Originally Posted by MarkXS

Man, do you have things backwards!

I can't believe I'm wasting my 2,500th post on this...

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.

Okay...US voted for CO to enter *A so that US could extend their *A membership...it's as simple as that...if US did not vote CO in...US would have been pushed out...which is what I said in the first place so I do not see where I got things backwards...

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.

No No...US was sponsored in *A by UA and *A Members because US/UA were going for a possible second merger attempt...stop reading wikipedia and start reading the facts.

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.

Maintaining the Status Quo perhaps but it's possible US does not see it profitable to share costs and revenue who knows...that's the one for US to answer to analysts and shareholders.

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.

Good for YOU, but if said GAs get audited and they cannot account for comped upgrades they will get disciplined or terminated.