Why do you fly the airline you fly?
 

On another thread, the question was asked which airline had the better product in first to Hawaii, UA or CO. While it appears the majority of FTers fly UA, few had anything to say and those that did, didn't say anything favorable.

Personally, from reading the posts under the other airlines, it sure appears for the 70K miles I fly a year, I would get better service and more benefits, such as free upgrades and ability to upgrade internationally on any fare, if I flew a carrier other than UA.

Yet, I continue to primarily fly UA and probably always will simply because they pretty much have SFO, where I fly out of, locked up and because, with the abundance of flights they offer, I'm pretty much assured if there is a mechanical problem or I miss a flight that the next flight is probably only an hour or two later.

Anyway... to get to the point ... I'm wondering what caused you to select your carrier of choice to be your preferred airline (assuming you and not your company made the decision) and how big a part did the benefits offered in their FF program play or were they secondary to other factors?

I signed up with Northwest in 1989 when I got a job that required me to fly quite a bit between Seattle and Detroit and Seattle and New England. After leaving that company I worked primarily along the west coast between San Diego and Anchorage until late last year. Alaska Airlines was a natural choice due to route structure and the tie-in between the NW and AS programs. Many of my family and in-laws live in the Eastern US so I use NW to visit them as well.

About two years ago, I got very disgusted with NW and tried United. Very pleased. Lots of new planes, many choices for connecting cities and flights, more bonus opportunities to earn miles and generally a more helpful staff. Depending on my next work project, I am inclined to focus my business with United if I have a choice.

I got to try Delta last month on a transcontinental journey and ranked them as very average.

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[This message has been edited by MileageAddict (edited 01-20-2000).]

I started flying America West back in 1995. Since it was the main carrier serving Phoenix, it made sense. As my miles picked up, I flew some code-share flights with Continental, and really noticed the difference in service.

When America West FlightFund p...ed me off, I called Continental OnePass, and the immediately comped me to Elite Silver. Now, I go out of my way to fly Continental.

I have flown United and Delta in the past, and only have one complaint (other than the service.) That complaint is hubs. I have friends that fly United through Denver and Chicago, and, more times than not, they have problems. Usually, the problems are related to weather. My problem with Atlanta is that I just don't particularly care for the airport.

Flying Continental, I have never had problems through Houston or Cleveland. Newark is a different story, and I just do my best to avoid it.

Now for the downpoint... my company is going to MAKE me fly United or Delta because they have a special fare deal set up through them. On the upside, I am grounded for the most part, so I won't have to deal with them much.



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The only difference between ordinary service and extraordinary service is a little EXTRA.

-- Bob

I started with AA years ago because of the AAdvantage credit card from Citibank. I understood from an early age (back in my poor college days when money wasn't very plentiful and the word "free" really meant a lot!) that if you concentrate all your miles earning opportunities on one airline, then you may actually get something of worth. And believe me, it was a leap to justify the $50 dollars or so that getting a "mileage" card cost back then when there were so many free credit cards available.

Since then, I continue to fly AA b/c they are IMHO the best product from LAX to SJC (I am not making judgement about any other routes, b/c if Midwest Express or Singapore Airlines flew the LAX to SJC route, I am sure that they would be better!). I don't really like flying Southwest with their first come, first board program, and as I understand, the United Shuttle doesn't give priority boarding either. When I am schlepping my way to SJC, I want to make sure that I have an overhead bin to place my luggage and I get to my seat right away and start to relax and get ready for a new week of work http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif

I think that United gets a bum rap here.

Over the years I have been gold with CO (highest tier then), gold with NW (highest tier then) and 1K and PE with UA. Mileage bonus opportunities with CO and UA were good, but not so good with NW (other than the elite bonuses - which were 125% with CO, and 100% with NW and UA). Upgrades were fairly similar in all - I use complimentary upgrades and do not use miles and do not buy upgrade vouchers. I had a hard time redeeming miles for free trips with CO - even as a gold, which was a major part of my switching away from them.

I think that the elite level you can get to is more important, and since the airlines have different requirements, one should look at where they would end up on the various airlines given what their travel patterns are. I do not fly much international, but if did then getting complimentary upgrades would be important.

Schedules and hub locations have played an important role in my airline selection.

