They'd need to bring their fares in alignment w/ some of the better LCC's then. I booked a ticket to SFO this morning on VX because it was more than half the price of CO. That's worth the hassle of getting to JFK. I booked another one way flight this week on B6 because their $108 one way fare was much better than CO's $278

Because they are hoping we will purchase those tickets that we can no longer obtain with miles (regular or EasyPass) as a result our reduced mileage earning ability.

All those extra bonus miles they give out equals free tickets.

As much as I hate to say it, I wouldn't expect any level of outrage to result in the rescinding of any of these changes.

I think you're right on that one. And UA didn't backtrack on all of their changes � just the charging for meals on transatlantic flights.

I agree...but they might still get a letter from me expressing my displeasure with these changes and how the changes will be changing my purchases for at least the remainder of this year...just as UA got a little note from me expressing my displeasure with the changes in service they announced on their flights to Europe from IAD

I agree - the folks on Smith Street seem to be very calculating when making these kind of moves.

I agree w/r/t the 125% bonus being compesation for the higher redemption rates. Nevertheless, the next step in the devolution of Star probably will be for UA to raise its redemption rates to mirror those of CO.

First Checked Bag Fee. For travel within the U.S. and between the U.S. and Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands and Canada, customers will be charged $15 for the first checked bag. OnePass Elite members, SkyTeam Elite members, anyone else eligible for EliteAccess (including full-fare Y class and Chase Presidential Plus cardmembers), and avtive military personnel traveling on orders will be exempt.


A quick question. Does this mean that if someone in my family traveling with me on the same PRN and therefore having my status will not be charged for a bag? Somehow, I don't think so but I have to ask.

I was very excited to transition my loyalty from Northworst to Continental. That 500 miles is a killer!!

Since Plats bonuses are now reduced to Gold levels of 100% (like United and American), will Plats now earn SWUs (like United and American)?




I didn't think so.

Doesn't good revenue management pretty much assure that any standard awards redeemed using FF miles were seats that would have gone unsold? (Hence the increasing difficulty one is finding in redeeming standard rewards?)

While these changes are very dissapointing, I usually make status by segments, not EQMs. If and when the segments vanish a la Delta is the day I have to pack it in and go elsewhere.

1, 2, and 3 are definitely alignment with UA.

But not, as some posters who might not yet be familiar with *A are saying, alignment with Star. *A doesn't have specific requirements for how FF plans reward their members. Just between UA and US alone, which have a "closer-than-Star" bilateral in addition to *A, there are significant program differences:

Upgrades - UA: entirely instrument based. US: EUA "unlimited" like CO/NW/DL
Elite bonus - UA: 25%/100%/100% 3-tier US: 25%/50%/75%/100% 4-tier

I think that item 1, the baggage fee, was inevitable anyway given everyone else was doing it. But I wouldn't be surprised if UA wanted them to do it so that UA flyers (General Member MP flyers who don't get fees waived but are saving up RDM for their "dream trip") wouldn't find CO more attractive than UA once the partnership begins.

Item 2, the 500 minimum disappearing, also matches up with CO's new *A partners in the US. I expect that reading between the lines of Scott's announcement (which essentially says "gone on CO" and "still on this short list of partners") that all the other unnamed partners (in ST now and *A later) will also no longer get the RDM bonus. But we'll have to wait on that.

Likewise item 3, the top-level elite RDM bonus dropping to 100%, was probably to make CO OP as a program no more attractive than UA MP is in terms of RDM earnings.

I do wish CO would make 2 other alignments with UA: Get rid of the 50% EQM issue, and make 50K/Gold the Star Gold qualifying level.

The second of those would in fact be an alignment with most of Star, not just UA. If CO makes only Platinum be the Star Gold level with CO Gold getting just Star Silver, then OnePass becomes the absolute least attractive program in all of Star for international flyers who fly 50-74K EQM per year. I can't imagine that CO wants to create this disincentive when it joins Star. Yes, 75K is the norm for top-level-alliance standard in SkyTeam, but that's not the case in Star where most are 50K, some have oddball multi-year qualifications that average less than 50K for ongoing Star Gold status, and AC is as low as 35K for Star Gold.

I'm a little disappointed, having just matched for the 2009 program year to Plat from 1K and redirected my Q1 2009 flying entirely to CO from UA (Q4 08 was already booked out for me). But I'm not surprised, and my plan to switch business to CO was more based on service quality than mileage program comparisons.

Scott as a "former" CO plat, who is now 1K on UA and only Silver for this year on CO, two big questions....

(Its nice to cut benifits to UA levels re miles but...)

(1) Will CO adjust its award availability so that the seat availability on its own metal (and other *A carriers) is similar to or better than UA? Put another way is CO going to increase its currently almost humourous level of regular (not "premium") level award availability to at least that of UA?

(2) Will CO offer a similar benifit to SWUs on UA?