I'm trying to decide if I want to jump ship to UA from CO (all the while they are posting about a merger on the CO board).

I have many reasons, but I'm tired of paying CO hub penalty (ya, ya, non-stop premium ) and E+ sounds great.

CO Gold with no flights so far this year (haven't set foot in an airplane since Thanksgiving ) with plans to fly to SE Asia a couple (maybe more) times a year (to Oz one of these days) and a trip or two to Europe (already seen much of Latin America (CO is good for that) and most of the US / Canada) on leisure. Just found out that I will be making four or five Biz trips a year for the next four years to cities in US starting in September.

Normally used to do about three paid trips a year in the US, all the rest was leisure travel on my own dime. In addition to SE Asia and Europe I fly to YYJ or YVR once or twice a year to visit family. And that SEA-YYJ segment went through the roof last year, so insted of CO / AS IAH-SEA-YVR I'm considering AC IAH-YYC-YYJ, though I believe that could mean CJR and not full EQMs for low fares toward UA

Here's my dilemna. Ask UA for comp to mid tier (and would I do this before or after I book my late April flight?), and fly US Air IAH-FLL (UA fare is astronomical, CO is OK) for a meeting the first week of April with possibly a trip for "long weekend" following the meeting, or stick with CO and try to run it via EWR as a MR?

Those UGs on CO are getting harder to come by, and the places I want to fly to CO consistently charges more than the competition. UA has had some excellent fares to places I want to visit this spring, and CO fares have not budged And of course 50% EQMs on partners for the most part (ALL my travel will be on cheap fares), though *A flights on cheap fares (such as to Canada) also don't earn full EQM's.

Thanks for reading this far (if I haven't lost you by now). Is this a grass is greener case, or does this make sence?

Thanks, EmailKid