I chose USAirways because PIT is their hub, and unless I want to go to Chicago, Detroit, Dallas, Houston, Cleveland, Minneapolis, Atlanta, Cincinnati, Washington D.C. or New York I can only go non-stop on USAirways. Fares are ridiculous, however I was business reimbursed and service is excellent. Fly in coach only twice in the past seven months. Enough so that even when I drive to Cleveland, I bypass the Continental non-stop to fly on USAirways.

I'm hooked for now, but driving two-three hours to get cheaper fares isn't going to work for too long. I probably will start flying Continental since their service is good and I can get non-stops from Cleveland. Eventually. For now, US all the way.

In 1987, when I was 11 years old, I started flying United because my parents decided to fly United to Asia for our family vacation that year.

Today, I still fly United because:

The route network is expansive. I can get just about anywhere in the world I want to go on United. And the few other places I can get to on Star Alliance partners.

The maintenance and engineering staff are the best in the world. An airline that is as deeply involved with the design and testing of a completely new aircraft, namely the 777, is truly ahead of the pack.

The fleet consists of airplanes that I prefer to fly. Yes, even the A320 and A319's, despite my Boeing bias.

The expedient and courteous nature of the service, on almost all occasions, is outstanding. Yes, it's gotten better as I've "climbed" the elite ranks, but it was never bad. Now, as a 1K, being treated like royalty on a few occasions here and there, I don't see any reason to go anywhere else.

O'Hare is my favorite airport, and Chicago is my hometown. Even if I'm just passing through, I still like to see it every week or two.

"Rhapsody in Blue" is one of my favorite musical pieces. I like having it pounded through my head on a continual basis... http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif

And finally, I've gotten to know the ins and outs of every aspect of United and the Mileage Plus program... I can find my way through ORD Terminal 1 with a blindfold... I know exactly which seats I want on each type of aircraft... I know some of the personnel... and I know how to maximize my miles... it would take years to figure all that out again with another airline!

As is the case with many flyers, I try to consolidate my air travel on one airline to maximize FF bennies.

I fly UA because it offers frequent flights from two local airports (SFO, SJC) to most of the places to which I travel by air. The single exception is the Pacific coast of Mexico when I fly Alaska. Other reasons for choosing UA include a decent FF plan, stability and maintaining a hub in my locale. Now that I'm a PremEx, I don't have much to complain about.



[This message has been edited by KatW (edited 01-20-2000).]

Out of LAX, there are multiple choices.
The two things that matter to me are ability of upgrades and ability to get a reasonable response when I contact the airline with a problem.
I had almost switched from Delta to AA because Delta was not responsive.
However, they seem to be trying again.

Southwest: (business) the best FF program for getting free flights, they are always on time, they usually fly out of MDW on the hour to most of my Midwest destinations.

Southwest: (personal) the best FF program for getting free flights, they actually let you use the free flights, super cheap fares when I have to pay, the companion pass for my companion, free drinks, no fees for changing flights, and a completely open and transparent reservation system.

United: (business) I was grandfathered as a PremEx 3 years ago and they are the only airline besides AA that has nonstops from Chicago. The all-around "service" is otherwise pitiful, but getting access to bulkhead rows is nice.

United: (personal) never. High prices, ridiculous restrictions, and $75 every time you pick up the phone to change anything.

I started flying Continental in 1991 and have stayed with them since. I switched from AA after I was unable to book award travel to Guatemala, all I wanted was to travel for a duration of 7-12 days during a 3 month window. The best that AA could offer was one three day stay for two tickets in that time frame. I was offered a swap of CO miles For AA miles by a family member if CO would make the travel available. Continental had availability for the first target dates I offered. It seemed to me that it was worth the risk of changing to the bankrupt airline rather then stay with an airline that wouldn't provide flights for award travel.

I first obtained Gold status on CO in 1993, and requalified until I achieved Infinite Elite.

A lot has happened since I started flying CO, the "Peanut" flights and cut-backs in elite benefits in 1994, then CO cut back from 6 to 2 flights daily from my home airport, TUS, fortunately that was later offset by the CO-HP alliance. Of course everything changed for the better after Bethune took control, I just hope that they can keep it up.

I started flying CO in 1995. I had pretty much settled on either CO or NW (boy did I make the right choice).

