Agree with that 100%

I had some good conversations with both the UA and CO brass at the StarMegaDo in Houston and these were my perceptions:

*E+ is a contentious issue. UA wants to keep it, CO is taking a hard look at it. When we mentioned how important E+ was to the head of MP he told us to please make it known to the CO people in the room. Also when UA won best elite program at the FT Awards, the crowd broke out into heavy applause at the mention of E+ to make it known how popular it was.

*No info on MM until next year. They are definitely merging them, but probably won't give details until later in '11. We were basically told this flat out.

That's exactly what I would expect and I don't think it augurs particularly well for E+, especially since the boss is a CO hand and CO is seen as the savior because of its "superior management culture."

Thanks everyone for your questions, and I'll do my best to answer those that haven't already been covered. Here goes...

Hi fozz, the ability to redeem one another's SWUs across both carriers is something we're working on and plan to deliver by mid-2011. Our plan is to deliver sooner, but we want to build in some hedge this time!

Yes, Weatherboy, it'll still be 50K Elite Qualification Miles (EQMs) or 60 Elite Qualification Points (EQPs) in either program to earn Star Alliance Gold status.

We know this is a massively hot topic, radonc1, and the silence simply means we haven't made a decision yet. Don't read any deeper than that!

That's correct, airzim. In 2011, revenue from both Continental and United will count toward both programs' invitation-only Elite qualification (Presidential Platinum and Global Services).

Hi rubenj, the interim cross-carrier Elite upgrade hierarchy we're using will continue through 2011. The Elite tiers will be blended starting in the 2012 program year, and at that time, our new upgrade hierarchy will take effect.

Hi mbreuer, that would be R class.

Hi rolov, your 2010 OnePass Elite status will remain valid through the date printed on your card - Feb. 2011.

As long as you consider mid-year to be "early", J. Edward. As mentioned in my original post, the 2011 SWUs will be deposited starting mid-2011.

There's more to come, AAExPlat. These blanks will all get filled in this coming year. The name and official tier names for the merged program are the only items you'll have to wait longer for, as these will be formally announced later in the year.

Hi reinballe, our plan is to keep a Million Miler program, however, the qualification and benefits are yet to be determined.

Hi GeoMedic, while it's not my place to cite or debate specific banking regulations, I can safely say that there were indeed changes made to regulations that made it difficult to offer the fee-waived credit card as part of our invitation-only Elite program.

Thanks for pointing this out, sbm12. As you suspected, there is indeed a fare class alignment planned for early next year. With this change, S, T, K, L and G will become the lowest five Economy fare classes. We're still finalizing the details these alignment changes, and will share those details once finalized.

As a weekly road warrior who qualifies on segments, increasing the segment count for top elite level to 120 EQS is a big blow.

It's very disappointing to me that continuing a feature like E+ that, I for one have paid for out of my own pocket dozens of times, wouldn't be a slam-dunk as one of the key elements to be enthusiastically retained in the combined UaCo.

Any info on StarNet Blocking?

Can RU's be used to Hawaii on the BF flights?

Thanks so much for responding. I hope I wasn't coming across as doubting you. I've always been the one to pull out the rules and read simply to understand.

As a Million Miler, I want to say that it helps my home life a lot that my wife can be at the same level as me (though she flies only about 8 times a year, mostly using my miles). It gives her partial consolation for my continued absences and thus, makes my life easier. I hope this spousal benefit continues.

My understanding of the rules is that you at 150K would earn
- 8 regional upgrades (two at 75k, 100k, 125k, and 150k), and
- 8 SWUs

+1. I'm only halfway there, but this is a significant target for me. I send my missus off on fun jaunts now and again, using my miles, partly as a thank you for her tolerance of my UCO-itis.

12 F seats on 738's is pretty pathetic if you ask me, E+ or not.

This goes in line with my belief that post merger if you don't fly 100k each year your liklihood of receiving a complimentary upgrade will be so low it won't even be worth considering it a benefit.

Cheer up. We just got information that leads me to think that your earlier prediction (see below) may not become reality.

It is not obvious what they should do with CO's 737s.
I would prefer they left them as is, if adding E+ means removing a row of F-seats (because this would greatly lower my odds of an upgrade).
Naturally, the best outcome is that they leave the number of F-seats intact and add E+. But that might be hoping for too much.

What information, COInsider's post that they're still thinking about it?

What is there to think about?

That's not encouraging to me in the least.

But it would not be much different from UA A319 and A320 in terms of the Y/F ratio.

See following thread for long discussion on this:

Thank you for taking the time to answer some of our questions! I have one quick question

So that means the CR-1s/RUs will be prioritized behind B-ups and mileage upgrades? I am assuming R class is a subset of ZE, but what do I know