenship, but I would think a top tier on the operating carrier will always trump a top tier on a partner carrier in every airline's rulebook. And I'm sure the top tiers wouldn't have it any other way. Besides, wouldn't prejudices against nationalities outweigh prejudices against any airline-- the pax is first and foremost the overbearing American, the rule-obsessed German, or whatever :).

Furthermore, I do not think US would rank so far below UA if you polled airline staff or frequent flyers, internationally speaking. They're both traditional network carriers. It is not as if one airline is a zero and the other a ten; perhaps one is a six and the other a four (I'm not experienced enough to judge). Besides, UA is much larger, so while MP might not be printing miles at the rate DM is, or MP members not burning them as quickly as DM members, the perception of their burden across the whole network would be greater.

Likewise, as far as bankruptcy goes, UA's size is a liability as well as an asset. I don't just mean labor and maintenance costs. Changing the corporate culture of a larger organization with a more distributed network of stations and staff members has got to be more difficult, regardless of industry. I hope they can pull it iff, as I need both airlines to survive-- I'm only able to make UA elite because about a third of my trips are on US Express or US Shuttle (never need to fly US mainline, see no reason to try; avoid UX out of IAD whenever I can).