What sealed the deal for me was a trip in late 1995, BOS-COS. It was snowing pretty bad in Boston and the CO terminal was a mess. The ticket agent told me that I was going to miss my connection in IAH. With about 30 unhappy customers behind me, she took the time to move me to a different flight, held that flight for me until she was done AND completed my upgrade while I was in the air.

I had no elite status at the time, but knew I would fly about 60K in 1996. Her pleasant demeanor and professionalism in the face of adversity sold me on CO.

I've been CO highest level elite for 4 years and 2000 will be year 5.

US Air(ways) since (gulp!) 1991.

Did not fly much early on, but did attend a conference or two here and there and vacation here and there. Took me 3 years to earn my first free coach (gulp!) roundtrip. So, off I went to San Fran to see the Grateful Dead. Then I started to fly (domestic only) more for work when I lived in Miami and, at the time US Air was matched up with BA so you could earn status miles on both. I visited a friend in London twice in the same year on off-season $350 r/t tickets to LHR from MIA and the next thing I knew I was checking in at the US Air First Class line and getting an upgrade most of the time. Gee, I kind of like this. And, no I never used any of my miles. Hmmmm, I wonder what this NEXT elite tier is like.... 100% mileage bonus, more upgrades, upgrade 3 days in advance instead of 1.... the rest is history (a very costly $$$ history). Oh, yea, and geography - I live on the US east coast and US Airways flies all over the place from here. Cheers. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif

I started with Pan Am and TWA because I like to go to Europe as often as possible. Then Pan Am went away, and TWA sold its JFK-London route. I switched to BA (this was before the rise of alliances) because there are few places one cannot get to on BA. I have rarely had a problem getting an award seat on BA out of EWR for the exact day I wanted, so I've pretty much stuck with BA. I've added CO because, well, I fly out of EWR...

I started with Eastern (OnePass), went to American, then United when I moved near SFO.

Since I started doing a lot of international travel, I hoarded my miles for transoceanic upgrades. (My company generally only pays for coach).

I'm not that picky on service, but I started being aware that on some United international flights, if one strayed from the "expected" service pattern (have wine with the meal, have coffee afterwards), it was difficult to get what you want when you wanted it.

About that time, Delta sent me a promotional set of systemwide upgrades. I used them on my next flight to Europe, and was quite pleased.

Since I had lots of Membership Rewards points with American Express, I transferred them to Delta for upgrade awards (at this time, if you upgraded with Delta, you got the class of service bonus miles as if you paid for business or first). It wasn't long before I had lots of miles & more systemwide upgrades.

I fly a lot to Zurich, and Delta (with Swissair) offered much better options for me than United. (This was before the recent split of Delta-Swissair).

Eventually, I lost my elite with United, and, for the most part, stopped flying them.

My international upgrade success rate with Delta is over 90%. I can confirm the upgrades when I book the flight. I rarely use miles, since the systemwides are self-sustaining (fly 20,000 miles & get a pair once you are elite).

Dear United...

How do I love thee... let me count the ways..

I love thee for the warm friendly service at my RCC Club in EWR.

I love thee for knowing at certain clubs my preferred beverages (PEPSI and SAM ADAMS)

I love your PremEx program -- upgrades and other perks.

I love your F-A's, well those who take the time to smile, ask how I'm doing, even sometimes surprise me with a free bottle of champaigne or wine.

I love thee and am true to thee even though another airline I won't name here has more direct routes.

I love thee when after a frustrating day I see my coach seat boarding pass torn up and I'm soon sitting in first.

I love thee "angels" at the WTC ticket office who help me out of reservation and booking messes from my employer.

I love thee even more when you overlook the 75 dollar change fee, or "forget" to ask for those 500 mi certificates.

I love your triple 7's and the fine service you gave me and my wonderful Flyertalk sisters and brothers on the PIP express.

And I loved thee for 10 years, longer than most of my friendships and relationships.

Yes, I know no airline is perfect. And our road has been full of some turbulance and some very sour people.

But inspite of some bumbiness, I love thee I love thee I love thee...

(OK MY F-T BRUDDARS!! YES I NEED A LIFE! BUT I WANTED TO MAKE A POST WITH A POETIC TWIST!)

And no Goldwater, I am not drinking (in fact all I have in to drink is 5 12 packs of PEPSI!)

