Defecting from a CO hub to UA and *A
 

I'm trying to decide if I want to jump ship to UA from CO (all the while they are posting about a merger on the CO board).

I have many reasons, but I'm tired of paying CO hub penalty (ya, ya, non-stop premium :rolleyes: ) and E+ sounds great.

CO Gold with no flights so far this year (haven't set foot in an airplane since Thanksgiving :( ) with plans to fly to SE Asia a couple (maybe more) times a year (to Oz one of these days) and a trip or two to Europe (already seen much of Latin America (CO is good for that) and most of the US / Canada) on leisure. Just found out that I will be making four or five Biz trips a year for the next four years to cities in US starting in September.

Normally used to do about three paid trips a year in the US, all the rest was leisure travel on my own dime. In addition to SE Asia and Europe I fly to YYJ or YVR once or twice a year to visit family. And that SEA-YYJ segment went through the roof last year, so insted of CO / AS IAH-SEA-YVR I'm considering AC IAH-YYC-YYJ, though I believe that could mean CJR and not full EQMs for low fares toward UA :(

Here's my dilemna. Ask UA for comp to mid tier (and would I do this before or after I book my late April flight?), and fly US Air IAH-FLL (UA fare is astronomical, CO is OK) for a meeting the first week of April with possibly a trip for "long weekend" following the meeting, or stick with CO and try to run it via EWR as a MR?

Those UGs on CO are getting harder to come by, and the places I want to fly to CO consistently charges more than the competition. UA has had some excellent fares to places I want to visit this spring, and CO fares have not budged :( And of course 50% EQMs on partners for the most part (ALL my travel will be on cheap fares), though *A flights on cheap fares (such as to Canada) also don't earn full EQM's.

Thanks for reading this far (if I haven't lost you by now). Is this a grass is greener case, or does this make sence?

Thanks, EmailKid

It doesn't make sense as UA spoke flights to hubs out of IAH are nearly non existant :) - I have a hard enough time getting on DL.

Have you considered AA's program? They have a more usable program for folk based out of here (via DFW hub)

Just my two cents worth, for IAH/HOU based fliers anyways...

Yes I have, in fact very strongly when CO pulled out of EFD, since I considered using HOU and not having to drive all the way to IAH. I see that AS is a codeshare partner with AA (who isn't), but at least according to AA.com, no AA flights to YYJ.

And E+ sounds very appealing.

Thanks for your input, gpan, guess I'll take another look at AA, but I'm also worried about those summer thunderstorm delays at DFW (used to live in the Metroplex).

EmailKid

Hi emailkid,

I am a UA flyer (due to *A) from the (greater) Houston area (CLL). But it is becoming harder and harder for me to justify to myself flying UA, because UA is making it harder and harder for me to get where I want in a reasonable time and at a competitive price - I'm mainly flying to DTW domestic and FRA internationally.

If you look at the timetable, there is now only one UA flight left to IAD, only two mainline flights to ORD (and 5 United Express), one to SFO and 5 to DEN.
The US flights to CLT are currently sold as America West flights, so no milage for those...
All AC flights are on regional jets, and the only other flight is LH to FRA - extremely painful 11:25 in Y :td:

The following are my observations over the last few months and may not apply to you, but anyway, here it comes :D

• UA's cheap fares usually carry the 30 day restriction, whereas CO seems to have gone away with it
• UA doesn't seem to have the cheap booking classes available on most flights (at least to ORD and IAD)
• E+ is great, but personally, I'm getting to the point to wonder how much I value my time vs comfort...
• On intercontinental flights, however, E+ is priceless, especially since I'm 6'1
• CO at least gives you a sandwich, nothing on UA on flights less than 3.5 hrs
• Channel 9 on UA mainline is great, but see above for availability of mainline...
• Last departure on UA is around 6pm to DEN, 4:50pm - 5:30pm to ORD - changes frequently
• Easterly destinations often do not allow routing through DEN
• *A has, IMHO, a much easier earning scheme - only flown metal counts, doesn't matter if flight is booked as codeshare or not
• No complimentary upgrades unless 1K - but I got an op-up FRA-ORD earlier this year ;)
• TED to more leisurly destinations - Most people on the UA board will disagree, but, being in Y, I take TED any day over any of the regional jets
• I like IAH Terminal A, hardly any lines at security and quiet - but hardly anything to do when waiting for your flight

Even though I might be painting a fairly dark pcture of UA, I am still trying to use UA as much as possible, but have started to use CO if they are significantly cheaper (it happens...) or have much better flight times.

So for me, I fly UA mainly because of/for E+ for international flights...

Hope this was somewhat concise, feel free to ask (here or via PM) if you have any more questions...

David

Thanks haudb,

very thoughtful analysis.

The reduced UA schedule has me a little worried, but I understand that I should get full EQMs on US - well once their merger is completed :rolleyes:

Come on guys, any more thoughts @:-)

EmailKid

Seriously, go AA. The convenience of a hub close by really, really can't be beat. The only other hubs anywhere near here are what, DEN and MEM? If CO is so insufferable that you can live with a connect on all your future flights, go for AA.

