Buh Bye Continental Airlines from SkyTeam
 

Just as NW flyers were welcomed, only fair to wish farewell to CO flyers. A reminder that today, 24 October 2009 is the last day of CO's membership in SkyTeam. Regardless of CO's relationship with the other ST airlines, it is always a negative when you lose a mileage earning and lounge partner.

That's it! No more Continental in Skyteam and now, its gone forever!

I agree! I have been thinking about this loss all week,despite never utilizing CO's relationship with Delta.

:) I will miss CO and it will be gone forever. So let's try to forgettable in the past. I am never flown on CO for a long time. So unfortunately, CO will be in Star Alliance to become to be with US, UA, OZ, AC, NZ, TA, TP, JJ, LH, SA, NH, AI, CA, SQ, TG and more.

Too, bad. Now no easy Delta miles from MSY to IAH and points beyond on Air France.

I fly both- but a big reason I fly DL now is because CO had announced to leave ST for *A - I already have bunches of *A miles thanks to old US realtionship; like to keep miels in both alliances - easier for ticket option when you're looking; now, have most in *A and building my ST kitty w/DL

So, I hate to see them leave ST, but am glad I still fly them.

Today is an important day. Besides it being my birthday :D, it is a sad day to see CO leave SkyTeam. I still don't understand WHY they HAD to leave because of the merger. :confused:

BM (Before Merger), we had 3 airlines to choose from with many reciprocal benefits, upgrades, MQMs, etc. Now we have only 1 airline with far fewer flight options. Clearly not a winner for us consumers.

I enjoyed CO metal and their 1st class service. I will truly miss their Presidents Club which is far superior to the current SkyClub facilities. So long CO - you will be missed!

Sad to see CO leave Skyteam - among other things, it means less award redemption opportunities.

OTOH, for me (in the DC area), it could be a big plus as IAD is dominated with Star Alliance airlines.... much as I dislike UA and despise US, if I can get status on CO it works to my benefit.

Too bad at LAX... After they gave up NW in Terminal 2, DL now has tons of flights that go out of the Continental President's Club concourse. I hope DL will come up with some avenue for lounge access in that terminal. I've taken a number of DL flights out of the gate right next to the CO club.

I know DL/NW ended their Priority Pass agreement, but I haven't heard that CO has done that. So I guess my saving grace will be to still have access to the President's Club through Priority Pass.

I'm sorry to see CO go.

I have to thank ST and DL for letting me discover CO. As a previous DL Plat because of ST I started to fly CO. Having moved to the west side of Manhattan, EWR has become my airport of choice over JFK in many cases. CO has affordable F fares, the planes are clean, there are decent opportunities to get BE seating on various domestic routes, meals are decent and service is pretty good. EWR has challenges with long security lines and delays, but the President's Clubs are generally nice, and offer the option of premium pay wines or a comp bar. I also think CO's new BF seating is terrific, and their international BF meal service is probably as close as any legacy carrier comes to the better foreign airlines. I do hope DL continues some of the positives such as the new BE seating, although I think they need to pick up the pace of the installations. However as a 5MM on AA, and as mentioned former DL Plat, for those who can buy F fares, I think CO is a step above the rest.

Plus the CO web site is great :)

Sitting in the IAH Terminal E President's Club right now - doing a quick MSP-IAH-PHX-IAH-MSP mileage run today with a bump voucher I got from CO 3 weeks ago - figured I'd use it and get Delta miles rather than UA miles.

I thought access to the Continental President's Club was extended to January

It is for members. For ST Elite Plus or premium cabin people, today's the last day of PC access.

yea. I've been telling Scott that theyneed to get the codeshare agreementsin place for us, so we can take advantage of more flights. Carlson is such a pain with my dept, they were ADAMANT that CO was leaving ST next year.

The LAX PC is much better than the LAX SC; not always croweded, real snacks, and not need to take the same elevator the trash haulers use to get to the club.

With Medallion status affording equivalent PC membership discounts, I'm thinking PriorityPass is not going to get my $399 again.

I'm thinking the same thing: even though I may fly DL, there are still opportunities to use the PC, especially my home airport of LAX. As a Diamond they will give me the SC free, so I can use that money for a better (PC) lounge.

As a former CO Plat I can say they certainy had their weaknesses but I'll miss them just the same.

At least we can still use their club until Jan. I can only hope that SC actually makes an attempt to fill the gaps they are going to leave behind (DEN, LAX, etc.)

Don't forget that through December 31, 2009, you can continue to have uninterrupted Elite benefits on Continental Airlines flights by having your current Elite status in the Delta SkyMiles program matched to an equivalent status in the Continental OnePass Elite program. The status match will be valid until February 28, 2011.

I'm sitting in the President's Club at LAS (on my CRC membership). They told me this is the final day of access. It will be a real loss to DL/NW pax flying out of here, it's a very nice club. I'll miss the bagels and starburst candies; and, believe it or not, they have Nutella!