I would say that this issue typically comes down to who has the most flights to the places you want to go from your hometown. But if that were true, I'd still be on USAir. As Geo knows, from my office I often drive PAST DCA with all of its USAir nonstops to get to IAD so I can make a connection on United or turboprop my way up and down the east coast. So for me, convenience is apparantly NOT the overriding factor.

I originally liked United for the "look and feel." It just feels like a professional airline. After two years on what felt like rinky-dink USAir, that was important. I do miss the "free" USair upgrades, and my view toward that airline has softened quite a bit in the last couple years, but I've been sucked in by UA's modern fleet of widbodies and the multiple non-stop trans cons. Besides, I wouldn't know where to begin trying to get to Bangkok on USAir.

I signed up for Onepass last Feb as a fluke - I was flying on CO to my customer's site.

In the past I'd only taken a couple of flights a year, and didn't worry about FF miles. Since then, of course, I've seen the light!

Almost all my trips this year were in/around TX, so CO was the most cost-effective. Win-win!

The service has sold me on CO though. If I can't take a CO flight to a customer site, I'll try to pass off the trip to someone else (as the person who does the most travelling, I've basically gotten the right of first refusal).


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"I will not be pushed, filed, stamped, indexed, briefed, debriefed or numbered. My life is my own."

Why do I fly the airline I fly? I fly out of the airport I fly out of.

Seriously, 70% of the flights out of here are UA. I love having that level of back-up. If anything is amiss, I will be on the next plane.

I have never had (250K miles - most of them last year) a bad experience that would even make me consider switching. The only way I fly other airlines is if I am going to a non UA destination. (And I didn't step on a non-UA plane last year in almost 200,000 miles of flying.)

Why United?

I've been flying them since I was a little kid, mostly because my dad preferred them and they flew to my frequent destinations more than anybody else.

As I grew up and began buying my own tix, I realized that the planes, service and connections weren't as good on other carriers as UA's. Not that UA has been perfect, but it's been a case of mostly positive reinforcement while flying with them over the years. Now that I'm a PremEx, it's more a case of jonesing for the bennies.

geo, we'll have to exhange Dead tales. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/wink.gif

[This message has been edited by essxjay (edited 01-20-2000).]

The airline I fly depends absolutely, totally on flight schedule and aircraft. My company provides us with domestic first class flights on basically any of the majors. I'm based in St. Louis and so when flying to a city served by TWA will fly them. However, there are many instances when I need to get to a city not served by them and will choose based totally on schedule and connecting city.

For instance on a recent trip to Syracuse I flew out on Delta through Cincinnati. I could have chosen USAir one-stop service through PIT leaving at 10:45am, but went for the 11:30am Delta departure instead. Why? Because that gave me 45 extra minutes here in town before I had to leave.

On the way back I flew AA through Chicago. Although not my first choice due to worries about winter delays at ORD. I would have preferred to have flown through PIT or CVG, but those schedules just weren't convenient. I could have flown through PHL or NYC, but I was not about to get on a Dash 8 and bump around in some coach seat http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/biggrin.gif for an hour.

Sometimes TWA's schedule is not convenient or the last flight of the day back to Ram's territory has departed already (read PDX). In those instances I'm forced to choose a connecting flight, again totally based on schedule in these instances.

I started with United because they had the most flights east out of Seattle back in the early 80's, and I stuck with them when I moved to San Francisco for the same reason (that was before I did any business travel, so personal destinations were most important).

By the time I started doing a lot of business travel in the late 80's and early 90's, they had my loyalty because of the 100% PremEx bonuses (not to mention the late lamented plateau bonuses) and the availability of upgrades. Sure I could have started from scratch with another airline, but who wants to miss 6-12 months of bonuses/upgrades.

Like OneDog, I recognized early on the advantages of choosing one airline and sticking to it.

By the mid-90's (after I had stopped work), I sank back to the non-elite levels, so I suppose this would have been the time to try another airline if I had been so inclined. But United is pretty good internationally from SFO (especially since I can fly non-stop to Europe, instead of changing planes in Chicago or points east), and meets my needs domestically as well (NYC, DEN, west coast primarily), so all in all I've stayed with them.

And hopefully I won't regret that decision as a 1K for the year 2000!

