LIH Prem asks a good question, and it's one that anyone with status needs to continually ask. Apparently UA has almost given up AUS to Southwest, CO and AA. I think it's foolish. They could make piles of money here if they really examined it. The station manager for years was not a very aggressive soul. And the one in place now is fairly clueless and biding time till retirement. In the weekly travel section of the Austin newspaper, there is a comparison chart of which carrier has the lowest domestic fares to about twenty destinations. I study it every week. UA appears with the lowest fare to any destination only once or twice a month.

I became 1P while living in LA almost twenty years ago. When I moved to AUS I continued to fly UA as my primary carrier because of their international schedules were going where I needed to go, and because of the good upgrade policies. A binge of international travel made me a 1K and I've kept that status for about five years.

Before 911, AUS was all mainline, with feeder flights (727s and 737s) to DEN (I think four a day), ORD (as many as four a day), SFO (one) and IAD (one daily).

AUS took a big hit after 911. You'd think that travel between the Texas capital and Washington would increase during a Bush administration. Instead of doing something to increase the Washington market and boosting the lucrative international connection traffic through IAD, UA actually took away the IAD non-stop (now restored, but as UAX).

And then the dreaded CRJ scourge came to AUS. First there was one or two CRJs in the mix to ORD. And then AUS-ORD went all UAX. I began to route myself occasionally through DEN to get to ORD on my way to Europe, all just to stay away from the horrors of UAX.

But then they started to put UAX on the midday AUS-DEN flights. We still had a mainline in the morning and the evening to DEN. Recently the morning 737 flying AUS-DEN was changed to AUS-SFO. Just to avoid UAX, I now avoid DEN in the morning, connecting through SFO on my way to just about any west coast destination. We continue to have just two authentic UA flights: AUS-SFO and a late in the day AUS-DEN (the latter just deleted frequency so that it no longer flies on Saturday).

Now my UA life is an exercise in trying to actually fly United Airlines and not SkyWest, AWAC, or the other ever shifting pretenders with a paint job. I call UAX "Dis-United Airlines" because these express carriers are all alien to me. I'm as disrespected as anyone else on UAX carriers. I detest them with all.

How to make it on UA in AUS? Have status with two carriers. I fly CO for my short-haul stuff to IAH, ATL or Florida. I've been CO elite (lowly Silver) for as long as I've had status on UA, and despite the supposed unlimited domestic upgrade policy, I like the way UA works better overall. There is no way to upgrade international CO flights in any reliable way.

I'm a Million Miler with UA, so I don't have to fly UA to keep 1P status. But when I consider AA, my disgust with the DFW airport and 31 inch pitch in economy keeps me trying to find a way to fly UA. Overall, for those with status already, UA has been better than CO or AA for the upgrades, route structure and rewards. But there may be an end to my patience.