United Continental Merger
 

OK, so I have a Continental MC and a One Pass account. With the impending merger, should I now drop this and pick up a United card to obtain the bonus miles. Will the FF programs of both airlines be merged as well? If so this seems like the way to go.

I just went through this with Northwest and the Delta merger. They gave me bonus miles for linking my NWA account with a DL Skymiles account. So to answer your question, I wouldn't switch over yet. Hold out and you may get some extra perks.

in anticipation of this merger, I applied and got my Chase checking and Continental debit card with 25K bonus last week. True, mergers take months if not a year to take effect but, you never know about the CO banking offers---could be pulled anytime. I expect that the merger will be just like the NW/Delta one, and miles will merge into single acct. Boy, I'll bet the airliner paint job boys are glad everytime there's a merger!

I was curious about this myself.

I'm trying to take my wife to Europe with me next March. I will easily be able to get 40,000 miles by September of this year on AA, which is enough for a coach award for myself. However, I doubt that I'll be able to get enough for her to go as well in that timeframe. I'd like to break it up into 2 one-ways, which AA would allow.

But, we both did the CO/Chase debit card deal and have received 25,000 miles each. Since United allows one-way awards, we could each grab another 2,500 miles and fly to Europe on AA and back on United. If CO and UA merger FF accounts, our problem is solved.

I'm debating on whether to buy my Mother's Day flowers on AA for 25/per $1 or on CO at 50/per $1. The latter doesn't make sense for me unless I can parlay my existing miles into a one-way award to Europe as I never fly CO and have no desire to earn the 55,000 miles required for a RT award with them.

If the expiration date is 6/30/2010 then they would have to atleast honor the bonus for anyone that applies with a valid coupon until that time, correct?

Given what DL/NW did in their merger, it would be a good idea to at least take advantage of any bonus miles offers on UA. For instance, if you qualify for the United 50,000 miles credit card offer, do it. Assuming the merger is approved by shareholders and the feds, the accounts will likely merge with the balances being combined.

The following is part of an email that I received from United this morning:

Enhanced Redemption Options
After the merger closes, which is expected to occur near the end of the year, you will participate in the industry's leading loyalty program. Your miles in both programs continue to be valid and can be used according to existing program rules. After the merger closes, we plan to combine our loyalty programs and when that happens, your miles in both programs will be combined into one account. And you will continue to experience the benefits of Star Alliance, including service to more than 1,000 destinations, more connecting opportunities, additional scheduling flexibility and access to reciprocal frequent flyer and airport lounge benefits with Star Alliance's 24 other member airlines around the world.

I suppose you're right, but (not sure) wasn't there some kind of caveat somewhere that Chase/CO had the right to discontinue the offer? Anyway, I wasn't sure. Besides, if the offer were withdrawn, what could anyone really do?

I cringe any time I see the word ''enhance'' from some corporate mouthpiece. In corporate-speak, it seems to translate to ''the customer is about to get screwed''.

I am a NW refugee, and have already watched my NW miles get severely devalued by the DL takeover of NW. A 1:1 ratio, as in their case is a fraud on the customer when one set of miles (NW) is clearly more valuable than the other (DL), so combining balances does not solve the problem.

UA miles are severely devalued by UA's practive of *net blocking, so if the combined program is run by UA rules, ff'ers are screwed. We can only keep our fingers crossed that it is the CO team and CO rules that emerge.

Perfect. A frequency account merge at the end of the year. So I will hold onto my BA Visa until November, when my annual fee is due, then ditch it for a CO C.C. and corresponding bonus then.

unitedcontinentalmerger.com

Just got that in an email form continental.

They also talk about "Industry Leading Loyalty Program"

Credit card fates
 

What will happen to the credit card programs? Am I right to assume that it will all go into the current MP card offerings, or will they come up with some new ones?

Same here - I just opened the Chase 25,000 mile Continental checking account on Saturday! I was out of town, but brought the coupon with me. I did the United one last June. I have over 500,000 United miles and 1,000 Continental. Not sure if I should go for the Continental credit card, as I just got the BA 100,000 mile card and the 50,000 mile United card.

I wouldn't recommend that, I would wait at least 90 days (some day 6 months) I imagine the Continental will stay that high for the next several months.

Seems like a good time to take advantage of offers from both companies.

Do you know which credit card will they keep? CO or UA? (I didn't get NWA cards before their merge, and I really regret about it...)

I want to get the miles from the cards that is going to disappear and wait for better offers for another card.

I would advise against doing anything to get CO or UA Bonus miles unless you are very familiar with Starnet Blocking.

It's a UA only phenomenon that really - well it really stinks and makes their miles worth a LOT less than competing *A carriers.

What I usually experience is this on my routes - domestic Business Class flying a route that ONLY US AIR serves direct:

UA: "Sorry No Availability" (They can get you there but with 1 or 2 stops and higher fees and higher mileage though)
US: 50k miles less 5k for having their credit card = 45k
AC: 40k miles

UA Miles have become useless to me and I give them away to family members who have to fly 3 stop trips in order to use them.

Please don't risk getting caught up in *net blocking - it really stinks.

I would be very careful with waiting too long to get a Continental card. With the merger expected to close by the end of the year I would expect the Continental cards yanked around then or possibly even well before. Who knows. But that's the point: I clearly recall several posts on these boards assuring everyone they still had time to get a NW card while their merger with Delta was going on, and I unwisely heeded their assurances and then a good month before anyone was suspecting their closure they were unceremoniously yanked. Missed out on some easy miles that I'd never have a chance to get again.
So from here on out, if you haven't had them yet, consider these Continental cards living on borrowed time and a priority to get while the getting is good. And don't put a whole lot of stock into any predicted dates for their demise. (Like mine for instance. :)

It all depends on the awards you want and your booking strategies. We've never been affected by it.

I would, however, also caution against assuming US will stay in *A after the merger.

What do you all think, if someone like myself already has the Chase UA MC with no annual fee, isn't it likely that since CO doesn't offer any "no annual fee" cards (afaik), when they everntally take my type of UA Chase card over, they'll convert it into an annual fee account -- but possibly also offer some CO miles at the same time if I accept the account conversion? I think there's a difference between just converting the account brand/terms of a credit card and the other possibility of closing down the account entirely but offering you a new one that still requires you to re-apply?