Thanks to all here
 

Having just found this site today, I'd like to thank all of you for confirming my suspicions.

I joined Onepass back in '91, and made the occasional domestic flight here and there until just a few years ago, when I began a heavier job-related flight schedule to various overseas locations. First, I made silver, then struggled up to gold, then finally platinum last year. I was sad to find I fell short and slipped back to gold for '04 (thought the cutoff was Feb). But I'm not sad anymore. All of you have helped me come to terms with the reality of this program.
I often wondered, as a platinum, why wasn't I able to get an upgrade on some of these brutal NY to HK hauls? Is there a higher elite level getting those that I'm not being told about? etc etc.

Now I'm happier that it wasn't just me. It is the same misery for all of us. :-)

I'll no longer fight my corp travel dept to get booked on this airline. There is little point to the suffering to achieve higher status. It gets you nothing.

I now can abandon my plan to write a letter to Gordon. There is no point.

I've learned much today and I thank you again.

Welcome to FT!

An unsolicited, but highly accurate and telling, testimonial from outside the ranks of FT... welcome aboard, and you are so right.

welcome and you're welcome. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/biggrin.gif

It begs the question...who else are you going to fly N/S to HKG from EWR with free upgrades? I guess you could connect a couple of times after earning status with amnother airline...but that sounds like a stretch...but who knows, it could work for you.

Despite what may be inferred on this board, the grass is not much greener on the other side. I fly at least 4 airlines all the time now with no FF loyalty...so I know how bad it can get on CAL and the other airlines and I am here to tell you CAL is right up there near the top in overall res to baggage pick-up experience.

The extra hour that I spend connecting in ORD or SFO on UA, in United Business or upgraded to First Suite, is a drop in the bucket compared to 15 hours cramped in 30" of CO crap coach product.

Probably little chance I will be upgraded on another airline, but at least I won't waste my time trying to justify the high cost of CO on that route. My last 2 trips to Singapore were spent on Sing Air due to overall cost. I guess I was better off for it. Being stuck in Sing Air's couch is better than the alternative.

So what you are telling me is that with no status I'll walk up and get upgraded to First Suite on a $700 fare to HKG. Good deal. Unfortunately, it just is not going to happen 99 out of 100 times...so the suggestion is of little help to anyone. Could this be yet another post aimed at bringing CO down instead of trying to actally help the person asking the question?

Look...CO sucks. But so does everybody else...including United. I would take CO coach over UA coach anyday to HKG thanks to the personalized IFE on CAL. That means a lot to me on long flights. I would take UA if I had a strong chance to be upgraded on the cheap (assuming my company would not pay for CO Biz, which has wider seats than UA's FIRST).

I guess the overall point here is that it is a given that all of these airlines are not very good. However, they do have strong points and weak points. Choose the airline that has strong points that line up with your travel needs and weak points that are mitigated by your flying patterns.