Continental joined Star Alliance, Oct 27 '09 : discussion thread : Earning rates
I hope this is on topic as it would give some of us in the regions better options for earning/burning bmi points. The article below talks of a United/Continental merger with some financial input from LH which raises my hopes of Star Alliance membership.
I hope this is on topic as it would give some of us in the regions better options for earning/burning bmi points. The article below talks of a United/Continental merger with some financial input from LH which raises my hopes of Star Alliance membership.
Thanks for the heads up on the CT article, but before people feel like contributing to the 1098th FT thread on UA/CO merger rumours, perhaps they might consider joining the discussions on this issue on the UA, CO or ST boards, just to stick to the main threads on this?
Location: A festering pit; a pustule of a fistula set athwart the miasmic swamps of the armpit of the Gulf of Mexico - a Godforsaken wart upon a dark crevasse of the World. (IAH)
As a CO Plat and BD Gold, the potential synergies of this merger are indeed intriguing. My only hope is that a CO/UA/*A tie-in occurs before any LH/BD deal. Perhaps LH casting its hungry eyes on B6 and the CO/UA merger (they're considering investing a few Billion or so) will cause them to hold off on swallowing up BD. Then again, it's the Luftwaffe...they may just decide to buy everything in sight all at once.
If CO/UA gets done before LH/BD (likely, if it happens, as execs want to push this past a business-friendly U.S. Administration with a furiously ticking clock), I welcome the opportunity to use Part-Cash/Part-mi. for BusinessFirst reward bookings. From my own, personal perspective, redemption of Part-Cash/Part-mi. for BF would be an even better value than CO's Miles+Copay International Upgrade system (which is abysmal). To think that my recent partial defection to BD could result in getting a better deal with CO than my years of loyalty to them has produced...well, that's sweet irony indeed.
Im sure alot of people in the regions outside London would like to see this merger, myself included, as being beside BFS, the possible connection through EWR to LAX (my usual destination) and the ability to earn miles would certainly be a big draw for me. Although i cant see too many people wanting to burn miles with CO
CO have have some great routes, they have a massive Central American and Carribbean network and some decent South American and Pacific island destinations and of course - London - New York.
Well I suppose with a BD dimension we could tolerate yet another merger thread
I think CO and UA in Star would be great for Diamond Club members. CO provides useful access from the rest of the UK and would return Star to the no 1 or no 2 alliance position. And you wouldn't have to touch the CO program.
From a commercial point of view it would neaten the picture for BD's big commercial customers, putting an IAH hub within easier reach of ABZ, LHR and oil destinations in the 'stans. On the other hand, the combined company would be eating into some its own short-haul LHR feeder revenue: EWR has more onward options than LHR.
Location: A festering pit; a pustule of a fistula set athwart the miasmic swamps of the armpit of the Gulf of Mexico - a Godforsaken wart upon a dark crevasse of the World. (IAH)
Given the existing VS-CO, VS-BD and VS-SQ relationships, could this be yet another opportunity of persuading SRB to join *A?
I certainly hope so. They could join in on the fare-war bloodbath that's certain to hit IAH-LHR (operated by BA & CO), once the nonstop version of that route begins later this year. Anything that puts a dent in IAH fares is a good thing, IMO. I'm still chuckling at the thought of getting BusinessFirst seats for cash+mi. at a more favorable rate than via mi.+copay. Granted, BusinessFirst isn't amazing as far as the hard-product goes, but it's just about the only game in town if one wants a nonstop from IAH.
Further, I would be very surprised if the next-generation BF seat isn't true-flat. Don't know what sort of seat the combined UA/CO would settle on for business class, but it will likely be horizontal.
As for domestic F offerings, CO service blows their competition (except for 3-Class Transcon UA/AA) out of the water. The new F seats that they have installed on their 737-900ERs (only two in the fleet so far) look exceptionally comfortable. Unfortunately, I had to sit down the back on my recent 739ER flight, but the F seats looked like they had been ergonomically designed to better support one's back. Some anecdotal evidence on the CO Forum bears that out. Until now, that had been my only complaint with the CO F seat (lack of back support).
As a CO Plat and BD Gold, the potential synergies of this merger are indeed intriguing. My only hope is that a CO/UA/*A tie-in occurs before any LH/BD deal. Perhaps LH casting its hungry eyes on B6 and the CO/UA merger (they're considering investing a few Billion or so) will cause them to hold off on swallowing up BD. Then again, it's the Luftwaffe...they may just decide to buy everything in sight all at once.
If CO/UA gets done before LH/BD (likely, if it happens, as execs want to push this past a business-friendly U.S. Administration with a furiously ticking clock), I welcome the opportunity to use Part-Cash/Part-mi. for BusinessFirst reward bookings. From my own, personal perspective, redemption of Part-Cash/Part-mi. for BF would be an even better value than CO's Miles+Copay International Upgrade system (which is abysmal). To think that my recent partial defection to BD could result in getting a better deal with CO than my years of loyalty to them has produced...well, that's sweet irony indeed.
I would be very surprised if you will get lots of part miles part cash reward bookings availability on CO with BD miles. Both my wife and I are CO Plats stuck with more than 1.2 million miles between us thanks to our two years in IAH and can't spend them even on CO metal ex Europe (forget other SkyTeam carriers), so CO releasing BF seats to others is unlikely.
And CO miles plus copay upgrade is nothing but highway robbery. The only benefit of CO was that we used to get complimentary upgrades about 90% of time on our cheap weekend trips ex IAH.
Well I suppose with a BD dimension we could tolerate yet another merger thread
I think CO and UA in Star would be great for Diamond Club members. CO provides useful access from the rest of the UK and would return Star to the no 1 or no 2 alliance position. And you wouldn't have to touch the CO program.
