too many elites. 100,000 miles for business first . should be 80.000. horrible intl upgrade policy . should give some systemwides. lots of miles that are worthless i am proud too sell my miles. thank god ua comped me status and i am finally 1k.

"Too many elites"???? And just how many do you think UA has??? Many more!!!! Do write us again from your COACH seat with NO meal on your next domestic flight....hahaha...you will learn.

Too many Elites????! Continental guards the elite pool like the military. That's one of the primary reasons I chose Continental. When I was with American, I would routinely sit next to someone who would brag about how they gained elite status with a sob-story.
So far this year with CO....42 of 61 segments upgraded to FC (69%).
My last year with American (1998) 31 of 72 (43%). I'll stick with CO!

CO gives Elites unlimited upgrades -- no coupons. Because nearly all of us earned Elite status the *hard* way, even Silvers get upgraded now and then. I'm batting 80%.

------------------
On the road,
In the air,
I enjoy travel
From here to there.

I agree that CO's international upgrade policy essentially sucks. However, I have been very pleased with the domestic upgrade system and service in general. I have been Gold Elite for 2.5yrs and will be Platinum as of December. I have NOT sat in coach in that entire 2.5yr time <thank you, upgrade gods>. Systemwide upgrades would be nice, as would easier upgrades to HNL; however, as primarily a domestic traveller, I would be hard pressed to find a better program <although NW comes close>.

------------------
What do you mean I can't charge my heart bypass to my Visa? I need the MILES!!!

How can a UA 1K accuse OP of having too many elites?

I read the UA boards, and I have a pretty good idea of how 1Ks and PXs are doing on the upgrade front, and believe me, OP elites do better.

I agree the international upgrade situation is bad, but I bet there'll be change soon. If the travel downturn continues, there will be plenty of OP members with miles to burn and plenty of empty BE seats.

Meanwhile you can have a NW WBC seat to Europe for 80,000 OP miles, and WBC still beats United C class.

let me clarify my statement. domestic
except for hawaii it is a great program.

but international i.e. bf seating is horrible with only high fares being upgraded. the only flight i would use miles to upgrade is virgin . because the seats are better hot young chicks,good food, and their lounges.
i woulf rather sit in coach and pray for an oversell than buy an overpriced hokey fare. to tell you the truth i am 24 years old : have flown
110,000 miles with continental and just flew lgw to iah in coach . the purser
was very kind maybe because there was only 90 people total on the flight. i
was given a bf amenity kit. access to the bf snack service and i watched movies in row 16 in bulkead with the
big screen and afterwards had a whole row to sleep for 10 hours. the coch service was great non stop water refills. i know i bash this airline so
i will give it a compliment co coach is better than virgin coach. there i said it.
by the to the member who said nw wbc is better than ua c could you explain why. or anybody would like to chime in. also i reccomend peter greenburg's travel detective i learned a few things.

I really enjoyed your timely expert and informative post. As you probably noticed there has been a lotta useless drivel and dribble on FT lately. Some of it even appears to be written by high school students who never have even flown (except for their initial STORK FLIGHT). They need to raise the FT registration fee again (this is a joke) as it is attracting the wrong crowd (again). After reading your well-written and scholarly tome, artfully done without using any of the modern confusing capital lettering, I had a few questions and wondered if you would use your expertise and extensive knowledge of Continental Airlines aircraft and personnel in order so I can hopefully travel as comfortably (and as well) as you do. Here are some questions:


(1) "hot young chicks"..... Exactly where are these located? I wish to know for educational purposes only.

(2) "i watched movies in row 16 in bulkhead with the big screen"..... Hmmmmmmmmmm...... I guess I have been short-changed again. Exactly where are these located? I just get a small silly screen back-of-seat LCD or a medium-sized 12" overhead screen.

