"US Airways Continues Restructuring Efforts; Announces Marketing Agreement With United Airlines
ARLINGTON, Va., July 24 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- US Airways President and CEO David Siegel today announced that US Airways has reached an agreement on a marketing alliance with United Airlines. Since receiving conditional approval for a federal loan guarantee and reaching tentative agreements with several employee groups, the code sharing agreement is the latest of several steps the airline has taken to implement a financial restructuring and new business plan.

"A marketing agreement has always been a vital piece of our plan, and it was a key component of the loan guarantee application conditionally approved by the Air Transportation Stabilization Board," said Siegel. "Finalizing labor agreements and negotiating with lenders and lessors remain the critical elements of our restructuring, while this alliance will provide our airline with the revenue and marketing enhancements that are already enjoyed by our competitors."

Siegel said that he could not predict when US Airways' restructuring efforts would be concluded, but that the agreement takes into account either a negotiated restructuring of US Airways or one supervised under a Chapter 11 filing.

The agreement will be submitted to the U.S. Department of Transportation. Once implemented, US Airways and United passengers will be able to:


* Access US Airways' network in the Eastern U.S. and the Caribbean, but
also now enjoy significantly easier access to cities in the West,
Europe and Asia served by United

* Make connections between both airlines on a single reservation through
new streamlined ticketing, baggage handling, and check-in procedures

* Earn and redeem frequent flyer miles on each other's airline

* Use each airline's airport lounges if they are already a member of
either
"

This could be great news especially for east coasters. Here's the link to the entire story:
http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/020724/dcw071_1.html