Do a search :rolleyes::D

He's asking about existing UA SWUs -- not the CO ones!;)

JEdward
I think you have this backwards. CO should have E+ to offer to the non-elite. You could package TV, baggage and a food item (a certain dollar amount) with the E+ seat and sell it to all at a premium (but less than the sum of the parts). This may very well please CO who seems to be interested in selling just about anything that isn't nailed down. '
Heck, CO already has the elites in their pocket. Why would they want to give the elites even more bennies?

I do not think that any changes are announced to the current order at this time.

Most likely 2012 since CO isn't going to recognize that level until then based on the initial post in this thread.

I hope you're right, but who knows? With so much consolidation in the airline industry where are all those angry, pitchfork-wielding GS's going to? Spirit Airlines? Sun Country? USA 3000?

Really the only U.S. carrier that currently has a more-or-less comparable product to E+ is B6. The only place where B6 competes with a portion of the combined UaCo conglomerate is in NYC, and certainly Smisek et al could easily argue that B6 has had virtually no impact on CO here.

If they deep-six E+ there will be clearly have to be some kind of faux or pseudo-faux benefit. On the low end it could be something as ridiculous as "changing the upgrade priority," which is well-established as a joke anyway. On the high end, they might add a row of FC to the UA Airbuses (which, frankly, I think is doubtful).

Again, the complete, Soviet-level blackout of information on E+ is not a good sign...

Additionally, what will the upgrade order be on CO flights with this new 100k priority? Will flyers with 100k in 2011 take priority, but 100k flyers (1K) in 2010 will still be behind CO plats at 75k?

Great question.^

If they deep-six E+, leisure flyers like myself will find other ways to spend our discretionary income.

What fare class do the RU's book into? If "R" is required then they're not so hot... if any seat up front (like Y-UP) that'd be ok.

Unless I missed something Plat just got knocked down on the upgrade list behind PP, 100,000, buy ups, & mileage upgrades. With upgrades getting harder and harder this makes Platinum the new Plastic.:td:

Well said ^ -- I certainly did not mean to imply that E+ was solely for elites as you correctly state, many, many options for upsells. :)

Good stuff. At least now they're aligned and we can see what the new program will look like.

It's a hit on the CR1s from a UA perspective, and a hit on the SWU restrictions from the CO perspective. Though for someone flying significant volume, this could be a plus, as there are unlimited CR1s and SWUs that could be earned (e.g., someone flying 200K would get 10 SWUs and 10 CR1s).

That said, I think that UA's Elite Choice program could now be in jeopardy, as they now seem to have incentives for each 25K of flying. In the past, Elite Choice would throw us bones for various levels extra flying.

As an aside, I wonder if the CO CR1s will work on BF Hawaii flights. That would be a great value if they did.

Next question will be who is the first OP member to get their hands on CO CR1s by hitting 75K next year? Paging J.Edward...

I cannot imagine that there will be a different upgrade bucket for the CR1s from the SWUs and mileage upgrades. Just doesn't make sense.

On the plus side, it is worth noting that the two programs even managed to align their stock photography for the announcement of the alignment of the programs. This woman is looking longingly out the window for her elite benefits on both the UA and CO websites:
http://content.united.com/ual/asset/...at_214x253.jpg

LOL!:cool:

The 100K thing doesn't take effect until 2012. If you got 100K this year you're still just a Platinum who happens to have SWUs.