Well, I for one was quite positive about this merger and I had a couple of reasons. First off the just completed merger between DL and NW went really, really bad in my opinion. Then there was CO and they were the star ( pardon the punt ) when they were with ST. And then there was UA, slowly becoming a "classy" airline again. So, my thoughts, the merger will be great. They know how to do it better than DL, they have a great partner in CO and so just building on top of their recently growing strength.
To my surprise DL is getting more and more successful, despite of what I expected. And although besides the downgrade by increasing the hoops for segment fliers and the Regional Upgrades, not much else has happened to the UA/CO merger that indicates a turn to the worst. But it easily is conceivable that E+ does go away ( why are they holding back so long to make an announcement ) and that for many of us will be a dealbreaker.
For me that would be horrible, I just jumped ship from NW, where would I go?
I do, however, have some options out of NRT, but not all of them credit 100% miles. I tend towards Thai, just not sure where to credit my miles to.
Hopefully, UA sticks to E+ and all is good,