+1

All credits due to Jeff et. who offered unlimited Cool-Aid Drinks to CO's most loyal customers and it worked.

He won't be able to do that to UA elites from SFO/ORD/IAD, who might be a lot more sophisticated as a group.

Well, to be perfectly accurate, the COol Aid started under Gordon Bethune, and the COol Aid itself in fact reflects his native cockiness.

But the current iteration of the COol Aid, the defensive COol Aid erected as CAL has beaten a hasty retreat from its Bethunian heyday, is the love child of Larry Kellner, not Jeff Smisek.

Kellner was a transitional figure, a bean counter who had a very tough act to follow. He knew that CAL's board was breathing down his neck to make more money, but he didn't want to be blamed for destroying the airline (which he largely did).

So he adopted the weasel's stance. He continued all of CO's classic snarky marketing all the while slashing and burning relentlessly, until virtually nothing was left but bone.

Here is an example of a TV spot that aired as Kellner was already planning to remove all the amenities presented in the spot:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KnaJDdcNg5Y

I actually give Jeff the credit that he never played this game and has been far more honest about CO's cuts in service.

Anyone seen a pic of the new bird?

I second this review:(
 

I don't have back problems, just backside problems such as "noassatall" My less padded backside despises the coach seats on my frequent flights from EWR to HKG and back. Bulkheads are even more unbearable. Please fix this in the new COUnited

I feel your pain, channa. :p

But, as now Jeff is running the new United, he'll quickly realize that it will be a lot more difficult to give COol-Aid drinks to elites at SFO, ORD, IAD than IAH.

"We are the best" approach won't fool anyone. Certainly not those UGS, 1Ks, or even 1Ps.

I am extremely pleased that the new loyalty program will be headed by a UA legacy guy.

:cool::cool:

Nice to hear from you, Scott.

This is still, clearly, a wait and see situation. From my perspective, fwiw, I'm not happy about the diminution of the EUA situation for Plats with the underpriced selling of F seats at the last moment. I'm waiting to see if I get EUA'd on my EWR-SEA flight on 5 and 9 October. Right now, as I've written in the relevant thread, upgrading to F is pricing at $359 or $708 depending on the day, with now 5 seats available on the outbound, and 9 seats on the return.

The Y seat cushion situation has been going on since CO DO I, when replacements were promised, then backtracked on starting with DO II. I agree that they're the most uncomfortable of all the airlines I've flown domestically.

There's still a lot of get worked out. I'll hold off on switching carriers for the time being; route choices and prices, since I pay my own way for all travel, is what matters to me, along with how I'm treated (EUA's). I'm not yet impressed with what CO's been doing lately, but time will tell.

yes, lovely changes ...

my CO-coded flights on UA metal now show no seat assigments on continental.com and the seatmap is gone with a note to go to united.com for seats ... so I go to united.com and there is no seatmap either with a note that this is CO codeshare :rolleyes:

I was hoping CO and UA would be better than DL and NW ... not a good start.

I'm actually the most concerned about the employees. The "we empower our people" rhetoric combined with tying their hands so they're not empowered won't work well especially when the workforce is made up of > 50% legacy UA workers who are not accustomed to having a greater degree of empowerment.

:rolleyes:

This has nothing to do with drinks of any color. This is the simple reality of what happens when people have favorites. There are plenty of people who love US and will defend it at all costs. Ditto UA, DL, AS, AA, B6, F9, WN and all the others.

Irrational people exist everywhere and are quite easy to find on FlyerTalk, too. Suggesting that it is a CO phenomenon is silly.

My issue with the UA F seat recline is that when the passenger in front of me is fully reclined, my knee room is suddenly reduced to something that resembles CO's Y or UA's E-. That, and the stupid headrest thing during takeoff and landing. It's just not comfortable on us tall people when it's in the fully lowered position.

Anyway, on any airline there's plenty of Kool-Aid to go around. It flows on UA just as much as it does on CO. I also know plenty of people who aren't CO fan boys who have nothing positive to say about UA, which they fly regularly. With any airline there are those that love it, and those that hate it (I even know an oddball US Kool-Aid drinker).

But you don't have to be obnoxious about it.

While it is clear that all airlines have their passionate admirers, I challenge you (in a friendly way) to find examples of COol Aid on these other boards.

I don't read them all as attentively as this one admittedly, but I am often on AA, B6, DL and UA. While I certainly see defenders of these airlines, the main vibe one gets on those boards is a spirit of straight-forth constructive criticism of their airlines.

My explanation for the Blue COol Aid is that it starts with the remarkable reversal of fortune at CO engineered by Gordon Bethune. The Rah Rah, as Channa likes to call it, was in fact a legitimate reflection of his genuine love and appreciation for the people and the product of CO.

Plus, this was a period of otherwise general decline for the legacy carriers, so a innate sense of superiority at CO was not out of place.

Then Bonderman forced Bethune out and the decline started. I don't believe for a second that even the most fanatical supporter of CO wasn't aware of this phenomenon, but by this time the COol Aid had become virtually cult-like and so the decline of CO turned its disciples into borderline fanatics.

While the COol Aid drinkers were praising and celebrating every move made by Larry Kellner, including all the brutal cuts to the soft product, posters in those other forums were legitimately criticizing the managements of their airlines.

I believe those criticisms were at least effective in a small way to improve the products at the other carriers, while the cult-like cheering section here did nothing but damage CO's position of excellence.

There has never been anything remotely like this on any other board...

Very well put. And I would like to add, it also squandered an opportunity to offer input to and possibly work with CO management to address the issues. As has been pointed out, the CO board has some of the best contacts with the higher ups of any airline (yes, all the airlines lurk, but how often can you shoot a PM or email directly to an executive and have a back-and-forth dialog, or talk with them during a COmpany-sponsored event?).

Instead of the most loyal customers utilizing this to help improve the airline (or prevent the product's demise), they instead wasted the opportunity and turned the board into some love fest where any critic is quickly dismissed, regardless of the merit of their message and any action by CO is quickly justified, regardless of how out of line it may be.

While the COol-Aid has been entertaining over the years, the net effect was a wasted opportunity which is a real shame.

+1

I have been on UA board for years, and never seen anything close to COol Aid phenomena on CO board.

Whenever UA cuts benefits, there is always a revolution on UA board.

Most recent example, when UA announced elimination of CR1s, so many people voiced their unhappiness, and sent emails to UA, threatening to leave UA.

hehe kev, I;m surprised our mutual friend from the NW days isnt a CO koolaid drinker :D

nope, amigo giggy

to me, CO's FF benefits for top tier elites are very weak.

how come people here don't complain? :confused:

I guess most COol Aid drinkers think it's OK.