Originally Posted by
rjhellma
Thanks for the great info in this thread.
Denver road-warrior here and newbie FT member. I travel 2x a week (usually Monday mornings to Thursday evenings, but can be Sundays or Fridays occassionally). I was living in Chicago for half of 2010 before I moved to Denver. I was on AA at the time and stuck with it after the move and earned Executive Platinum status. With the crappy AA schedules from DEN, I couldn't take it and I used my status to get a match on UA for Premier Executive on the challange (which I easily hit).
Here's my dilemma:
I've been on the same project in the Southern California area for the past 16+ months and will be here for the foreseeable future. UA's flight schedule to anywhere in SoCal is pathetic for business travelers. 8 am is the earliest flight on Monday mornings and 6:20 is the latest Thursday evening flight home to Denver, although I opt for 5:40 out of SNA instead of the dreaded LAX if I can. These times don't cater to the business crowd whatsoever and I find this very surprising for a UA hub.
I know that there are multiple Southwest and Frontier flights out of various SoCal airports later than 6:20 pm.
The other problem is the distance to LA from Denver. Because it is so short, even at 2 flights per week, I wouldn't come close to 100K miles, so I've been picking up segments on my way home Thursday nights (thru Pheonix).
This is getting pretty old, pretty fast....
While I occassionally don't fly home on weekends and instead opt to visit friends in NYC or Chi (perks of being single!), it seems like it may be a long shot for me to make 1K status.
Because of this, I'm thinking of making the switch to Southwest. I've earned quite a bit of miles on AA and UA thus far that I know I will prolly want to use on International Flights for leisure.
I've been quite loyal in my airline selection for my 2+ years as a consultant, but not sure if I'm going to stay that way.
Anyways, thanks for the great info and any suggestions would be appreciated.
Have you considered US? Yes, they are not United (no IFE or E+) but since you are going through Phoenix anyway and the flights are so short I doubt there is a big difference in service.
I'm incorrect here, looks like DEN-LAX is a meal flight on UA (assuming you get upgraded). Do not expect the same on US. I'm sure UA's meals aren't anything to write home about, but on US you will get a snack at best on each leg. Not sure if airline food is a priority for you, but thought is was worth correcting. Sounds like you would rack up 4 segments a week and you would be a Charmain in a little over 6 months. You could then always use your FF miles to fly on CO/UA internationally.
US has later flight times out of SNA and LAX (and Burbank and Long Beach) and you can take US' DEN-PHX-SNA and be in LA by 9:00 A.M. If you can be at DIA in time for the 6:00 A.M. flight (shudder). On the upside I would bet money that you will be upgraded on that 6:00 A.M. DEN-PHX segment most of the time.
Just looking at tomorrow for SWA it appears they have fairly good flight times (get into LAX by 8:00 from DEN) and you could leave as late as 8:45 P.M. Of course, no FC upgrades, and I'm not sure how good their new program is for international flying, but it is worth looking at.