Originally Posted by JBord

Your points are correct, but I still think people here are comparing apples and oranges, anyway. CO made decisions that negatively impacted operations (SHARES, for one). They had loads of mechanical issues right after the merger. There was at least a 12 month period where about 50% of the time, something was wrong with my flight. Anything from my seat being randomly moved to losing a reservation -- and that was the experience of most frequent customers. They made changes to the loyalty program, but in fairness, those mostly came later, and reflected the new reality in a condensed industry rather than the merging of two programs.

With Marriott, most of the changes people are griping about are with the loyalty program (or the name of that program, or the names of the metal elite levels). I can still book hotel rooms and know they will be there when I arrive. There's been no change in operations for most people. To me, that's a totally different comparison, but probably taking us way off topic anyway, so I'll stop.

As for customer service, I've had no problems at all. But I can appreciate that others have. The question remains whether it's the new normal or something they'll fix. UA had terrible customer service after the merger, and after a couple years it was almost back to pre-merger levels. Marriott is only 5 months in, so let's see what they do.