Agreed. Gershwin is classic. Don't knock it. :cool:

The thumbs down was for how long this is taking, not the benefit itself. I personally can't wait for it, Mrs. NJC and I have tickets on UA to Aruba next March and I would love to secure E+ now.

Not much of a fan of it as an airline jingle but Woody Allen used it masterfully when he made the perfect connection of music and imagery in the film Manhattan.

THX ^ :D

E+ and the Blue COol Aid
 

One of the most salient and entertaining features of the blue COol Aid is how it turns its victims into fanatical automatons.

As long as E+ was not a CO feature, it was regularly derided and criticized, rarely in truly rational terms, but usually simply because it was not a CO product.

Still, some of the most fanatical CO partisans here would occasionally write that they preferred sitting in CO economy than UA E+ because "CO's coach is so much more comfortable, even with less legroom."

That had to be one of the most classic lines ever written on FT.

Once, a CO poster wrote that she didn't like additional legroom because it made the seat pocket too far to reach.

If any more proof were ever required of the truly faculty-sapping consequences of the Blue COol Aid, this was clearly it.

But since this COol Aid basically turns its victims into something like the most rabid supporters of a junior high sports team ("Bethune Jr High Rocks!" "Tilton Jr High Bites!") as soon as the coach makes a decision to go with a new game plan, they all fall in behind him with a disturbing degree of "lock-steppiness."

Perhaps the best test case for this was LiveTV. In the early days of jetBlue it was common to read on this board the most absurd and thoughtless criticism of jetBlue's LiveTV ("drivel," "would never watch it,' "I much prefer to watch the rerun of a ten-year old TV show on CO's pull-down screens than live TV," etc.)

Then, when CO decided to go with LiveTV over the internet, despite a vote on the part of passenger preferring the internet over LiveTV by a wide margin, there was nary a peep and LiveTV not only became OK, it was, well, suddenly cool, "better" somehow than jetBlue's (even though it's free on jetBlue and costs $6 a pop on CO).

That "transition" was pretty hilarious.

I hope that we never lose the Blue COol Aid...it's so entertaining...if we did lose it, I think this would be one of the most devastating losses resulting from the merger.

Very good summary, and the Blue COol-Aid COntingent kept me around this board for so many years, despite CO no longer being my primary carrier. Despite having some 500 channels of TV at home, this was far more entertaining.

We would see little things like defending CO's lack of tray linens in F ("Does a linen make a difference in your meal?") to defending CO's lack of nut ramekins ("If it saves weight and makes the carrier profitable, I support it.")

And of course I continue to be derided for posting my CO experiences that may be anything but positive, with the COol-Aid COntingent quick to attack me for posting, instead of trying to acknowledge the CO weakness and possibly work with the great COntacts we have on this board to COrrect them.

While some of the latest cuts are pretty much indefensible, there have been attempts by the COol-Aid COntingent to justify or defend them nonetheless. We've heard that specialty drinks are just too sweet, so who cares, and pillows have germs, so why would you want one anyway?

But one of my all-time favorites was a poster who liked CO's F seats better because UA's F seats had "too much recline." I didn't know there was such a thing as "too much recline."

I agree, let the COol-Aid COntingent live on. I'll miss the entertainment if they go.

I remember that...classic.

Of course--assuming the Blue COol Aid survives the merger--and let's say the new UaCo suddenly adds FC seats with more recline, the same people would then loudly sing the praises of more recline.

That's the type of response that makes it so entertaining...

My "classic" rememberance is when paying more for upgrades became fashonable. Speaking only of the Platinums, what used to be free upgrades could now be obtained by paying a higher fare rate! Many members here were overjoyed at this idea.

I agree with you, except that there was actually a rational basis to this, namely that paying more meant that upgrades would also become easier to get.

While it may be unpleasant to have to pay more for an upgrade, if that's the condition for getting one, it's still better than sitting in coach, especially CO's horrid coach.

So that's a little different than some of the completely non-sensical remarks above, such as not liking more recline in FC, or more legroom in Y, in that with more costly upgrades there was at least an element of rational self-interest.

Wirelessly posted (BlackBerry9630/5.0.0.591 Profile/MIDP-2.1 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/105)

Lest you think only CO has irrational loyalists, let us not forget the folks in the UDU launch discussion who suggested UA E+ was a better product than CO F or UA F. Everyone has preferences, some of which others might not agree with.

CO's LiveTV is better than B6's. Is it $6 better per flight? Not to me, but having triple the number of channels of content is better.

And, personally, I do not love the UA F seats because of their recline. It isn't that the recline too much but that they do not get upright enough. When fully up they are still leaning back more than I like. It isn't enough to make me not take the upgrade, but if ranking the products it would lose points because of that on my scorecard.

