The IP discussion reminds me of when I first heard of the offer.

A couple of months into my first job on Wall Street, circa 1987, I was doing a lot of energy deals in Houston and flew CO often in paid F LGA-HOU and LGA-IAH. I remember one of my bosses waving his CO Gold card at me as we strode through LGA one day and saying, "You have to get yourself one of these! Five years straight and you'll have it forever!"

Well, as it happened I did hit Gold that year, and for the next 3 years in a row. But then I took a job in Chicago, and CO service was awful -- limited direct destinations, poor connections to everywhere I needed to go, just one or two gates at the long end of a councourse, and very, very iffy financials and bad crew attitude. Reluctantly, I switched my flying to UA which had superb nonstop service to everywhere.

The good news is that over the next dozen years I reached Million Miler on UA and with it lifetime Premier Executive. (Infinite 1P? ) Two days ago I reached 2MM on AA, the equivalent. While I'm delighted to have these under my belt now, I'm kicking myself for having just-just-just missed out on CO Infinite Platinum. I would have loved to have the 3 alliance trifecta at this point in my life!

The greatest irony would be if CO, as is sometimes rumored, buys UA. Would Contintental's IPs then get 1K for life?