Just booked my last flight on CO... Im going to miss them :(
 

As the title say I just booked my final trip on Continental a one way from FLL to LAX on October 18th, wanted one last taste of their F product and literally a taste as I always found their meals to be top notch.

I must say I am genuienly sad to see them go it was great to have another sky team option when traveling especially back in the good ole days when we had 3 skyteam options. That said i think Delta is a very worthy replacement especially as one doesnt have to worry about fare class to earn 100% EQM. I just hope DL fare stay under control now as if you are a die hard mile junky there wont be any other options now.

Infact what made worldperks such a compelling proposition for me was the continetal and alaska upgrades as well as having delta as a last resort option (because of lack or upgrades but still mileage accrual). This combination allowed me to hedge my bets and always find a reasonable fare as it was rare for all 4 airlines to have crazy fares. Being west coast based the parnership with alaska was also a great asset especially as it included reciprocal upgrades which i dont think onepass memebers even got.

I thought I had it all figured out with worldperks I could fly AS and CO for all my domestic segments as their product was far superior to NW. But fly NW internationally to Asia where their product and network were both excellent. But now with this merger that strategy is no more. However as I noted above Delta is a worthy replacement for Continental(in terms of product), I just lament the loss of choice and additional options.

So in conclusion I am now at the mercy of Delta so far I am not too displeased with the changes that have been made. I just hope that the fares stay undercontrol and that they follow through and reinstate upgrade on AS in 2010 as they claim to be negotiating. It would have been so incredible were Continental staying, being able to upgrade on CO & DL would have made Skymiles and Onepass pretty tough to beat but c'est la vie.

Well this post turned out a little differently than I inteneded. I wanted mainly to wish Continental a fond fairwell but now it looks like I have completed a little retrospective on worldperks and am also wishing it bon voyage.

It was good while it lasted eh?


(Delta you have big shoes to fill please dont let us down)

Don't get your hopes up too much. I for one am happy that CO will be on my side now! Between UA and CO I will be extremely well served out of Asia and to Europe from the U.S. I always enjoyed CO's LAS lounge, glad that will be on the *A side next month.

Felt the same thing delanet. Flew CO Friday to PDX and it was very likely my last flight (unless I get fed up with any more negative changes spun as positives from Delta and let CO match me).

Flew on a brand new 737-900 from IAH to PDX in first. The HD DirecTV is a great service addition. Hope you've had the chance to try it! Great HD screen, 75 channels. Few flickers from the picture breaking up (compare that to DL's awful Panasonic inspired Dish Network). And the First Class service was prompt and friendly.

The problem that pre-merger DL people don't get is: we NW'ers had the scope of network already. It was with a partner that generally did a better job in-flight than NW. Now Delta comes along, takes away CO and then takes away much of the positives of WorldPerks - and claims it's all a give away for the scope of network. Not to us.

+1.

CO just processed what is potentially my last EUA on a CO flight. I have a B fare SEA-IAH-NYC tomorrow which I upgraded at booking to "AN" class. The return is EWR-SEA later this week. Although I got the upgrade at the D+3 mark (instead of D+5), I got it nonetheless.

I may wind up on CO next week to DC as well which would definitely be my last CO flight as I have nothing but DL booked after that.

I will finish out my CO flying in 2009 with 100% upgrades. Not bad ^

-RM

I just flew on my last reward trip today using my NW miles on CO. I possibly have one more trip to go, but I will really regret not having them around.

Though I may have a hometown bias, I have to say that one key factor I always enjoyed on CO flights was the upbeat attitude of the flight crews. No matter how full a flight was, they always were decent to passengers and helpful when they could be. The drop down screen movies were a nice way to kill time, and the meal service in First was always well executed.

My guess is that CO will get a few NW elites switching over if they can. Hopefully one more trip before Oct 24th to enjoy that CO service for now.

I flew CO to PDX a week ago, and I was struck by the cheery and efficient flight attendants in FC.

I live in TX and will also miss the CO option. I may have one more flight on a baby plane, but probably no more happy trips in First.

