Don't we all? I mean I fly 50K a year on UA, but I'll be darned if I know how they run.

But avek00 does have a point that UA has been very quiet on how they plan to make it out of C11. Yes, we know they have cut costs (anyone flying UA in the past year can see that), but WHQ has been essentially "mute" on how they will get out of C11 since the initial C11 filing.

As a customer of UA, that worries me. I only have 100,000 miles. Do I book a revenue flight to Tokyo this fall and use 60,000 to upgrade to Business, or do I spend the 90K for an XC ticket and save $1000? Or do I burn 120K for an XF ticket?

If UA will not make it past mid-2004, why save the miles? They're worthless when UA goes under. But if UA has policies that, at least in my mind, mean they will make it through 2004, then I need to conserve my miles for 2004 travel.

And while my Premiere Executive renewal is confirmed, do I make a play for 1K? As a leisure traveller, that's an extra 40,000 miles I need to make, but two SEA-LAX-NRT-SIN runs would take care of that (and I'd swap 120,000 miles for 6 SWUS - even H's - and the CNAU-1s).

I want UA to survive, both because I really like UA and because I don't want to be stuck with 757s and MD-80s flying AA.

But execs saying "We're doing tremendous!" while posting nine-figure losses every quarter is not convincing me that spending thousands more going for status or earning /saving miles is the absolute right thing to do right now...