Yeah, but SFO-EWR is probably a 767 which has, what? 25-35 seats up front. IAH-TPA is a 737... 16 seats, sometimes 12. Big difference.

Yes, 47 on the upgrade list for a 737 with 16 available seats. I heard that they just started automatically upgrading the United elites on the 12th. I saw lots of unusual looking elite cards in the line, so I'm sure that's part of the problem. For me, this whole merger sucks. I haven't flown a United flight since 2005, so I'll never see a reciprocal upgrade anyway.

They ended free meals in coach this week as well. Looks like they are integrating things using the lowest common denominators from each airline. Ending meal service--yeah that's very innovative CO. Maybe start charging for carryon bags, too. It's starting to be such that if you aren't platinum or better, you might as well fly on one of SWAs airborne busses.

And sorry, but I'll have to disagree with getting rid of miles qualifications. Most of my miles come from US East Coast to Asia trips @ 10k each way. Hell, most of my CO miles come from Sing Air, but OnePass has better benefits (or at least it seems so--let me know if I'm wrong; I'd be happy to switch at this point.) I do use CO for my domestic connections, and LAS trips (for conferences) and I do take flight 99/98 to HKG sometimes, which is actually quite nice if you get one of the upgraded 777s. I'd rather tear my arm off than take UA's HKG flight from ORD (that was the one I took in 2005)--but I suppose that will be CO soon. Dammit--CO was the only decent MAJOR domestic carrier left, and now it's United. Makes me want to move out of the country.