I could see this going either way. The CR1s are valid on p.s. which is the closest thing to CO's HNL service I can see but CO is also rather protective of that route so maybe not. Probably just flip a coin and hope you guess right.
Remember that they won't actually be issued until "mid year" so it could be October before they see the light of day.

One question, if you are Gold this year and did not requalify for 2011 Elite Status does the change Effective Jan 1st mean status is not valid after Jan 31st instead of the "Valid Through 2/11" as printed on the card?
or does this apply to next year's status year?

Of course. But it's so obvious, don't you think they could've figured it out on their own, without UA?

The fact that they have merged with UA, synchronized the frequent flyer programs, but never once made a mention of E+ is troubling.

CO's principle is to pack as many seats as possible in the smallest possible plane. They believe that you only make a profit on the last seat you sell. And while they will certainly monetize existing features (bulkhead, exit rows), and necessities such as checked bags, they will not go out of their way to take a risk and then count on customers paying for the monetized services in order to recoup marginal revenue.

Look at the BoB program. They have ridiculously undercatered each flight. In most cases, the BoB is sold out before the exit row. Are they doing this because they're foolish? Of course not. It's completely intentional. They will always pack a minimum of Bob (i.e. reduce their risk to near zero) so that a BoB meal never has to be thrown away, even if it means half the plane goes hungry (which is really not their problem).

E+ required UaCo to rip out all those most valuable "last seats sold." To me asking CO to do that would be like asking the Catholic Church to remove the Cross as the symbol of their religion.

The only way I see this even as a faint possibility, is only on CO's domestic fleet, and because of EUA only, which they hate. Here, they would remove a row of FC on their domestically-configured aircraft, allowing them to both install E+ and add a row of Y at the same time. Four seats taken out and replaced by six seats is the type of bargain CO would go for, because it would remove the 4 seats of FC that they virtually always have to give away for free, add E+, at no additional cost of soft product, and have more total seats available for sale.

Damn!

Oh well, at least I can get my SWUs early.

Also remember that if revenue management is doing their job the lost seats should be from the lower buckets, not the full fares.

In practice UA might not always trim from the bottom of the fare spectrum, but I suspect they're good enough to keep the loss of seats away from affecting the higher end of fares.

Note that that's a CO seat...she's probably looking out the window to see how soon the flight is over.

And the operational synergies begin!!!

I read it as applying to the 2011 program year, which will end on 1/31/2012.

Please notice that she is doing it from a coach seat

Oh cr@p, missed that. "Mid-year," huh? Here we go again...

It's a shame they call devaluation as benefit

I don't think the new restriction on SWU benefits CO 1K either.

Let's act together UA&CO 1Ks!

I think that is the case as well, but just wanted clarification.

These changes look like a definite neutral for me---but they will provide extra incentive to do a mileage run to get to the next elite tier up.

They are less valuable but you get more of them. For folks who are flying long-haul Y on the company dime and not necessarily able to find the sub-W fares it isn't a huge deal. For the leisure customer who only flies when it is dirt cheap, that's a different story.

1. These upgrades are eligible for all fares except S, T, K, L and G in all BusinessFirst markets. -- BAD

2. The combination of OP and UMP still didn't tell you whether the miles would expire or not. If it doesn't, then I could get my 20k RDM back. :S