Originally Posted by TWA Fan 1

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)?