I've only started flying Continental since 1999. From my first flight on CO, thanks to the priveledge pack, they upgraded me on my flights SFO-EWR-FLL. I was quite impressed. The BF cabin to EWR was much more than I expected since I've been a UA flyer until this time. In addition, I was able to use the PC. How nice, no other airline would give me these opportunities especially since I had no status and had 0 miles on CO.

I realize and understand that the recent "enhancements" and benefit reductions have been quite frustrating. Although I must admit that CO has different priorities at the moment, I am almost certain that they will realize their mistake and will make amends. (Hopefully soon!)

Even with these concerns, I still prefer CO's elite program over anyone else's. They can say that NW offers more upgrades. Yes, I must admit that I almost have a 100% upgrade success on NW compared to my 50% success on CO. However, unlike some of the FT'ers here, I would rather fly CO in coach than NW in First. Their planes are dingy, there's no IFE, and their food suck!

CO planes, from my experience, have been very clean, most of them have IFE, the food service is adequate and much better then NW's.

With comparison to UA, which I still have to fly since my company sticks me either on UA or CO due to corporate agreements, CO is 70% better. UA nickels and dimes you for any upgrade...whether it be domestic or international. I agree, UA gives you free upgrades from time to time, but these are limited and most are limited to certain amount of mileage. And besides, being just a premier on United almost means nothing. I've had a 25% upgrade success on them.

Another big plus for CO is that their planes are on time. UA has almost always been delayed. Which is quite frustrating.

Being a lowly silver, I get a 50% bonus on mileage rather than the puny 25% that you'd get on most carriers.

Bad customer service is also an issue that I agree is not acceptable. However, as with any service industry, I've seen the "bad apples" on UA, NW, CO, AA, and AS. I'm not saying that it's acceptable but I just don't think it's fair to assume that if you meet one "bad apple" that everyone is a bad apple. I've met some people with CO who went out of their way to accomodate my needs. Most of the agents I've met were extremely helpful and were happy to have as a CO customer. For people making very little money, I admire everyone at CO who has made my trip more tolerable. These agents have to deal with difficult passengers or situations all the time. Being able to treat me with respect and help me out with my travel issues just makes me respect them more.

Overall, since most FT'ers here are Platinum and 1K, I guess you have higher and different expectations. For me, I just want to say that even though I'm just a lowly silver, Continental has treated me well and I don't think I'll be switching airlines anytime soon. As long as they get me to my destination on time, and half the time with a free upgrade, I'm going to stick with them.

For those of you where CO has offended you, betrayed you, I'm truly sorry that happened. But if you want to switch, go ahead! , that's more elite upgrades for me!



------------------
SFnFlaGuy

In my 15 years of FF membership I have switched from CO to UA and back to CO (where I have been for the past 5 years or so). "Attitude" was one of the primary reasons for each switch. There came a time when everything I received from UA that opened with "Mileage plus has good news...� was bound to be something negative packaged as an enhancement. There is nothing more annoying than being treated in this manner. A little over a year ago it seems CO has started down this path. If you lay down all the cards CO may very well have the best hand, but many people do not like to do business with even the best if they insult your intelligence.

I think scriste has a good point. Also, a lot seems to depend on what matters most to your own patterns. OnePass is strong with domestic upgrades, for example, but if CO is substituting regional jets on flights (like they did with ATL-CLE), it negates a lot of that. CO also has been criticized for the international upgrade policy. And the higher loads (and lower upgrade batting averages) are at least due in part to the flight cutbacks. IMO CO was relying on those being maintained industrywide to push fares up, cartel-style. The risk is that someone comes in, ramps up again faster and steals market share.

CO is also not particularly strong outside of NW for partnerships, and the HP fiasco and limited (and so far poorly handled) KL partnership don't help.

The next shoe to drop will probably be reprioritizing the upgrade pecking order so that just about any business fare at 200% or more of Q/T fare level gets a better shot at upgrades regardless of status.