I flew United from the early 80's until spring, 1997, mainly because they offer the most convenient schedules out of SFO. Then they temporarily changed the award rules so that Saturday night stays were required for domestic rewards. I got ticked off and started shopping around for another airline. I also felt UA's service had declined, and it felt like I was getting upgraded les and less as a PremEx.

I tried Delta, American, US Air, and Continental. I got comped to gold elite on CO, tried them, and have been happy with the switch ever since. They continually amaze me with free upgrades (at my Platinum Elite lebel) on nearly every domestic flight, great service with a smile for the most part, and preferred baggage service. OnePass has some nice features (like 125% mileage bonus), too, although ironically they require a Saturday night stay for their domestic rewards.

What I miss about UA: all the nonstops, domestic and international, out of SFO, and the nice Star Alliance partners.

What I don't miss: paying out of pocket for upgrade coupons, waiting anxiously at the gate to see if the upgrade cleared, the "priority" baggage tag that doesn't get my luggage to me any faster.

Basically I feel like I made a trade off: convenience for better service. If more of my flights were international, the Star Alliance partners would probably be a bigger factor for me.

My husband and I became loyal AA flyers around the end of the 80's for the usual reason: SJC was the closest airport and the service it provided was quite good for travel in California, back East and to Europe.
When AA dismantled the hub (1993?), we tried UA, but we never fully made the switch. Despite the less convenient schedules, I was much happier w/AA, mainly because of the AAdvantage program. Claiming summer award travel to Europe is a feat on UA; w/AA, I usually don't have too much difficulty getting the ticket I want. Also, overall, I always found the AAvantage cust. service agents much more helpful and responsive than those at MP (yes, even for Premier MP). Finally, while I generally find UA fairly good to fly, it seems definitely more expensive (and more stingy w/vouchers for being bumped).

Right now, our flying time is probably evenly divided among UA and AA (despite the fact that we live in HNL); UA mostly for business, and AA for leisure.

honu

I initially started to fly with USAIR in 1985, with a few flights each year on Northwest. But US AIR had no frequent flyer program, so I began to travel more often on Northwest, as I was flying a lot from the East to Midwest and Northwest had the best routes. There were a few times I felt like changing ( the year after the Republic merger was pretty bad; the mechanics' action
a few years ago was the pits). By and large,looking back, I am glad I stuck with Northwest. They have a decent award setup, and by concentrating on one airline I have been able to maintain gold/platinum for more than ten years. Now- retirement. It's been a good run, and I still expect to make at least silver by using NW senior coupons.

WOW!! What a thread!

I'll offer the following:

Lived in Chicago (ORD) 86-90 and was a Prex Ex on UA for three years. Flew Lots of AA also. Enjoyed the UA when they "doled" out the occaisional upgrade. I like UA, but their policies on upgrades and customer service were lacking.

Moved to Cincinnati (CVG) 90 through current. Started off trying to be UA loyal but the schedule just wasn't their. Switched to US Air out of Dayton when they still had their hub there. Finally got smart and switched to the local carrier Delta (reluctantly).

Quickly moved up their program to the Gold level. stayed their for three years until I got smart and became really loyal.

I've been Platinum (Hit million miler three years ago) for the past four years. I'd offer that Delta treats it's "best" passengers really really well. In 1999 I flew back cabin only 3 times out of 124 legs. Delta works hard to keep the Platinums happy, free Crown Room Membership, unlimited upgrades, generally special "above and beyond" level of service.

Now, all that being said, I continue to be disappointed by Delta's progressive move towards the "Partner" carriers (Comair, ASA, and the rest). CVG is seeing increasingly more flights turned over to Comair that used to served by true Delta Jets. While I don't mind spending 50 minutes on a CRJ, I do get frustrated when I see DL turn to Comair to serve 2+ hour flights witha CRJ (Especially when paying the high prices out of CVG).

I grow concerned when DL starts placing the CRJ on flights designed for bigger jets, i.e., SLC-SFO, CVG-CSP, CVG-DTW, CVG-MCO, SDF-ATL. I am also concerned with Delta when they continue to do cross continent trecks utilizing 727's. 5+hours, no audio, no movie, just old equipment. (Guess I shouldn't complain, they might put a crj on those legs!!)

