Hi all,

I have a sneaking suspicion that somebody would have the same dilemma: what to do upon CO leaving ST and joining *A? Now I am Plat on CO and Chairman on US, so I would not be able to get both when CO bolts to *A. I will have to choose what number to give when flying United, Lufthansa, etc.

My location makes US more convenient, but I like CO more.
On the other hand, US tends to upgrade me more.
On the other hand (are there more hands? :-)), economy in CO is way more pleasant.

So, please help... how to decide?

Finally, for my ST carriers I will have to use DL... any other, less hateful, choice? :-)

As far as your ST member airline goes I don't know that you really have any other choices than DL domestically.

Comparing US to CO? IMO there is no comparison. I would rather drive than take a US flight anywhere. Once CO makes the *A transition, my vote is that you give your OP number when flying on other *A partners.

Upgrades or not, CO is a better flight experience all around.

Nonsense. So you would rather fly CO in coach than US in F?

It seems you fly quite a bit, and on a variety of carriers.

I would wait and see what happens with CO-UA in terms of benefit reciprocity. While your upgrades and US convenience would sway you towards US over CO, if we see some sort of advantage of a CO Elite flying UA, you may want to keep CO status over US. So it's too early to tell.

That said, presently, and all things being equal, US CP has more benefits than CO Plat. You get free standby and same-day confirmed, as well as a couple SWUs.

Alaska. In my limited experience (connecting from AA) and from everything I've read, they're a great airline with a great frequent flyer program. They have upgrade reciprocity with Northwest and will soon with Delta. (Alaska might not work for you if you fly ST airlines that aren't Alaska partners, though.) Alaska's partnership with Continental is much more limited, so they aren't worth as much here.

I'm in a similar boat, except I don't have SkyTeam or Star Alliance elite status to worry about; I plan to open an AS account for DL/NW flights once Continental joins Star.

The difference is about 3-5 inches and the food is about the same....

3-5 inches is a huge deal when, like CO, you have the worst seat pitch of any domestic airline.

Exactly!! Thanks for totally understanding my question - if I can get United E+ with CO Elite levels, it will sway me towards CO. For now, I am leaning towards using US due to exactly the reasons above: [seemingly] more frequent upgrades + [primarily] a better fit with US routemap.

BTW, US Chairman upgrades are not really SWUs; I had an unpleasant surprise recently when trying to use a Chairman upgrade on a European flights; the agent told me that these upgrades do not come from revenue inventory...

Come on, that's not really true :-) The seats are the domestic First seats; and remember the free drinks...

Wirelessly posted (BlackBerry8830/4.2.2 Profile/MIDP-2.0 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/105)

CO might have the signature 31-inch Y-, but US and their dreadful 30-inch 737 fleet makes CO Y feel like a palace.

As an ex US1, now CO Plat (never held both except during my status match year) I will not deny that EUAs are plentiful on US and hit or miss on CO. And when you're in back on CO, it's a nice reality check that flying can be a miserable experience. However, I found US to be completely unreliable. I don't care if I got the upgrade if they can't get me to where I need to be when I need to be there.

I'd hold off on doing any matches until you figure out what the agreement will be between UA and CO. It might be better go split your allegiance between two networks.

It's really hard to answer your question without knowing your flying patterns. As a NYC based FF if I flew primarily domestic, as much as you apparently do, I'd split between CO and DL once CO joins Star.

Thanks for the answer! I am based on the West Coast and a good part of my flying is in fact international and coast-to-coast. Most CO flights require me to go thru TX, which is not nice, while US goes thru PHX.

Likely, the route map argument will win, unless United (which I also fly fairly often) gives CO Elites access to E+.

UA stopped allowing other partners' elites from accessing E+ a couple of years ago. So I don't think that CO elites will be given access. E+ access is considered a revenue generator for UA, not a goodwill gesture. Also note that CO only gives 50% EQM credit for a lot of fare buckets on partner airlines.

* Gold (mid tier and above, 1P on United) board between First class and zone 1 on United so overhead space is generaly easy to snag. Could also purchase E+ access for the 3-5 inches.

No other choice for domestic flights. And your "hateful" comment is spot on.

AS is not a SkyTeam carrier, although they do have a good relationship with NW. How that relationship will fare when DL fully merges the NW ops into its own is not clear. AS also has a strong relationship with AA.