He runs the big looser within Star Alliance anyway (besides Spanair)

Dougie is hosed if CO/UA join forces and the combined entity is *A. Their coverage, across the entire country, would be superior to anything offered by US (except perhaps in the far Southeast near CLT). No one in their right mind would select US over CO/UA at that point. The only people still flying US will be those stuck in CLT, PHL & PHX (LAS has enough WN flights to provide options), who are adamant about only flying nonstops, regardless of the consequences.

CO will demand that NW take the $100. And they'll get it all in writing.

I don't want to talk about LH too much but there is a reason why there is just one flight into CLT (out of MUC) and PHL (out of FRA) each but several to IAD, ORD and two each to SFO/LAX. Of course, LH could feed US as well but there is a good reason why they don't. After a merger between UA/CO and them joining Star Alliance, we might even see more flights into EWR besides the current ones (2xFRA, 1xMUC, 1X DUS) Maybe even LX will add a mainline flight ^

Also, CO would probably stop resisting for LH to start MUC-IAH. They might even be happy about a partner feeding their network

Its unfortunate that outstations such as sfo,lax,las,sea,pdx,sna,san do so well during irrops and ewr,cle do so poorly. I have had great service worldwide except ewr and cle past two years.

I believe IAH is the best for any problem. I have also never had a problem in CLE ignored the agents are not as good as IAH but seem willing to help.

Agreed iah is the best hub. Sfo and lax have great prople in the clubs but need brand new facilities.

I'm venturing into uncharted waters...over to the CO board! Ahh!

Personally I think a UA/CO marriage makes a lot of sense. The major thing I think everyone agrees with is that E+ should be rolled out if the merger goes through and that MP would take over for onepass. (note i said onepass not nonepass; trying to keep it above the belt ;) ).

What are your guys' thoughts on what should be kept or tossed from the combined Uninental/Continited?

Employees with attitude.

Keep the United name, MileagePlus, Star Alliance, EconomyPlus, Continental management, Continental's labor relations, those nice 787s Continental has on order. Keep SFO, LAX, DEN, IAH, ORD, IAD, and of course, that fabulous NY hub -- EWR. Keep those United Pacific routes, Guam, those United Atlantic routes and that great Continental Latin American coverage.

Dump TED, Cleveland, OnePass, some older United Planes, 757s on transatlantic flights.

Compromise on the number of passenger classes. Something less than United but more than Continental (we want EconomyPlus).

Somebody has to pay for that fun!

See you guys ;)

All mainline domestic planes with 2 class service and E+.

3 class service (New UA C/F) on the highest yield routes: NYC-TLV, NYC-LON, IAH-LON, IAH-AMS, SFO-HKG, SFO-SYD, SFO-LON.... UA's 747/777.

2 class on the secondary markets (co777/767/757 routes), with BusinessFirst:TNG.

I expect BF:TNG to be better than UABiz but not quite as nice as UAF. As a compromise wrt SWU I'd propose that SWU would work as it does now on most fares on 3-cabin routes, but on YHK/YBM on 2 class BusinessFirst destinations. If you're in the highest cabin on the a/c you should be paying something.

Will CO like that complexity? probably not, but its going to be a huge airline.

It would be interesting, depending on how CO sees the economics of running 3 class aircraft when they take over if that model will continue. Otherwise they'll flip the 787 entirely into 2 class BF:TNG.

All the hubs would remain as they are currently, though, I could see COUA selling the IAD operation to AA to keep them happy (where they don't currently have a big presence on the east coast).

Excellent ideas!!!

IAD is one of, if not THE, UA intl gateway. I dont see them giving up IAD because of how hard they fought for IAD-PEK...

How about ditching the UA J catering service in favor of that of CO BF? In my experience, its far superior. It might be even better than UA First, but I have no knowledge of that part of the UA service other than a limited view from behind the curtain :-P.