For those of making the CHANGE...in your airlines to Continental, welcome aboard!

Well the SWUs are not being issued for 2009 qualification numbers; they start with next year's program. So matching now will not get you any. And I won't get any for having hit the 100K number on CO this year either, which is a bummer.

If you fly the 100K+ EQMs next year, however, you will.

I am happy for all the giddy new CO Plats, I personally would not be so eager to make the switch to:

1. Be at the 3rd highest tier, CO Plats are below UA Global Serv AND UA 1K's for UG's and with less F seats.

2. Flying ANYTIME out of EWR. The airport sucks and there are ALWAYS delays.

3. Flying 737's

4. Lose 93K rollover MQM's (yes that is over the 125K for DM).

For what, 2 BE tickets at 800 vs. 2600 each. no thanks.

You do not have to go over EWR just like you don't have to go over ATL. CLE is actually not bad at all. I will take a 737 over a Mad dog or DC9, and you get a check for $3600.00 to boot. Pretty compelling. It all depends on how you look at it.

Well, I just made a status match so I am going to try CO for a bit. As I remarked in an earlier post its a bit tough logistically though out of DTW (i.e., trying to avoid EWR)--- but for TATL I am hoping for a BE product that has seats and AVOD that work. Case/s in point I had trip to ATL-TLV on 777 no AVOD or seat that worked (the two are connected) October, two trips to AMS no AVOD (seats at least worked) A330-3 (probably same plane in this AMS situation) flew back with some folks that were on the outbound DTW-AMS, we were joking how it could not happen twice in in four day business trip-- that was in November ---and we were wrong.

In all three cases DL was alerted to the problem. Nothing was done. I had very nice personal email about the long TLV trip in BE (and compensation which I greatly appreciated--but it should not be happening so much). See the other posts currently on the DL list about "broken seats" same problem, seems to be systemic although that might be too strong a term to use but for sure someone is not checking this stuff enough. Although running Windows 95 to engage the AVOD in A330-3 is not wise...that blue screen of death and all...just hope the fly by wire is not running on windows :-)

We shall see how CO does. My guess is the grass is not always so much greener but it is worth a try. ;)

As ticked-off as I am, I'm going to give it some time. I would really appreciate continued updates from the DL/NW elites that jump to CO/UA/AA. If things don't change by mid-Spring, then the handwriting will be on the wall. I'm going to give DL a chance to make DM competitive with the highest tiers on OALs. If they don't, then they have made the decision for me. I just hope that CO will still match to plat at that time. I'm not hub-captive and I can easily change the majority of my travel over to CO/UA or AA. I'm loyal, but if DL is going to make a business decision to have a comparatively less valuable FFer program, then I similarly must reevaluate my decison to have them remain my primary carrier.

Pretty much sums up where I am ADLFO. Either DL can choose to keep me, as a DM next year, with some worthwhile SWU's and transparent UG system, or I will walk, NO RUN to CO, even though I am a hub captive.

I was starting to fear that, being only a lowly Plat, I was going to be disadvantaged next year.

Judging from the number of nascent DMs threatening to refugee to CO, my fears may be overstated. :D

Now I just have to figure out how to deal with the DL all-RJ domestic fleet that will exist by 3Q10.

Not to mention the ever-continuing deterioration that has become Delta.

Just looking at today, according to flight stats, from MSP CO's flights were IAH x 6, EWR x 6 and CLE x 4. Of those 16 flights, exactly one was on mainline. ERJ x 15 & 737-500 x 1, so if by transparent UG system you mean invisible, CO's got you covered out of MSP.

I'm not switching yet, but these are pretty weak (and misguided) arguments...

This is only true for UA flights. On CO flights, CO PEs are still at the top of the order.
As though ATL or JFK are that much better..
What's wrong with 737s?
. That's true in your case, but not for everyone.. plus, you don't lose them, in fact in your case you'd be a guaranteed platinum for 2011, so you basically have a free pass to try CO.
Dont forget about useable miles...

The way I see it, by sticking around, I'm taking a bit of a risk...

I'm investing in a company when it's going downhill, in the hopes that the exodus will lead to some change (increased award availability, international upgrade instruments, etc..) and that I'll be in a good position when that time comes. It wasn't too long ago that CO had many complainers leaving.. They turned things around and are now doing alright.
At the very least, my upgrade percentage should increase if everyone else leaves... Still in shock about 11 open BE seats on my Sunday night JFK-SFO flight this past weekend :eek:. It was nice to have a row and a half to myself on the BE 763. I can get used to that :D.

Of course the entertainment system on the A330 has nothing to do with the aircraft controls - but as a techie, the A330 entertainment system is actually Linux-based, and not Windows 9x at all. A couple of times, early in the life of the A330s in the NW fleet, I saw the system boot up just before our flight departure, complete with Linux boot messages displayed on the big screen at the front of the cabin for all the passengers to see. In my experience, this only happened in the early years when that AVOD system was new, and not often recently.

I made my decision back in September that DL was not going to see another dime from me, after they ruined NW and treated us NW plats like crap, so I started flying on AA and haven't looked back. However, I was looking at some flights in the first week of January and DL was $160 less than AA on the same itin and similar times, so I booked the ticket on DL out of weakness, then I said "Hell No!" and I canceled my reservation about 5 minutes after booking it and booked on AA about an hour later after their price came down.

You can still see Tux (the Linux penguin) when they reboot the AVOD on many DL metal flights.