This happened to me last week. My LH boarding pass did not show any evidence of my CO # being in my reservation, so I inquired at the check-in counter. The agent re-printed my boarding pass, which then included "COP." All of my miles for the first leg posted automatically and correctly. The second leg will hopefully post by tomorrow.

I wrote to the executive office about this exact "imbalance" when they first proposed this alliance. Seems, they aren't that concerned, since there has been what 18 months to address it before joining?

I'm in agreement. If UA charged US members to use the RCC, then I think CO should be charging UA and US members to use the PC when traveling domestically.

Co-Insider just flew Swiss...good and bad
 

Good, flights pretty comfortable, even though 2 out of 4 were late, they did a good job of passing out water, chocolate, and even drinks during the hold delay.

Good, comfortable and nice, clean aircraft. Friendly and effecient.

Good, first class line was fast and no questions with the Gold Star card. But no "priority tags" on checked bags.

Good, lounges all let me in with the new Continental card.

Bad, Zurich lounge OUTSIDE security, rendering it useless for connections with less than an hour and a half.

Bad, apparently no seats set aside for Star Gold (exit row, or forward in cabin for example).

Bad, online check-in never works.

Really bad, not many of the new partners give Elite bonus miles, including Swiss. Also half miles with T and W fare codes. Is it my impression or is it true that ST partners were more consistant with this? It's strange Swiss is so different when it's part of the Lufthansa group...but then I don't understand the corporate structure of those groups at all.

Not a complaint, I just hope that as this alliance develops it becomes more and more customer driven.

An aside: I hope CO resists the pleas for a higher milage requirement for Platinum or worse a higher level.

Co Insider - Will there be any "free beverages for PC members" policy - at least Soda for goodness sakes? Otherwise this lounge alliance is practically useless for PC members.

This is ridiculous.

Asking UA/US to make special accommodations for CO members is not going to fly. The simple approach is to follow how UA handled US members - charge extra for access to our clubs.

Stopovers?
 

Scott,

I posted this in a separate thread that didn't get much traffic.

The opaque policy on stopovers seems to be somewhat inconsistent with CO's usual policy of being upfront on policies with customers.

It is very frustrating to have allowable routes left up to the whims of agents who are unable to describe (accurately) why a certain route is not allowed.

Is there any workaround that will tell us when we are okay and not?

Um, that was US's doing. The airline on your card pays for your entry. US didn't want to pay for the RCC entries for all members, so only allowed the RCC option for those who paid extra.

As for special accommodation, it's hit or miss whether CO PC members get T-Mobile cards at UA clubs. So if that is policy, then it can be done. Looking for clarification on that one, but I have a feeling it may be policy that's not being handled consistently yet.


Sodas have always been free at the RCCs and US clubs. Were you charged?

There's a rumor that UA is going towards free drinks via chits for eligible members on entry. So seems they're working on something. If they do say 2 chits per person per entry, that'll be a huge win, since their liquor and beer selection is much better than CO's free stuff.

I did to and all I get is we are working on it, mean while you pay through the nose at the RCC and they laugh the whole time the UA members are drinking for free. In my case because of my flying patterns, I'll get the AM EX Plat to get into the PC and dump my PC membership and buy a Delta club membership because you have until 1/31/10 and you don't pay the 50 fee.

Any rumor/idea what an 'eligible member' would be?

I'm going to guess UA and CO members, maybe US members. On top of the existing int'l customers.

CO already bent over and made their award charts like UA. The clubs is where UA is going to have to change things a bit. They've already dropped their fees to match, and eliminated the boarding pass requirement.

If the Internet card is supposed to get issued for CO members, and we add a couple of drink chits, we've resolved the drinks/Internet deficiency. Then I wonder if the UA members will get upset about COers coming into the RCC for the better snacks, fresh veggies, and better beer and liquor like some of the CO members are whining about now.

done for their own elites only?

Truest nightmare of them all. Moreover, fare classes from one airline do not map to same class in another airline. Result: one fare class on CO metal may get you 100% EQM, but same fare class on CO-ticketed LH-operated codeshare flight may get you 50% EQM.

Unlikely that CO entering *A will change *A policies. The best CO can do is hold on to its best policies and not penalize its own elites in obvious ways. * is a strange bird. Just look my previous post upthread about mileage accrual on AC metal... not much cooperation between CO and AC there.

first *A flight
 

I just did my first *A flight as a *Gold. I didnt plan on it today, however, during check-in with CO, they gave me a direct flight option (PHL-MCO) with US (since CO was getting oversold on one segment). I took it.

US check-in was reasonably quick. It took them a few minutes to figure out how to enter my onepass number...and therefore not charge me for bags.

US couldnt give me exit row / bulkhead. They said it was all gone.

Got a regular aisle seat. It was cramped as any Y seat may be. but the seat itself was more padded than CO seats.
Free beverages were given during the flight. They handed whole cans of juice or sodas.

Luggage had priority tags, but all priority luggages came out last at MCO.

The best part is the flight took off 6 minutes early, and landed 15 minutes early!!

Overall decent experience.

Looks like this thread has pretty much died.

When you speak of UA/CO members, do you mean PC/RCC club members? I am wondering if those other than UA/CO/US folks....say those in the RCC on their BD Star Gold...hopefully they'll be a little goodie for us too ;) As I'm BD Gold, I'm not going to buy a club membership.

In general I find the whole internet issue in the RCC annoying. Especially when I have access via my boingo membership in the terminal but it is blocked in the RCC :td: to UA on this one.