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Old Jan 29, 2006 | 10:49 am
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cmdinnyc
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Join Date: Jun 2003
Location: Philadelphia, PA USA
Programs: CO Silver, HHonors Gold, Marriott Silver
Posts: 984
Ok, I'll take a stab at this and give the high level bullet points of what I remember. Most of the items are already well-known on the board, but the answers given were pretty candid.

More domestic First Class seats. This has already been posted separately, but the 738s are getting an entertainment system overhaul and will have two more FC seats added to each plane. All 753s will be going to a 24 seat FC configuration, and the 752s will all be configured with BF seats. Most of this is already known.

There was a discussion on the effect of all the taxes on the industry where CO had said the industry lost approx $10 billion but paid out approx $20 billion in industry-specific taxes.

CO remains happy with 50% EQMs, and has not seen the elite ranks significantly hurt by the changeover. The move has helped improved the profitability associated with the OnePass program.

CO wants to expand internationally but is limited by the equipment available. A number of route options were bandied about during the weekend including flights to Athens, Shanghai, and other European and Asian destinations.

CO wants the government to bring back the Transit w/o Visa. This would be beneficial for providing one-stop connections through IAH between Latin American and Europe (and help drive the expansion of IAH-Europe network).

There are (still) no plans for a "mini-hub" of any sort on the West Coast. The example given was an LAX-SFO flight that CO offered several years back. The flight lost money hand over fist even though the planes were otherwise sitting in LAX or SFO waiting to turn around to fly back.

A confirmed same day standby option if availability exists in the same fare class is coming soon to CO. Pax will be able to stand by without paying if they so desire.

CO still talks about adding some perks beyond Plat but hasn't made a decision on what those would be. Any new perks have to provide benefits to both CO and the members.

No lifetime elite status is on the horizon. Suggestions are always welcome.

Partner integration in to co.com and the other CO systems is a huge target for Co mgmt. Partner searches are currently complex and time consuming for both award and revenue flights. Co wants to improve their integration with the other Skyteam partners but in a cost effective way. This was borne out by my own conversations with several managers who oversee different aspects of the system who indicate that the complexity is overwhelming at times. Integration will also drive more options and improvements with co.com.

I'm sure there's more I'm missing but these are the most salient points I recall from the weeked. All in all definitely a good time and a fantastic effort by all involved in putting the event together. Thank you CO and Cigarman!
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