As a newcomer to this board, I'm surprised at the lack of good things to say about NWA. Living in the Midwest, NWA gives me 3 routing choices (DTW, MSP & even MEM). So if there's snow in DTW, I can get switched to MEM. If MSP is shut down for ice, the DTW is an option. None of the other carriers in my city can even come close.

I've been NWA Platinum for 2 years now and have had very little trouble with them. Yes, flights get canceled every now and then, but no more or less than my co-workers who are UA flyers. The Platinum level at 75K has got to be the lowest in the industry for the highest level of automatic, unlimited 1st class upgrades.

Sure, the pilots went on strike a couple of years ago. But don't think for a minute that I didn't love those bonus miles that followed the strike (I even had a GRR-NRT trip during that bonus time).

How about the online booking of FF tickets? I love being able to do all the research into free flights at my own time without having to talk to an agent. That way I can keep working the dates until they work best for me.

Bottom line is that I've had very good experiences on NWA and will continue to support them.

Last year I took the AA Challenge and got gold then platinum. I got sick of the MD-80s with no entertainment systems and all those stops in DFW. I moved to DC area and finally made the switch to UA and US

I fly about 2 US segments per week. I am comped to Preferred Plus and will handily gain this status next year. I do this so that when I have to I can fly Metrojet and save a lot of money for short flights or fly US to East Coast cities where they have excellent schedules. I hoard those upgrades (shuttle to NYC is one class) and miles and plan to use them for something, don't know what yet.

I am pleased with UA and selected them ultimately for one reason: direct flights. I would probably use CO if I had a choice and time wasn't critical because I believe they have better service. But UA has lots of direct flights and lots of widebodies. It is hard to get an upgrade as a PremEx out of IAD with UA but it is usually possible if you book a 767 or the like.

I am unhappy that I end up booking biz class tix for UA because I book at the last minute with full Y fares and can't count on an upgrade with UA and do so much traveling and meeting that I can't bear having to sit in coach for hours every day. I wish that I didn't have to pay more with UA (more than the already exhorbitant prices) but I do. Sigh.

I started my love affair with UA early on as a kid in the 60's. My father was a career military officer and we flew United back and forth to most of his postings. He was assigned to Hawaii for 8 years and we flew on United's early 747's in the late 60's and early 70's.

I signed up for MP in '81 and have flown them consistently since for business and pleasure. I've been Premier and Premex off and on since. When I was hired by VW (in Detroit) my boss actually forbid me from flying NW (due to his own reasons). Now that I live in Baltimore, UA is extremely competetive on fares (based on SW's presence at BWI) and I try to use UA whenever possible. (I'm Premex with UA, SMed with Delta, Silver with Continental, and use USAir and Northwest sporadically)

Since I travel 48 weeks a year for business with personal weekend travel to Michigan and back (every two weeks) United's a welcome, comfortable constant in my weekly travel routine. As Catman mentioned, it's nice when United employees and FAs recognize you and treat you well, It really makes the trip more enjoyable and personable.

ontherun (in GSP this week)

my 2 cents:

You should always fly the airline that gives you the most reliable service, come what may.
Loyalty is rewardable.

Air travel is a two way street. I first encountered the reality of Air Travel in the seventies, before mileage programs. (much to my later non mileage dismay) But, If an airline sticks with you when seats are slim, stick with them! If they don't, well everything is negotiable, especially for the
upgrade opportunity. DCW.

I have been a religious customer of America West for the last six years. It started with me going to school in Arizona and the availability of non-stop flights between PHX and EWR. When HP and CO became codeshare partners, that sealed my loyalty. I generally had a choice of about six or seven (depending on the season) non-stop flights between the two cities and no other airline could provide the same frequency.

I have also given my loyalty to HP because of the miles that I have been able to accumulate with flights on both HP and CO. As a student I typical flew five PHX-EWR RTs per calendar year, which made me an elite in their program before any of my other personal travel. Because of this, I am able to enjoy the privileges of both HP and CO in addition to the flexibility of their schedules. After flying 40 segments over the past year, I have sucessfully upgraded on 39 of those flights with the lone exception being a PHX-SAN segment (not a big deal).
I recognize that HPs first class product is not on the level of CO or some other airlines, but it is improving, and achieves its means by offering a superior product than it does in coach. My HP privileges have permitted me to upgrade on CO flights with a high rate of success and even some trans-con BusinessFirst segments for a paltry 10,000 miles a piece.

