kamini and i flew CO on saturday - luckily our RW cards arrived just a day before so we could use them. she flew BRU-EWR-DCA-IAH-LAX so i'll report on her trip rather than mine (i flew upto DCA). in short - we're going to avoid flying CO next time if possible.

basically, things went according to the KL-CO press release. priority boarding and 1st-class/elite check-in everywhere. BRU - no CO lounge access (RW+economy) but we could get into the general lounge (no KL lounge in the intl gate area since KL/NW don't fly out of europe from BRU). no upgrade, not even courtesy ("we're flying 22 hrs today on CO") because the flight was overbooked in business. it was actually full.

EWR - access to presidents club lounge (as in the press release). no upgrade even at gate for DCA, gate agent said she could try, though she's not supposed to, but only after all CO/NW elites. that's fair, and the 10 1st-class seats were full anyway.

Kamini got 1st class upgrades at the gate on DCA-IAH-LAX, though, which was nice. her bags got stuck in IAH, which wasn't. (though it wasn't unexpected - 40-minute change.)

they delivered the bags 26+ hrs after her arrival in LAX, about 30 hrs before she flies out from LAX again. so i told her to insist on 1st class upgrades as compensation, and hopefully we'll get upgraded all the way through on our return because of this. we'll try anyway! (LAX-IAH-DCA-EWR-AMS-BRU). i think EWR-AMS shd be emptier than BRU-EWR too.

CO didn't put priority tags on checked-in bags. i don't know if they do that for CO elites. i know *A always puts bright red priority tags thanks to our SAS/EBG status.

-rishab