CO experiences vs. AA
 

A few observations from a comped AA EXP on my first full month of dedicated CO flying. For comparison purposes, I've been flying PHL-LA Area.

Availability: I've almost never had an issue with buying first on AA 5-7 days out. On CO, I don't have an issue on flights via IAH, but the EWR-LAX or SNA non-stops have been sold out in first a week out. I tend to travel on Monday mornings and Thursday afternoons, so I know that's part of it. How common is this on CO? How far out do most folks have to book to get paid first on the non-stops from EWR-SoCal?

Partners: NW and DL vs. well, nobody. Easy choice.

Service: AA is rarely stellar, but is fairly consistent (again, in F). On CO, I've found that the service runs from outstanding to totally disinterested. Had to hang my own coat twice on CO.

Food: Again, AA is consistent with newish offerings over the last few months. I think CO's food is better but doesn't seem to have changed since i first flew CO over a year ago. I also like soup, so that helps, too. Would like CO to have larger coffee mugs, though, because I'm a caffeine fiend on Monday morning.

Clubs: The Admiral's Club in PHL is my favorite because they know me. Other than that, the PC wins. Hands down. In nearly every way - food, drinks, everything.

Programs: I like the lower qualification requirements on CO, and the ability to earn 2 "points" for paid full/first fares. The 125% bonus miles are very nice. Definitely don't like the CO program when it comes to international (or, in my case, Hawaii) upgrades In that instance AA's VIPs win hands down. CO makes up for it in companion upgrades, though I haven't used one yet.

IRROPS: Rerouting with AA is simple, even to OAL - it's just a call to the EXP desk. Had my first experience with CO and irrops yesterday and was told by the Elite desk at CO that they'd get more home the following day - 24 hours late - after a mechanical delay. When I pressed, I was told that was because I was in paid first, and they were sold out up front until then. Huh? I even offered to go to EWR vs. PHL, or to drive up to LAX. (which seems to tie back to my observation about availability). A request for a "supervisor" later, I was offered Y on DL across the country. With no refund from my paid first ticket. Huh? Gave up on the Elite desk and walked out to the ticket counter. They were actually helpful and asked AA for seats, confirmed me in Y on a leg to DFW, then in F back to PHL from there. Upshot, I got home. Downside - is this really how CO treats Plats on paid first tickets? It's hard to believe the answer is to leave security, go back to the check-in desk, and by pass the elite line.

Seats: CO's are wider, more like barca loungers. AA's are more like bucket seats. One of my CO seats had a headrest that adjusted up and down, the rest didn't move. One CO seat had a wobbly armrest/side.

IFE: CO wins - hands down. Better movies, more planes with movies.

Overall, I'm relatively happy with CO, but curious what the heck I did wrong during IRROPs. Is there some kind of secret handshake I can give an agent? Or a double secret password for the Elite line?

Thanks for the report, McFlyPHL -- another point of comparison of CO to AA (ContinentalFan did another excellent one about a year or so ago).CO IIROPS sucks. :td:

I don't know how else to say it.

This issue has come up and whether the agents are not empowered to OAL tickets, management has discouraged it, or they're just technically inept on CO's IT system, getting CO to cooperate in an irregular ops situation is a PITA...and that's if you're a plat. God help you if you're anything less.

IME, CO generally runs well and I rarely encounter the issues I seem to regularly come across flying another one of their legacy competitors. The dark side is that when an issue does come up, CO generally balks the most at providing a resolution - and barring CO Insider - seems to have virtually little empowerment beyond what "the book" prescribes.

I suggest you send a quick PM to Scott (CO Insider) describing what happened, what the various agents said during your interactions and what you'd like to have happen (i.e. the elite desk OAL'ing your ticket). While change does not happen overnight, such efforts have helped in the past and hopefully can convince CO to work on this rather disappointing area of an otherwise decent operation.

As an AA EXP who has been a CO Plat for years, I can say that there's nothing like the EXP desk for IRROPS. The first time I called the EXP desk for assistance I was amazed at how easily they got me re-routed.

Of course, AA has a lot more practice at IRROPS that CO ;-)

My experience with CO is that being a Plat is only marginally helpful during IRROPS, sort of like being a Plat or Gold on AA.

I just did four flights on AA last week -- 0 for 4 on-time. One was weather, one was mx, and two were just inexplicable. I've found AA service personnel to be a little more friendly than CO (CO is rarely bad; usually perfunctory, sometimes surly), but AA ops seem less reliable than CO. the PClub free snacks are better than AA's solitary pretzel mix.

WN wins, hands down, on ops and service. Too bad they don't fly every everywhere and have no upgrades. If they did, they would rule the world.

I agree - AA handles irreg ops much better. Over the past few years - I have had a couple of AA flights cancelled. With no status with AA, I had no problems getting AA to rebook me on flights that I selected by simply calling the AA reservation 800 number. Rebooked once to CO flights and another time to NW flights - both with connection, versus the AA nonstop.

... at least I'm not alone! :-D

Anytips on the EWR-SNA/LAX non-stops and how far in advance I'd need to buy?

For the times you mentioned, about 3 weeks and you should get the last available seat in F... no joke.

Having been gold, plat and now EXP on AA I can't agree with the last statmement. I've never had a problem with AA rescheduling me during IRROPS or doing a better job just because I'm EXP. In fact, one time Chicago shut down and there was a flight to St. Louis so I took that and drove home. They even got my checked luggage on the plane and I re-booked at the Admirals Club lounge.

I have no comparison to AA, but I have to say my biggest frustration with CO is lack of paid F availability on transcon flights. Booking a week out often isn't enough and you can forget about trying to get on an earlier flight if your meetings happen to finish early. IMHO, part of paying full fare is paying for flexibility. That just doesn't exist on many CO flights, particularly transcons.

One of the biggest reasons for this seems to be the system of putting all elites on full Y fares in the F cabin at the time of booking. If CO would just jettison that rule it might actually free up some space for those of us who are actually paying F to begin with.

Hopefully as the new 739s and 739ERs come online we'll see them used more and more on transcons with 20 seats in F.

Full Y or paid F - it's about the same when discount F is available. I don't like that it isn't available, but it is what it is and if CO's getting full fare revenue off the seats then I suspect they are happy, too.

CO is obviously a better judge of whether it makes economic sense to fill the F cabin with elites on Y fares rather than full-F fares. I'm just saying that CO F is far more difficult to buy than an F seat on UA. Those who buy F need to know that using CO is going to be much more difficult than using most other airlines.

CO F also seems to be much lower priced than AA (and when I've compared - not flown - US'). I can justify a few hundred extra on a transcon - I can't justify nearly double the lowest Y.

I am batting 100% on upgrades on my domestic and international upgrades on AA as a PLAT (stickers for domestic flights including HNL, miles for international) on AA. I cannot state the same on CO as a PLAT. The last several times I had to go standby, after being confirmed an upgrade in F on AA on the original flight, I was given a seat in F on the standby flight. When I went standby on CO, I lost my upgrade and was given a middle seat. Food and service on AA has improved over the last year while CO has been stagnant or decreased. I am finding myself booking more AA for domestic and LH/UA for international. *A gold is easier to achieve on BD, and upgrades are easier to get on AA.

Enjoy your AA it is not for me they let me down in getting me to my destination in a timely matter one too many times where CO has gone out of the way to get me there.