Actually, the main reason I give HP my loyalty is because of the way that I am treated by them. Their telephone agents are simply the most pleasant I have dealt with. I have always been able to get what I want with them, and they have shown me the effort that I feel that I deserve for giving them all of my business.

I know that some people have had difficulty with HPs operations in the past few months, but that is a microcosm of the big picture as it appears as though things are being righted. With some changes in management, the expanded hub in PHX (and hopefully soon to expand in CMH), a new and modern fleet entering service in the coming months, HP has shown me a commitment and I feel obliged to reciprocate.

Even were it not for the benefits I enjoy on HP, I would give them my commitment if for no other reason than that they have show me theirs.

I'd like to answer this question backwards - why I don't fly the airline that I used to fly. And it's not due to bad service.

Since 1984, I find that I take two pleasure trips a year to England and/or Scotland. The schedule occassional changes, but that is the general trend. I started with PeopleXpress who I thought had wonderful transatlantic service. I eventually started flying British Airways. I always found decent to great service, pretty good food, relatively comfortable flights. Why did I switch:
1. As I said, my flights were pleasure, so I always flew coach - $500 vs $5000, no question there. But no matter how many miles I accumulated, I could only earn free flights - upgrades are only available on full fare tickets. Now some of the free flights were in Bus class - and that was nice, and I flew enough that with miles from my credit card aznd the flights I did okay, but I wanted to use my miles for upgrades not just free tickets.
2. BA schedule - it was terrible. If I flew to Scotland, I would often have a 5 hour layover in Heathrow. My overnite flights would land as early as 4:00am, and they wouldn't book me on a connecting flight to EDI or GLA until 9:00 am. The reutnr was often almost as bad.

I usually fly UA now, they obviously allow upgrades, and the connections times in Heathrow are so much better.

As a kid, I flew about once a year with my parents on vacation. Back in the days of PSA, PanAm, JetAmerica. My first FF card was when I was 16 from USAir, back when they were flying west coast routes. Didn't credit much to that account at all...

Then, I got my AAdvantage card back in '92. I earned some miles in the next couple of years on my annual Qantas trips to Australia, and some various AA trips. In '97 I started travelling for work a lot, and realized AA had routes that worked well for the places I was going, as well as being my company's preferred carrier. I Barely made Gold by the end of '97 and was happy to be able to upgrade once in a while. The next year, I qualified for Platinum by August. Last year, Platinum was attained by May, and Exec Platinum in December.

So as you can see, I got kind of sucked into AA just by chance, and have been pretty happy with their service. I have had an aversion to UA, as I listened to constant bashing of them by my father while growing up. I think I will need to give them a try this year, and see if the grass is greener on the other side.

This is a great thread, letiole! Let me apologize in advance for the length, but I’ve shortened it…

essxjay… “jonesing for the bennies."
I love it!!

Had my very first flight in a Piper Cherokee for my 10th birthday present and was hooked!

Really started flying for business in the mid-70’s, got heavier in late 70’s. Living in Baltimore (hometown), flew Eastern, Alleghany (forerunner to US), PA, US and TWA. Started flying to Asia/Orient in ’87, the obvious choice from BWI was UA. Moved away from US when they started hubbing at BWI & concentrated on UA. That started a Prem Exec run for 9 of 11 years. Had one 4-week trip in ’88 on UA, CX, TG & PR to HKG-BKK-SEL-TPE-MNL, all in BC. When the dust cleared & all the bonuses were credited, that trip netted me 39K+ miles. That’s when the ‘mileage bug’ started.

Also was 2nd level with TW for 2 years when I was flying a lot into STL & PIA (Peoria). TW lost my business when I got bumped from FC 3 times in a period of 6 months. Haven’t flown them since 1988, still have 35K miles in my account in spite of giving away a few tickets to family.

Moved to South Jersey/PHL area in ’92, avoided US hub again & stayed with UA & a little CO, DL & NW. Of the 3, was impressed the most with DL service, flights & schedule, at least out of PHL. Still used UA almost exclusively.