They would be stupid, though, to pull a Delta move and say they'd rather fly an empty FC seat than upgrade those fares. Delta lost all my business at all fares due to that one.

So it really depends. OnePass is good at a number of things, but they also have enough holes to look like swiss cheese at times.

As a CO shareholder, I feel justified in complaining about practices which may be harming the company's profitability....

Having finally got around to flying both recently, I can only boggle. I upgraded one sector on NW (with AS MVP cert) and the service was poor, the "meal" in 1st was a salad, there was no video and it took almost 45 mins for them to get the luggage off the plane! The sector in Y was 5 hours, yet they showed no video programming at all, gave out an uninteresting meal and had surly FA's.

CO's agents were friendly and helpful and FA's gave much better service. The meal in Y was tasty and there was a movie on the longer segment.

I would definitely agree with the comment that economy on CO is better than 1st on NW. I found NW horribly disappointing and CO quite good.

It's a shame that CO drags itself down by being allied with the likes of Northworst.

All of you have expressed some pretty good opinions. Well, since CO hasn't caused me any problems as of yet, I'll just adopt a "sit and see" strategy and determine whether Gordon will drive OnePass and Continental itself into the ground or if he'll be able to pull it back up in time.

I'm glad to see that I'm not alone with my feelings about CO vs. NW. Kremmen's comments hits it right on the spot! I know that it was quite unfortunate that CO doesn't have any better partners. Coincidentally, back when America West was still a CO partner, the two airlines that I didn't care for at all were America West and Northwest! I guess CO just choose them out of all the others. However, I am glad that AS is a partner.

Overall, let's wait and see. I just hope, I really do hope, that something good will come out of this loss of direction at CO. I hope they realize what they are doing and re-enhance their "enhancements" to increase the benefits/partnerships and the level of customer service at an airline that was once one of the best, and still has the potential to be the best just as long as they get their act together.

------------------
SFnFlaGuy

From your keyboard to Gordon's eyes.

I have flown NW to PSP from EWR and I have found the FAs to be very friendly and very accommodating. They are a more "homey" airline than CO.

The 1st class meal on NW was just as good or better than CO.

A coach class meal on CO consisted of a nickel sized roast beef sandwich --- nickel toward penny actually --- and that was it -- except for a small piece of Whitman candy.

NW is very accommodating!!!!!
(yes their planes are a little dingy -- but service to CO is same or above)

If you haven't flown NW in the recent past, you owe it to yourselves to try again. There has been a remarkable improvement in attitude in the past 6 months. Kremmen, you said you upgraded on NW with an AS cert? AS is a better carrier, hands down. But their limited size allows them to be better at what they do. In the late 80's, when AS was battling with labor problems and doing what they could to survive when WN enetered their markets, they were a much different airline. And I don't mean different as in better!

I guess my needs are different than many of you, and that's why NW works for me. I don't expect a gourmet meal. I don't care about IFE. I can play a CD or watch a DVD on my laptop. I want a clean, safe flight. NW's DC-9's may be old, but I have never thought them to be unsafe in anyway. I prefer an A320 over a 737 due to the wider cabin. RJ's shouldn't fly CLE-DFW (3:09 in flight), but CO thinks they should. I can fly NW to just about anyplace I need to go in Asia, on their metal. The NW/KLM partership is as close to seamless as possible, so I can get anyplace in Europe I need to.

NW allows me to upgrade certain fares to WBC at time of booking. CO doesn't. I wish NW allowed other fares to be upgraded, but Rome wasn't built in a day.

DTW is a much better place to connect now, especially Int'l. As most of my flying is to the Pacific NW, IAH and EWR are out of my way. And since a CO RJ doesn't have the range, service from CLE to SEA and PDX doesn't happen without a trip to IAH.

Is CO that bad? No not really. Is any airline that good? The problem is, CO told us for a long time that they were "that good", and we believed them. Trouble is, they believed their own spin as well. CO's product itself is average at best...



------------------
Freddies? Shreddies!
You vote might count, unless you gave it a low value...