To be honest the current WorldPerks program even after all the DL changes has not been bad to me. I have gotten my upgrades which are most important to me, and I have managed to redeem two mileage awards to Asia one on SQ in F which is very big plus and one on Korean in C at the 120,000. However I have noticed that domestic redemption has gone through the roof, but then i rarely if ever used my miles for domestic flights as I thing the value proposition presented by international premium cabins is far more compelling on a $/M basis.

So all this said I will be sticking with DL, but while lamenting CO's departure I could not help but take a gander over to the onepass page and have a look. I never noticed that CO offers full EQM on most of their partners outside of Skyteam. Eva would be great for me for asian travel and Emirates is just a qulaity airline so to get EQM on the would be awesome. Anyways as I said I am sticking with DL but as with CO when they were NW's partner its good to know there is another choice out there ;-)

So in 2010 I will evaluate and see where the best value is to be had. For the moment DL has good service and fares to the destinations i frequent namely South Florida and South East Asia. However I doubt I will be able to earn DM again next year due to the lack of triple miles, thank you EQM and credit card intro EQM. So I will have to evaluate if DL is still right for me. How the partnership with UA is structed will also be a large determinant. As noted in my original post having 3 major airlines to chose from in Skyteam was a great plus. Now Star alliance is going to offer that all be it without upgrades on the other two. So I guess if you really boil it down it comes to fares so long as Delta remains competitive and does not try to assert its dominance too much then I here to stay. Fares to South Florida always seem to be reasonable with enough advanced booking and the new PEU/PMU are good enough substitute for the decreased Z inventory I have noticed on flights to SEA.

Still sad to see you go CO!

oh to n7371f I actually have yet to fly on one of the 900's but my IAH to LAX is on one of them so I really hope I get the up on that one. That said I hope its not quite as great as you describe because I would hate to taste something that good and not be able to have it again ;-)

Yeah, I'm gonna miss CO F.

I have UA PE/Star Gold, but can't imagine there'll be reciprocal upgrades.

Bummer.

I also rue the divorce. Being able to pick and choose amongst NW, CO, and DL was great. In addition, CO's domestic first class product, in my estimation, is the best in the business. Upgrades have been much harder to secure on CO than on NW, but when delivered, the seat and meals are very good.

With me the shoe is on the other foot. I have my last flight on NW metal coming up in a few days, and the miles are going on CO. The flight experience on the trip over the pond was not what the real NW used to be even though the plane was still painted in NW livery. The only plus was the barbeque in Memphis. I will miss that. All my miles have been put on CO since the beginning of the year. Now, it is no more NW/DL for me.

I've said this before, but it bears repeating.

From the customer perspective, the CO/NW alliance was THE model of how to operate in real partnership. Not in boardroom-double-speak, but on the machines, or at the gates or checkin desks.

NW Elites were treated as CO Elites when flying CO, and from what I hear, vice versa. No BS, no excuses, we got what CO Elites got - not always a lot at EWR in irops cases, but that was the same for the blue and gold guys too.

It is unfathomable that DL can offer this depth of reciprocidad with, well, anyone. I agree that CO/UA won't be as seamless as NW/CO, either, and we will regret the passing of this alliance.

When people raise the issues associated with delivering meaningful CS, and genuine integration, across airlines, I like to remind them of this relationship and how well it performed for real customers. Well done to all at NW and CO who, over the past decade, delivered this standout service.

Eloquent and succinct RTS (as usual), a somewhat sad +1.

I made sure I will be PE on CO for 2010
 

as well as Diamond on DL. This should allow me to choose. Thus far, DL has not been too bad except in providing true SWU on any fare and with availability of 25K mile award tix. I am so afraid that the temporary suspension of upgrades on an award ticket will somehow stick.

"We just couldn't get that programming right down here in Atlanta."

I think RTS has captured the spirit with which I originally intended to instill in this thread before becomeing distracted by cold reality. I am honestly going to miss this partnership and it is somewhat sad. For months I was actually wishing for and eleventh hour reprive, which was not to come to pass. Sigh.


However getting back to cold reality im guessing the only reason such a partnership was ever possible was due to NW's control over CO with its golden share etc. I think we are unlikey to see anything thing like this in the future.

Are nw elite still able to be upgraded on co flights in October?