mduell

UAUA had a larger market cap than CAL at merger time. UAUA also had many more shares out (at a lower price per share), thus the exchange rate difference.

MBM3

Why, for pete's sake, are you guys arguing over which airline is/was better? It is a futile waste time! The airlines have merged, for better or for worse, and these continued rants are tiresome...

channa

Right, but there are other areas where CO exceeds UA.

CO collects more revenue from First Class beverage charges than UA does, for example. CO also generates more revenue from Economy Class IFE than UA does.

AM-PM-DM

Had a look at the DL forum lately? NW went the way of the dodo a year ago and there is still bickering between PMNW and PMDL cool aid drinkers. Your are in for at least another two years of this. - It is tiresome indeed.

robyng

Yup - even though I started this thread - I agree. When your primary airport is second or third tier - like mine is (JAX) - I'm more interested in getting any service from here to there - as opposed to the best service. Just found out that Delta is in the process of 86ing my favorite flight mid-day JAX/LGA . Think I'd be happier flying on a Harry Potter broomstick at noon than leaving on the 7 am or 5 pm flights. Robyn

robyng

Well I hope we'll be able to do it. It's the irony of life. You get older - you have more discretionary income that allows you to travel more and better - and then you wind up with physical problems that limit your ability to travel. In our case - it's my husband's MS. I saw an article in Departures Magazine that a friend gave me about that new hotel in Singapore (and other new places in Asia too). That one in Singapore that looks like a triangle with a hot dog on top . Pretty amazing looking.

And I appreciate your kind offer. At the risk of offending I don't know how many people here - is Singapore more like Japan or China in terms of eating for someone from the US? My husband and I love to eat - and are really awful when it comes to "food precautions" in countries where precautions need to be taken. We've been to Japan - and you can eat everywhere there - all restaurants - street food vendors - even off a toilet seat . Not true in China best I can figure out. How does Singapore figure into that equation? And I keep in mind it's not necessarily a clean/not clean - fault/no fault thing. Sometimes different countries have different GI bugs that aren't friendly to people from outside those countries. That was certainly the case when we were in Egypt. It had lots of GI bugs our bodies didn't seem to like at all!

And I cannot ditto enough with regard to Japan. Especially Tokyo. It is an amazing city. Largest metro area in the world today (I forget but think maybe)? 30+ million people in the metro area. 125,000 restaurants. Sheesh. How amazing is that.

And just to keep this message a little on topic - we flew CO to Tokyo - JAX/EWR/Tokyo. A difficult trip. Because the EWR/Tokyo flight leaves somewhat early in the am - so we had to go JAX/EWR late afternoon - overnight at EWR - depart the next morning. IOW - leave Monday - arrive on Wednesday. Easier on the way home. This was in 2006 - and was a very comfortable BF flight on what was then a state of the art 2 class plane. Robyn

username

I wish CO/UA would resume IAH-TLH service. It is really inconvenient to get there - you have to do US, DL or CO through FLL/TPA, which is not price-competitive and is propeller plane.

UAL awesome

No, actually they didn't, and they weren't. UA shareholders hold 55% of the company, while former co ones own 45%. And last I checked, 55 is higher than 45. Just sayin'.

TWA Fan 1

Singapore has one of the highest hygiene standards in the world. Not only is it like Japan in your example it may actually surpass Japan in its average standard of cleanliness, and food hygiene.

And this despite the fact that the dominant culture in Singapore is Chinese. Remember, though, that Lee Kuan Yew, the founder of modern Singapore, put a very major emphasis on cleanliness and hygiene, and the penalties for lack of hygiene are among the steepest in the world.

Now, that is not to say that every single food stand is 100% impeccable, but you can tell very intuitively whether or not the place is clean.

rruaco

Most (all?) of the stalls have a hygiene rating certificate displayed ^ I saw an an unbelievable A-rated street stall selling fried meat which could have been used as an operating theatre.

If it were me going I would head to Little India and have a fish head curry. The tongue and cheeks are especially delicious.

robyng

Thanks for this information. My husband and I keep going back and forth and back and forth. Some days we feel up to another long trip to Asia. Some days we don't. I've been working on the miles/points side of things this year - perhaps that will make our decision easier . Robyn

TWA Fan 1

All agreed. I would also suggest at least one meal at a Malay food stall, where you can try some of the local halal Malay specialties...