Originally Posted by
eponymous_coward
Did you expect that they'd announce the merger approval in December, and then snap their fingers and say "everything is done now, we merged two large corporations instantaneously in a highly regulated environment"?
This is literally how every other airline merger in the history of mergers has gone, nothing instantaneously happens the day the announcement "we're going to merge and we got government approval" happens. What is a reasonable expectation here? They're not allowed to reallocate which jet flies where until the merger is 100% complete?
You couldn't use your AS MVPG upgrade certs on VX the first few months either, we seemed to have survived that...
The bigger issue here is that AS didn't replace many (if any) VX flights with AS metal. Here, we have an entire market where we are/were flying AS, where the rug was pulled out - no companion fare use, no upgrades using the program we're accustomed to and sold a bill of goods, no lounge access @ HNL for AL+ - all of which were reasons that many passengers chose AS for Hawaiian travels. It is the #1 reason I bought an AL+ membership. It is the #1 reason many have an AS credit card. It is the #1 place where people want to upgrade. I don't think it would be that much of an IT stretch to have the companion fare and UG systems functioning when booked as an AS codeshare.