So there I was hanging out in the rear galley on a mundane ORD-SMF flight the other day chatting with the two F/As.

They've both put in quite a bit of time with the company and we got to talking about the different international routes they fly and the new aircraft configurations.

I asked if there were any hot rumors about new routes coming up with the CO/UA merger. Also asked what they've heard about the Boeing 787. Now keep in mind this is just F/A chit-chat...

For new routes they said they've heard that there will be more service between North America and South America, possibly opening up Santiago again (yay!).

The hot rumor they've heard about the 787 is that it will fly between IAH and AKL next year.

And according to them the reason the UA name was chosen over Continental is because the company gets a lot of revenue from its Asian routes (revenue premium class cabin customers plus cargo) and the UA name is better known to Asian customers compared to the Continental name.