From a commercial point of view it would neaten the picture for BD's big commercial customers, putting an IAH hub within easier reach of ABZ, LHR and oil destinations in the 'stans. On the other hand, the combined company would be eating into some its own short-haul LHR feeder revenue: EWR has more onward options than LHR.
One good thing about CO in star alliance is that it opens up connections to South America ex IAH (or PTY with Copa assuming Copa goes where CO goes).
And if you don't live in IAH, you should not touch CO Onepass program!!
Im sure alot of people in the regions outside London would like to see this merger, myself included, as being beside BFS, the possible connection through EWR to LAX (my usual destination) and the ability to earn miles would certainly be a big draw for me. Although i cant see too many people wanting to burn miles with CO
I tried every trick in my book to convince my wife to fly CO LGW-IAH-GRU-GIG for easter so that I could burn some of our CO miles. She refused flat out for two reasons- CO BF (the seats are nowhere near as good as LH biz or BA biz from a sleeping point of view) and transit through IAH (with associated fingerprinting, queues etc.). So I had to dip into our LH stash to get LX F to GRU and buy RG tickets for cash GRU-GIG-GRU.
And LX F is costs less miles too with 50% Senator discount.
Location: A festering pit; a pustule of a fistula set athwart the miasmic swamps of the armpit of the Gulf of Mexico - a Godforsaken wart upon a dark crevasse of the World. (IAH)
I would be very surprised if you will get lots of part miles part cash reward bookings availability on CO with BD miles. Both my wife and I are CO Plats stuck with more than 1.2 million miles between us thanks to our two years in IAH and can't spend them even on CO metal ex Europe (forget other SkyTeam carriers), so CO releasing BF seats to others is unlikely.
And CO miles plus copay upgrade is nothing but highway robbery. The only benefit of CO was that we used to get complimentary upgrades about 90% of time on our cheap weekend trips ex IAH.
I have redeemed upwards of 700,000 OnePass miles at Standard (not SleazyPass) reward levels in BF without problems, to both Europe and Hawaii. It's not that difficult out of IAH, if one picks off-peak times of year to travel (as I generally do). Also, it sometimes helps to wait until even just a few weeks before travel, as revenue management will open up BF award availability if the cabin is near empty. KVS SkyTeam awards search function is also an invaluable tool. CO also does some weird married-segment logic with its reward availability at times. Just because IAH-AMS isn't available for Standard BF redemption, doesn't mean SAT-IAH-AMS isn't available. Odd, but that's how it works sometimes.
The real question is...if CO/UA team up in *A, can I expect a BD flight IAH-MAN, to capitalize on all the IAH-ABZ oil traffic (tons of high-yielding pax flying that route); or will BD be content to merely let CO fly IAH-LHR, then take the connecting traffic LHR-ABZ?
I have redeemed upwards of 700,000 OnePass miles at Standard (not SleazyPass) reward levels in BF without problems, to both Europe and Hawaii. It's not that difficult out of IAH, if one picks off-peak times of year to travel (as I generally do). Also, it sometimes helps to wait until even just a few weeks before travel, as revenue management will open up BF award availability if the cabin is near empty. KVS SkyTeam awards search function is also an invaluable tool. CO also does some weird married-segment logic with its reward availability at times. Just because IAH-AMS isn't available for Standard BF redemption, doesn't mean SAT-IAH-AMS isn't available. Odd, but that's how it works sometimes.
The real question is...if CO/UA team up in *A, can I expect a BD flight IAH-MAN, to capitalize on all the IAH-ABZ oil traffic (tons of high-yielding pax flying that route); or will BD be content to merely let CO fly IAH-LHR, then take the connecting traffic LHR-ABZ?
I used to find IAH-AMS impossible to get even in paid BF and had taken the KL private air nonearning flight a few times. The problem is that my main airport now is SVG with only KL from ST, and getting a reward seat on KL or AF is next to impossible with CO miles.
re IAH-MAN, you might get lucky and CO might start an IAH-MAN. There is a SQ 777 IAH-DME-SIN starting soon and the new SQ F is way better than all other IAH-MOW options (DL, BA, AF,LH or KL), so somebody else might try some weird routing like SQ.
Received the below email from CO this morning. Seems the Skyteam relationship will end 24 oct and word is (although not confirmed) that *A membership will follow very shortly after. Good news for me as I have a CO redemption for November using my OnePass miles and it looks like I will now get lounge access with my BD card (I have no CO status). November will also mark the end of having to fly to the USA on UA or US to get status miles
Quote:
Dear Jetstreamer,
In June 2008, Continental announced plans for extensive commercial cooperation with United Airlines and Star Alliance, linking our networks and services worldwide to deliver new benefits to our customers. We pledged to keep you informed of developments and would like to provide you an update.
Regarding SkyTeam, Continental intends to end its participation in the SkyTeam Alliance after the last scheduled flight on Oct. 24, 2009.
We continue to work through the details of our planned exit from SkyTeam and entry into Star Alliance, but anticipate our participation in Star Alliance will begin promptly after we leave SkyTeam. We are committed to providing our OnePass members with opportunities to earn and redeem miles over an extensive network.
We will be working hard with our good partners at SkyTeam, and our future good partners at Star, to make the transition from SkyTeam to Star Alliance as smooth as possible.
You can expect to receive updates from us as we continue to develop our participation in Star Alliance. Remember the most current updates may be found at continental.com.
As always, many thanks for flying Continental. We appreciate your business.
Sincerely,
Mark Bergsrud
Sr. Vice President, Marketing Programs and Distribution
perhaps they might consider joining the discussions on this issue on the 