Don't forget that many small routes on AA are run on MD-80s, not RJs. You can challenge platinum on AA, and if you build your way to EXP, suddenly you can use the MD-80 first class section everywhere you go.

I'm still too angry at them for killing TWA (and far too lazy to take a connection when there's a nonstop) to jump ship from CO, but not everyone holds a grudge like I do. :)

complementary upgrades
 

Sure - you get upgrades on full domestic fares and they give you SWUs every once in awhile, but otherwise you do need to pay for upgrades - if available. They are free on CO. Though of course CO does not offer any SWUs for platinums - unlike either AA or UA for their top flyers.

Having somewhat made the same jump already, I probably reconsider and give AA a try if I wasn't also "asia focused". The problem with AA is that they have only flights to NRT (IIRC) and maybe PEK/PVG, and rely on JL for the rest. PEK and PVG is useless to me, and I don't really know how the EQM (or Q-mile/points) earning is on JL...

With UA, I know I'll get 100% EQM to most of my destinations in Asia, since they fly there. I recently used 2 SWUs to upgrade a biztrip to GLA. And I just bought 2 tix to MEL and back, and upgraded those with 4 SWUs. Sure, the biz seat on UAs planes aren't that great, especially compared to CO's BF seat, but when its so friggin' hard to get into a BF seat, well, see above ;)

Another factor for me is that I'm moving away from the Houston area, to a UA hub city, actually, later this year, so that makes jumping to UA a bit easier as well. And the posters are right about UA flights out of IAH, pretty thin, although most of the RJ flights are exPlus, so they do have F as well.

You forgot the regon 1 upgrades UA gives 1Ks...8 of them a year makes a difference. Being able to confirm these upgrades at booking (and your 6 SWU for int) on the routes you most want to be upgraded is valuable.

I agree...you should go with AA. From where you live AA has a better schedule. You can get most anywhere non-stop from DFW and that is just a high frequency short-hop away. You also have a more conveniet airport to you to fly from.

You mentioned AA not codeshare an AS flight...remember you do earn AA EQM for all AS flights, not just AA codeshares.

For your trips to Asia, CX's and JL's (in the process of joinging OneWorld) products are some of the best in the world and put to shame anything SkyTeam has to offer. Only SQ can compete. Connceting from AA in NRT is not bad at all...in fact after that long of a flight I kinda like a stop at AA's NRT lounge.

If you care about how many redeemable miles you earn...on Star, UA only gives you a status bonus for UA metal (and maybe US in the future). On AA I get my status bonus on all OW metal credited to AA. You do have to be careful though...either book as an AA codeshare or be careful with booking classes as the very lowest CX/JL buckets doen't earn AA miles...but getting a ticket that does has never been a huge price difference in my experience.

For Europe in your not going to one of the eight or so destinations AA serves themselves, you can connect on BA (LHR), SN (BRU), AE (DUB), etc..

While domestic upgrades are only free for EXP on AA, AA charges less for sticker upgrades than UA. And ofcourse, EXP is the best (free domestic upgrades that clear 95% of the time AND 8 Systemwide upgrades useable on bottom of the bucket fares!).

UH :confused: ...AA is guilty of killing a few airlines over the years, but TWA isn't one of them. AA didn't put them in the position they were in...that is about to liquidate. If neither AA nor another Airline bought TWA, liquidation was their only option. There woudl be no TWA either way. So why be mad at AA?

You'll still pay the CO hub premium.....UA prices out of Houston tend to follow the others pretty closely....as do all the others. The only ones that tend to budge prices lower out of Houston are SWA and to a lesser extent Airtran....most all the majors match them but the time periods for the match tend to vary a bit.

Do you fly enough to get top tier on AA? If not, the E+ is, as you said, priceless and it is something you can all but count on...and there is no equivalent on AA. Now of course with AA you'd better like DFW...myself I hate it...but I haven't flown through there since the new train started.

I say go UA...but I am biased :)

Since 90% is on my own dime, I don't even make the CO top tier :rolleyes:

But do agree, domestically, other carriers are happy to make some money out of IAH and not undercut CO. Hell, even TACA charges an arm and a leg for their flights ex IAH :( (about to co-share or share miles with UA now that they divorced AA).

Well, I'll have to make a decision by tomorrow, and buy my tix :eek:

It's only one flight, and the year is young :)

Thanks for the input ^

EmailKid

I'm sure it will all work out fine :) My main concern with UA remains the lack of flights out of IAH/HOU, seriously considered going that way due to systemwide upgrades, but wouldn't work with my usual trips between here and other parts of the south :)

UA is not really cheaper than CO and I have found that it is often more expensive.

But UA consistently comes through for me, and when it does, it makes it all worth it in a way that I could never find justifiable with CO.