(3) [b]"and afterwards had a whole row to sleep for 10 hours"[]b]..... I really dont want all this sleep time with the really nice goodies you describe in (1) and (2) above, but exactly what LGW-IAH non-stop routing did you take? This is only a scheduled 10.5 hour flight, you gotta all that nice food to eat, water and booze to drink, and you are awakened 1 hour prior to landing. Oh well, I never mastered the art of sleeping 10 hours anyhow (even in college).

(4) "row 16 bulkhead.....whole row to sleep"...... You must have an oddly curved spine in order to accomplish this. As I remember, the row 16 armrests are not only unusually high, they are FIXED in position and thus do not lift up.

Anyhow I would appreciate a prompt answer as I probably will fly this route in Nov or Dec (maybe even both). We FT FF gotta help each other (especially when it comes to "hot young chicks".

MisterNice



[This message has been edited by MisterNice (edited 10-26-2001).]

LOL!! very funny, misternice!

BTW, notwithstanding the rest of the stuff, the "hot young chicks" reference is obviously about Virgin's flight attendants, who, truth be told, are hotter and younger (and more female) than average, IMHO.

Is there a letter "n" missing is some of these usernames-- and if so, what does that mean exactly??


[This message has been edited by JonNYC (edited 10-26-2001).]

My $.02 re. "international" upgrades:

OnePass allows companion upgrades throughout the Americas: North, Central, and South. I flew MSP to Buenos Aires with my mom, and we were both upgraded for free on CO and COPA. This would be unheard-of in other elite programs.

So, when refering to International upgrades, please specify trans-Atlantic and trans-Pacific, since the Mexico/Caribbean/Latin America upgrade policy is extremely generous.

to jon nyc . i wanted to put aryan alliance but i know people like you would not understand that is a term describing people of indian or persian ancestry. nothing racial or antisemetic or white power. more like irish = celtic . just because hitler ,nazis misconstrued the name is not my concern. pc has gone too far.
i am concerned how you create my writing style. judge the content not the fact ia am too lazy to put capital letters. i am only 24 am a managing partner for brand management consulting company in germany. misternice is smart ... . how dare you
make fun of me. i don't pick on you
guys. when you see me at an event insult me like this. 6'3 220 and not afraid to take a punch. you will probably shudder like the coward you are.

also i graduated from columbia
and georgetown with a mba. so piss off. but i will answer questions 1-4

1. virgin atlantic
. but don't your too ugly to get them .i'll keep them for me.

2.big screens in bulk head seats as opposed to seatback monitors.

3. and 4. i slept in the row behind me . thus i could lift the elbo rests.

i was just trying to share some advice. i don't think i will with jerks like you guys.
flyertalk is for all opinions not just yours. just because i have only posted 30 times doesn't mean i don't know as much you.
i fly 200,000 miles base.
well anyway nw wbc better than ua c and why. somebody.
by the way ua 1k and ac super elite better for trans atlantis trans pacific upgrades than co.

Even *I* am going to stay out of this one...

I, um, don't-- really...ahhh, know..where to..or, what to..mmmm, it's uh...

Well, MisterNice certainly is a smart-...! And, yes, P.C. has gone to far.

And I certainly know the words Arya/Aryan reference Indian culture as well as German hijinx. As far as teaming one of those words up with the word "Alliance"-- I'll plead guilty to having a pre-conceived notion of what "Aryan Alliance" means to me, but I, in fact, don't have any particularly impressive educational background to compete with most here, I'm sure.

Ah well, learn something new everyday...

anyway

[This message has been edited by arya alliance (edited 10-26-2001).]

Well jonNYC . I didn't want to say all those things .I feel like I was attacked personally , I would never do that to you guys without provocation. I only flaunted the academic stuff because misternice was insulting my intelligence and my status.

I don't like to be mean spirited ,but I don't mind. Now you must be more of a vip with co because you got invited to see gordon bethune. I guess 105,000 miles logged and platinum are not important. No disrespect to who was invited. I'm sorry I don't feel like always using capitalization. I just feel the message is more important than grammar lessons. This isn't college and I'm not writing profesionally, if you don't like it. good: How you like dem apples.