Originally Posted by
bocastephen
These are not stories and hearsay, go surf the UA board for awhile - and let me point out that UA's 767s are well over a decade older than CO's. Boeing re-opened its closed 762 line just for CO's order, which is why our 762 interiors look like the 777 and 73NG interiors with the wave ceiling panels.
Most of our 757s are much younger than UA's, and even so, CO takes FAR better care of their aircraft exteriors and interiors than UA.
Look at our 735s and their 735s - ours are pristine, like they were delivered last week. Theirs? Check the condition of their nose areas and the paint around the doors, pitot tubes and static vents.
And no - I'm not unhappy that CO is leaving ST. We have far more (and superior) partner options with *A. I'm looking forward to redeeming on SQ and using AC as a way to get to HNL without fighting for space on UA or CO.
I don't want CO to start modifying its procedures to match UA - it should be the other way around as we have the superior business model and reputation for quality.
The point of my post - CO fliers should brace themselves for what could be a fairly unfriendly experience on UA. Since most of us won't be 1Ks and GS on UA, we should also not expect a lot of help during irregular ops - and claiming that we should be helped because we're CO plats and such, or *G, is likely to result in UA staff having a giggle at us and turning their backs.
A few comments regarding the age of the a/c:
1. The average age of the UAL fleet is currently 13.7 years, that of CAL 9.6 years. Yes, that means that UA's fleet is about 40% older. But there are many newer planes (UA does not have any totally new planes, that is true). 14 763's are less than 10 years old, their 777's are almost all less than 10 years old. Most of the airbuses are about 6 or 7 years old. By the way, UA actually has one of the younger fleets among U.S. carriers, younger than AA, DL, WN or YX.
2. Maintenance of UA aircraft: I can only speak from my own experience, and believe me I would relate any problem I would have experienced, but, to date, I have flown nothing but perfectly well maintained and clean UA planes, mostly Airbuses and 757's, as well as a pair of 747's to and from Beijing.
3. UA has been doing a lot of refurbishing with new International FC and business class. I flew to Beijing in their old business class and I found it largely comparable to CO BF.
4. Regarding your shrill prediction of the unfriendly reception CO's elites will receive from UA, why not just give it a chance and have an open mind? What do you have to lose? When I started flying UA I believed many of the same canards that are created by blowing the relatively isolated incidents that are related on the UA board here on FT and drawing an overly broad conclusion that the airline is a 100% disaster. It is not, and there are actually features of UA that at are better than CO.
UA also flies a lot more larger planes domestically, including a lot of 767 domestic service, and even a 777 configured for domestic travel. Can you imagine that on CO (where you consider yourself lucky if you're not on an RJ)?