Originally Posted by
usa18dca
Realy ART? I have to elaborate to the Chairman of the FFOCUS Committee?
I won't go into details but the few things I can think of...
US is not involved in the ATI between LH/UA/CO weakening their position as a transatlantic carrier and codeshare wise as well.
US has no sustainable premium cabin experience compared to their brother & sister carriers here in the USA. (ie. CO/UA)
US continually alienates the customers regardless and the only reason US is in * Alliance is because of the "proposed US/UA merger in the past" and as a CONDITION of US' renewal they had to approve CO's entry ...
Need I say more...this is off topic Art!
Man, do you have things backwards!
CO is in *A because US voted for them - accession to *A must be by unanimous approval of current members. US wisely made it a requirement of voiting for CO that US would not be pushed out of *A, with a minimum 5-year guarantee. If US wanted to, they could have kept CO out of *A and would still be in *A themselves.
US was sponsored into *A by their codeshare partner UA, back in the mid-2000's. Not because of the canceled merger attempt several years before that.
You're right about US not being in the TATL ATI deal. But they weren't in the already-existing UA/LH ATI either, which was around before CO even decided to leave SkyTeam. Status quo there.
I don't particularly like US, but don't dislike them either. They did some stupid things in the past few years, but pulled back from a lot of them. 31" pitch on US is more comfortable than 31" pitch on CO IMHO.
I got a few "complimentary *G upgrades" on US from my then-UA 1P or 1K status. I'm not surprised that some GAs do that as a favor to CO elites - it's a way of encouraging CO elites to think about buying a US ticket when the schedule/route/fare meets their needs next time.