Moved to Oregon in Dec. ’95 and all was well for the first year. As a PE on UA, started having major problems getting U/G’s due to full-fare pax here. Competing with corp. flyers from Nike, Adidas, Intel, H-P, etc. It became obvious to me that UA was the airline of choice for these companies, and they all seemed to be flying on ‘full boat’ tickets. After getting blown off the waitlist 4-5 times by last minute walk-ups (when I was told “As a PE, yours should clear with no problem”), I thought it was time to look for another choice.

Since a lot of my travels were into SLC, DFW, ATL, CLE, OKC, CVG, it seemed to be a ‘no brainer’ to switch to DL. Mailed my UA statement to DL in Dec. ’96, had comp. Silver Med. by Jan. ’97, made Gold in Oct
’97 and have maintained it since. My best year for U/G’s was ’99, when I had a 93% success rate with SWU’s & e-certs. I am starting out 2000 with 46 of the 800 mile e-certs in my account, and 3 SWU’s. The fortunate part has been that K fares out of PDX only ran $15-40 more than L in the hub markets, so that has really helped. I’m afraid that may change this year.

Only other status I currently have is as a Premier on UA; lost PE this year due to less travel & maintaining GM on DL.

I fly UA because my company flies UA. Since I want the highest elite level both for personal and work flying, I do my personal travel on UA as well.
Also, since I fly from DEN, it would be more difficult to use any airline but UA.

[This message has been edited by QuantumLeap (edited 01-21-2000).]

Didn't we just do this topic a month or two ago?? Yeah, I think we did. Here it is:
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/Forum94/HTML/000547.html

Djlawman

Oh to hear those of you with choices !

I fly the airline the company chooses. Being a large multinational with travel interests, this means negotiated routes with certain carriers..not too bad for me as my long haul routes this year are currently to/from US so it's United for Brazil/Argentina/Chile and American for the northern parts of Latin America (well the HQ is in Miami).

Hope you feel simpathy for my UK colleagues, stuck in low-fare, BA only, no mileage credit on that fare-land !

Cheers
GK

I fly Southwest Airlines when ever I can domestically:
-They DO NOT charge for changing my ticket!
-They offer a flight almost every hour, some way some how!
-Their employees really do care about Herb (the CEO) and the company, you can tell.

WN was founded on KISS: Keep it simple stupid. Most of my travel is short haul. They get me where i'm going, on-time, safely, and at a cheap rate. Who likes airplane food anyways?

I fly CO to the U.K. and for long hauls not served by WN. Frequent Flyer program is good but I don't earn miles as fast. Unlike Onepass, I do get a b-day card and x-mas card from Rapid Rewards.

Both are supburb airlines.

Being based in St. Louis, one has very little choice other than TWA. Started flying them to Europe while living on the East Coast in the 80s, and continued during college back and forth between the coasts, using their Youth Travel Pack.

Now, working for a large company based in STL, I have little choice to get non-stops to most locations other than hub cities. Plus, as an Elite in 99, 100% success rate on upgrades- about 25 segments, mostly between STL and the West Coast. Made Elite 1 for 00, expect the same leve of success, although since my boss does not have Elite status, and we'll be travelling a bit together, may have to sit in the back a few times.

Using Aviator miles has been relatively easy for me as well. I was recently able to get 1 free F/C ticket STL-OGG for my girlfriend, and a F/C upgrade for myself for the end of April.

And while all the free upgrades are nice, the operational performance is the best part of the airline these days. Almost always on-time or early, and great schedule reliability. I do wish for more routes and partners, but hopefully those will come.

I am loyal to AA. Five years ago when my mother had a stroke (and died 3 months later), AA was the only airline that gave me a medical emergency fare and told me I could go standy for an earlier flight and get on the earlier flight with that fare. When I arrived, the ticket agent actually firmed it up rather than let it be standby and gave me the cheapest fare they had going. I knew I'd be flying home frequently between ORD and LGA so I signed up on the spot. I was flying every other week-end for 3 weeks. I got a citibank AAdvantage card and the rest is history. I stay with AA because of the frequency of their flights to LGA and that they go through DFW to california and mexico. They have lots of ways of getting extra miles through citibank bank, MCI, dining and lots of double mile promotions and other promotions. I don't see those kinds of promotions with other airlines. So I charge everything I can and pay it off in full each month. So, since starting almost 6 years ago, I've accumulated about 470,000 miles total. I made gold this past year. They are responsive whenever I've had a problem (most of the time). They are always my first choice

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DtG