Was that what it was, or was it that some E+ seats are preferable to some F seats.

I know I have withdrawn my upgrade request once -- on a 767-300 domestic "ghetto bird" when all that was left was bulkheads. There were two of us, so if we got it (and the agent we would have), and we would have been split up in two undesirable bulkhead seats (UA's bulkheads are typically not as roomy as CO's), we had very good exit row seats, and it was a redeye so we weren't interested in the service.

I've also seen UA travellers decline upgrades when all that's left is 1CD on a 757 (again, very little legroom, you may be better off, legroom-wise, in E+).

On UA's FC seats, fair enough. That's certainly a reasonable point of view.

As far as LiveTV, my point was not whether CO's version is better or worse tha B6's (more channels is obviously better, but they clearly come at a price), simply that many of the very same people who--thoughtlessly--ranted about how much they despised LiveTV were suddenly enamored by it when it was endorsed by CO's management.

We all have our preferences and dislikes, and no one can argue with that. But what makes the Blue COol Aid so potent and unique is its tremendous ability to strip its victims of virtually any faculty of rational thought...

exactly. Depending on the flight length/seat avail, I have kept my 9C on the 757 over accepting 1 C/D UDU.

I will say once I started flying some CO metal for work, I started to enjoy the COol aid. CO pax are more tolerant and friendlier than people in 1K/GS land. CO service is much more consistent then UA service (which can range from LH pleasantness and efficiency to Soviet Aeroflot god awful). I've seen United premiers get an early start to the 1K entitlement mentality, raving about how they did not get E+. I think this mix of COol Aid drinkers and UA complainers will make the merger all the more interesting.

Regarding the friendliness and tolerance of UA vs CO frequent fliers, I don't doubt you in the least, but this certainly has not been my experience.

Again, I have not flown UA nearly as extensively as CO, only about 4-8 times a year since 2006.

In all that time, I never witnessed a single uppity or arrogant 1K/GS trying to pull rank or make a superior remark.

My last flight on UA was September 20. I was sitting in E+ next to a senior executive for IBM. He was literally one of the nicest, most pleasant people I have ever met. We started talking in general terms about flying and he told me has was a United 1K.

On CO, on the other hand, because of the stinginess of benefits accruing to its elites, I have seen a lot of uptight behavior, from elites accusing gate agents of "upgrade shenanigans," or OP elites questioning the presence of the airline's employees in FC, etc.

Now, the new ELR benefit is causing some OP elites to protect their turf, sometimes with measures that approach physical violence.

I'm based in NYC and at EWR having 70-80 elites board a 738 is the norm. Of those, depending on the route, 2-5 were upgraded, about 12 got exit row seats, and all the rest sit in the what is essentially E-, even if CO designates the front of the coach cabin with a different name.

As far as the service on UA, again I have not flown the airline constantly, but about 4-8 times a year, mainly LGA-DEN and LGA-ORD, with one LGA-ORD-PEK in J. I have never experienced anything but wonderful, smiling, professional service. I do not doubt at all, though, that it is inconsistent.

Then again, for all its reputation, service on CO can be inconsistent, too. CO flight attendants can be very uptight and grumpy. Once, while flying EWR-LAX, our incoming flight pulled in at the gate 5 minutes before the scheduled departure of our flight, meaning we were going to be delayed leaving EWR. When we were boarding, though, the flight attendant on the public address system was admonishing the passengers to hurry up in a very accusatory and angry tone of voice. "If you do not take your seats quickly, we will be late, and it will be your fault." No mention of the lateness of the incoming flight.

Another time, flying EWR-LAX, a passenger, a man in his early 60's, started walking the aisles. The f/a's were doing their service and he, of course, was in their way. So they instructed him to sit down, but he told them he needed to stay in the aisle because he was having a bout of claustrophobia.

The f/a closest to me had a central European accent and, in ear shot of many of us explained the situation to her colleague by saying: "what a f***ing loser, he says he is claustrophobic." That was quite literally the most unprofessional moment I have ever witnessed by an f/a on any airline.

Then there is CO's wretched record of problem resolution, a record which has earned them an unfortunately deserved mark of "F" from the Better Business Bureau.

As far as the COol Aid, I find its effects to be all the more fascinating in the last five years, in a time of palpable decline for CO, when its benefits and perks were all stripped away, one by one. One would have imagined that CO's most loyal customers would have been horrified--and some were--but the serious COol Aid addicts not only justified the company's actions, but vehemently defended them.

In 2004 believing in the superiority of the product made sense. But the keep beating the same drum in 2010 with no pillows, no blankets in Y, no free meals, no free domestic IFE in Y, checked-bag fees, ELR fees, and the industry's leading change fees, all of this still without any E+ and the most uncomfortable seat in Y, is truly mind boggling.