Re the above comparisons, UA's E+ is quite a bit better than AA's MRTC. It makes all the difference...if you are an elite on UA you can sit in E+ and on an int'l or transcon flight it is so much better than sitting in the miserable regular coach seats...AA gives you a bit more room everywhere in coach, perhaps, but if you are going to be elite anyway you will be more comfie on UA even in coach...

Plus UA has nicer planes all around...not the MD80s that AA has and not all the 767-200s on int'l...lots of nice 777s and 747s.

I have to agreed with Seth on this on! I've never redeemed a domestic coach reward on CO...either at 20K or 25K miles. My miles go for intl. upgrades or intl. premium tickets.

It's not about the reward, it's about Gordo telling a bald-faced lie to his best customers! And, even worse, I get absolutely livid when I read some of the stories here about agents at 1-800-WE COULD CARE LESS2 trying to weasel around it with ridiculous rationalizations and obfuscations.

But, what I think really set most of us off, was that this was done on the tail of CO's new Bend Forward upgrade "service fees." 20K domestic tickets don't really affect most of us, but impossibly restrictive intl. upgrade rules do!

We've all been chafing under HoKey fares, the 30 Day Rule, and the 72 Hour Rule. Then we heard that CO was about to remedy that. But we found out that Gordo had prescribed a castor oil "cure," the new Bend Forward "service fee" option.

Gordo's lie about the 20K tickets, without everything else, would have created some anger, but nothing like this. I guess we see all of this as just part of a long string of "enhancements."

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"Read my lips! No more benefit cuts!"...Gordon Bethune

I agree - it isn't so much that the off peak rewards are gone (I figured CO would eventually "enhance" them away), but the fact that we were flat out lied to by the CEO in the inflight magazine.

Also, it isn't just domestic off-peak tickets that are disappearing, so are 40k coach tickets to Europe and 50k coach tickets to Asia. Those are rewards I actually use and will miss.

does anyone from CO monitor FlyerTalk?

That's difficult to determine with any certainty.

If they do-- we had better shut up, because the more we complain the more they screw us.

Well, on my last EWR to SNA, I got a middle seat in coach for 6 hours...as a Platinum! How much more can they enhance me?


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"Read my lips! No more benefit cuts!"...Gordon Bethune

Trust me, I am not going to defend them, and I don't know your circumstances here, so please don't be defensive... maybe it was a last minute thing...

Did you call to request a seat assignment before your flight? As soon as I book my tix online I call and reserve seats. No middle seats this year, unless that middle row in the front on the 777 counts

When I called 1-800-We-COULDN'T-CARE-LESS the other night, I actually mentioned in my complaint that someone should take a look at flyertalk.com just to see how pissed people were over the changes.


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Hell hath no fury like that of an elite frequent flyer in coach.

I am not real smart, but I can lift heavy things.

EWR-COflyer,

Don't worry, I'm not gonna get defensive! It's a fair question. But no, it wasn't a last minute ticket...booked a couple months in advance. But it's a popular flight, the 4:30 PM (last flight) to SNA, and it was a business day.

Upgrades (what few there were) were held back until flight time. My wife got the window, I got the middle, no rows 14 or 5 were available, and no window and aisle in the same row were available.

BTW, on that flight, there were a number of other Platinums in Coach as well.

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"Read my lips! No more benefit cuts!"...Gordon Bethune

please get me a link on this... Thanks!

- HobokenFlyer

HobokenFlyer-

I assume you are wanting a link on the disappearance of off-peak int'l rewards? Well, in the recent Onepass news that stated off-peak rewards are being eliminated, they didn't state "domestic" off-peak, they just said off-peak.

http://onepass.continental.com/news.htm#reward

So to me that means the columns on the reward chart (printed on the back of my OnePass paper statement) for off-peak will be will be axed.

Furthermore, they even offered an offpeak BF Asia standard reward for 100k (vs 120k), and I presume that will be gone too. Someone please correct me if I am wrong in assuming ALL offpeak rewards are being eliminated.

thanks for the tip, jon. i'll be sure to let the board know when i hear something back. mrs. duxfan and i are a "2 for 1", i'm hoping that counts for something. we flew AA to NAS for the first time last month, and didn't miss FC that much when we had MRTC and an open seat between us.

i even applied for a citibank AA card. looks like chase may take some collateral fallout for gordo's actions!




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Bad Gordon!

No Freddie for you!

That's a different story than being in a middle seat by yourself. I have never sat in a middle seat when flying by myself. Flying with others, it all depends on who is more "deserving" of the window seat.

But why would you and your wife want a window and aisle seat? Unless you don't mind someone else sitting between you for six hours, in which case why bother selecting the same row?

mrs. duxfan and i do this all the time. if we don't get EUA'd (she's silver) we'll be sitting in two elite seats, so that means it can't be assigned to the great unwashed when they buy their ticket, and most elites won't want it either. besides, if we play the A/C or D/F lottery and lose, we simply offer the person the window seat. nobody ever says "no thanks, i prefer the middle"...



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Bad Gordon!

No Freddie for you!

hmmm... for six hours??? some might prefer to to have someone in-between

"but, honey... this is better, we'll both have more room " (unspoken: and some peace-and-quiet).