Has anyone seen pigs flying? Because I may have a compliment or two about CO. I just flew CO due to a weather cancellation on my UA flight and to my surprise it wasn't so bad. Ever since the merger things have been going to hell and I blamed CO and its minions, so I'm not a CO fan by any means. I thought it was a ghetto airline even though I hadn't set foot on one of their planes in over 20 years. Here is my trip report:
* OUTBOUND = UA 757 x 3.5 hours + UA ERJ x 1.5 hours
* RETURN = CO ERJ x 1.5 hours + CO 737 x 3.5 hours
# UPGRADES -- Slight edge CO
Upgrades on UA cleared at the 100 hour mark. When I was booked into the CO flight there was only one F seat remaining on the 737 roughly 4 hours before take off, much to my surprise I trumped everyone and got it because I was on a Y fare. Because I mostly fly Y fare, I like CO's upgrade prioritization better.
Lucky you- it sucks for others.
# HUBS -- Winner UA
IAH had nice dining options but I found it confusing to navigate and had to take the train to go from one flight to the next. DEN is a breeze to move around even though I don't like any of the restaurants in the UA terminal.
Agreed. I like DEN, also. IAH B concourse SUCKS!
# CLUBS/LOUNGES -- Winner CO
The CO President's club at IAH was nicer than either of the RCC's in Denver. Better snacks, not as crowded, more enjoyable for sure.
Agreed.
# REGIONAL JET EXPERIENCE -- TIE
Not much to talk about here. I was happy as a clam in row A on both RJs since that is a single row and I value elbow room over leg room. The lack of E+ on either did not bother me.
The ERJ is OK, but CO flies it a LOT and the CRJ 700 EXPLUS is FAR SUPERIOR!
# AIRPLANES -- Winner CO
The seats on the 757 feel more spacious and comfortable than the 737, but looking it up on SeatGuru they seem to be about the same so it must be my imagination. The CO 737 had satellite TV and this is on the whole time from boarding through landing, so you have something even when portable devices are not allowed.
I do not like CO coach seats... they seem "thinner" to me. I have nothing to document that, but it seems that way to me. I have been on several CO planes with NO entertainment at all. At least EVERY UA plane has music, ch 9, and some TV/movie.
# FOOD -- N/A, lunch vs dinner
Lunch on the CO 757 was the typically lame turkey sandwich or salad. I can't stand either so I passed. Dinner on the CO 737 was either lasagna or chicken tandori. The CO dinner was quite good. The salad had sliced tomatoes, cheese and a good dressing. Better than any of the UA salad choices, especially the ones that come with four dozen lima beans. The lasagna wasn't bad but maybe a notch below the last lasagna I had with UA. They also included a roll with butter. Had I been coach, I would have passed on all of UA snack boxes but would have been happy to try the CO cheeseburger. CO had desert too! Not the stupid cookie from UA which I don't care for either but a sundae.
I find them similar...
# DRINK -- TIE, edge CO
I should give the win to CO but am going to call it a tie because I was drinking red wine on UA and white on CO. The UA wine was rancid, the CO wine was good and refreshing. I've not had red wine that bad in UA before so I'll assume it was a fluke. I also had coffee which I think was about the same on both. My glass/cup never went empty for long with CO, the same was not the case with UA but I have to assume this is crew specific and one flight is a small sampling size.
Except if you order the non free cocktail in F. I am stuck with CO planes mostly now and only have 1 upgrade on them in 2011 and the white wine I had was sad. Wine is such a personal taste factor, I try not to judge on this... just stay away from the $4 bottles please!!
# BOARDING -- winner CO
One of my biggest complaints about the merger is how they ruined the UA boarding process that worked so well for so long. I was surprised that the CO boarding went smoothly. UA's boarding is still a mess.
ROFL- Are you actually Smisek/J?
# OTHER --
As I wrote on another post, I was very impressed with the CO mobile web site. I loved being able to see the seat map and upgrade list in real time, I always assumed that no airline had that. The UA 1K desk handled my re-booking and they were very nice, I never dealt with the CO desk. The CO flight was maybe 70-80% full. The entire row in coach where I was before the upgrade went empty, so I would have been happy in coach too (elbow room, wine$$ and cheeseburger$$ = near first class experience to me
).
How was your pillow?
I'll still complain about the merger, what I realized is that CO isn't that bad but the product coming out of the merger is.
I now understand why CO flyers are as unhappy with the merger as the UA folks. I used to wonder WTH are these "maggots" complaining about since I figured it was all an improvement for them.
If they had adopted 100% of the CO procedures I would have been happy. If they had adopted 100% of the UA procedures I would have been happy as well. They seem to come up with worse options in an effort to cut costs or compromise for the sake of it.
There still are some things about CO I don't like, such as the long layovers needed at IAH to make sure you won't miss your connection, the unnecessary military boarding zone (put them with the F group, don't make yet another new zone), the many turbo props that now show up, Colgan air, etc...
But, it is not as bad as I had thought.