:(

Hmmm, I am headed to LAS this Wednesday, and I think that they're wrong. They could be just confused as this is the last day of ST membership and ergo, folks that are gaining access via status are shut out. I am sure according to CO Insider that we're good till January. I will report back when I am there this week. Gargoyle thanks for the "heads up."^ This is the reason IHMO that FT is so valuable to a frequent flyer.:-: Heathrow Guy if you're around, as the agent of CHANGE here, are they just mistaken?

Safe Travels

I was just in the LAS PC last week. The agents told me the official date was today, but after until Jan 30th they will as a courtesy let in NW & DL lounge members without guests. They also gave me a brochure letting me know that they'd like my lounge business and wil match the SkyClub rate for my status. (As well as another brochure offering status match.)

Gargoyle: you may want to ask again. They should have the brochures at the front desk.

I spoke with the lounge angel some more, and she confirmed that today is the last day for CRC members and for SkyTeam E+ on international itineraries. She said nothing about exceptions after today.

We also discussed the status match program; they would match me to PM, which would give a discount on PC membership, but for my typical routing it doesn't make sense. I'll save the match for a year when I would actually have use of the status.

itsaboutthejourney, once again coming through with good information!^ As always, many thanks for your contributions over the years!:-:

Safe Travelss!!

I agree with your comments about CO will be greatly appreciated it for our contribution for 5 years into Skyteam Alliance. So it's time to letting it go sudden. I am never been flown on CO for a long time. I am always to stay on Delta for my lifetime.

They HAD to leave because DL never really played nicely with CO in SkyTeam, to the point that DL was shutting CO out of the revenue sharing agreement for international travel that DL and several other major SkyTeam airlines were seeking. CO was always a somewhat unwilling member of SkyTeam, mainly there because NW was pulled in by KLM and because of the pre-SkyTeam close partnership between NW and CO. My experience of flying DL as a CO elite was always fairly negative; unlike the NW/CO partnership where elite recognition and benefits were seemless, it took several years of CO in SkyTeam before I could get a DL boarding pass that accurately recognized my status, and trying to get the preferred seating on DL that DL said I was entitled to was always a pain. It wasn't even until late 2007/early 2008 that I could input my CO OnePass number on a DL reservation using DL.com before the online check-in period opened. DL never seemed thrilled to have CO as a partner, tended to work against CO in many ways, and that's a lot of the reason CO wanted out. The DL/NW merger is what made it possible, especially since NW was the major reason CO was in SkyTeam to begin with.

Personally, as a CO and UA elite, I'm much happier with CO's defection to Star. On a worldwide basis it's a much better alliance, and despite the fact I live in Atlanta now, it has been very rare that I've felt like I needed to fly DL to get where I needed to go, on a schedule that was convenient, and at a reasonable price. I think a lot of other CO elites, and even quite a few former NW elites, feel the same way about DL these days.

This sounds like a funeral or a wake. My favorite memories of CO as a NW Plat...

Probably CO Mike, flying the milk run and other assorted flights around Micronesia. Glad I got that done last year.

It's amazing that one could earn EQM with five North American airlines until recently: NW, DL, CO, AS, and YX. CO has departed, YX is now a paint scheme for some Republic jets, and NW has been Deltafied.

Well said ssullivan, I also had the same issues with DL, never with NW.

A final farewell to the great folks at NW, we should have been the merged airline, but now looking forward *A is a much better result for us over at CO.

Hope to see you back on CO, Cheers and Best of Luck!

We had joy, we had fun, we had seasons in the sun.
But the hills that we climbed
were just seasons out of time.
Goodbye, Papa, please pray for me,
I was the black sheep of the family.
You tried to teach me right from wrong.
Too much wine and too much song,
wonder how I'll get along.

This is a very important point, for revenue flights and award travel, we went from choices on 3 airline to just a single one. Nowhere to turn if the saver awards don't show up. With *A there are 4 airlines in North-America to choose from, all with their own schedules and pricing. Much better chance of finding a suitable trip and much more valuable miles as a reward.

So I'm making the move to CO, and it seems I'm not alone. Bye bye new DL, 2 more awards and that will be it. I'll miss those DC9-30s an all that was NW.

Two reasons: (a) way too much competition between DL and CO in the NY Metro market including TATL service (CO had been running ads taking shots at DL for a while), and (b) DL/NW is so dominant within SkyTeam-US, that CO really didn't have a choice. It will be a strong TATL united states flagged carrier partner for UA, and will pick up access to UA's strong pacific routes. Plus, both UA and US are relatively weak in NY, so it was a big win for them.

As a NY-area person, it was nice knowing you always had a fallback to take a non-stop pretty much anywhere from EWR.

As to lounge access, Amex Platinum still gets you to DL/NW/AA and CO.

Every flight I've taken on Continental (especially the BF award + NW-elite upgraded segments) were first class... pardon the pun. *A really scored a coup getting them into the alliance. UA's service really pales in comparison.

Uh-oh. Your flight is overbooked? So you should considers to take on NW nonstop from PHX-MSP is easy for you. You don't have need to flying one-stop through IAH. You should have to take the advantage of NW/DL is flies out PHX-MSP.

Yes, there are two paths you can go by, (ST/*A)
But in the long run,
There's still time to change the road you're on.