Master Thread Of Discussion Of CO Joining *a-27 Oct 2009
 

I know it's being discussed in the United Airlines forum as well:

Continental Airlines and United Airlines Announce Comprehensive Plan for Global Cooperation; Continental Plans to Join Star Alliance

....

Continental Joining Star Alliance

Continental's plans to join the Star Alliance and the other planned cooperation are subject to receipt of certain regulatory and other approvals and the termination of certain contractual relationships, including Continental's existing agreements with SkyTeam members that restrict its participation in another global alliance. Continental intends to terminate its existing agreements with SkyTeam members and obtain the necessary approvals to enter the Star Alliance, although Continental may not be successful, and the time period for doing so may be out of Continental's control. For example, a principal contractual restriction will not terminate until nine months after the closing of the proposed Delta/Northwest merger. Continental intends to transition out of SkyTeam and into the Star Alliance in a customer friendly manner.

Joining the Star Alliance will connect Continental with United and 19 other airlines around the world. Within Star, frequent Fliers enjoy reciprocity with respect to both mileage accrual and redemption among the member airlines. The airlines also reciprocally recognize elite status, and provide access to the worldwide network of lounges operated by the Star Alliance airlines.

Press Release

Hopefully *A will be able to do an immediate acceptance once CO is free of SkyTeam and not have the standard 1-2 year waiting period.

What does this mean if the two airlines I happen to fly is UA & CO? Increased fairs but at least I can reach 1k easier?

Master Thread Of Discussion Of Co Joining *a
 

This from over at the BA board.....details on the CO web site... referring to

"Continental's plan to partner with United and join the Star Alliance will provide substantial new opportunities for all of our customers,"

I think this is about the last airline forum to get this news posted to !

What are we, the poor cousins ? second class citizens ? :p

In one fell swoop we may have multiple UK/Ireland to New York, nonstop, *A routes

Finally a New York hub for *

Having seen it on just about every other affected airline thread, I resisted.

However great news ^

let me think, given the choice, US :( UA :eek: or CO :cool:

By the time CO enters *A, we might be a subforum :p

Yep - and those 2 routes are why I jumped ship from :-:A to Co just a few months ago...

tht

Wat ist das :D

Great stuff. We'll actually have a quality US carrier to earn miles on instead of having to fly US/UA.

At least there would be more posts every day than there is in the current sub-forum ! :D

Now, where's my phrasebook ?

:D

Am looking forward to CO. I enjoyed their trans-Atlantic service.

Well given that just about every STAR carrier serving NAmerica flies into EWR and/or JFK (UA, LH, SK, SQ, NH...) not to mention LGA (US, UA, AC) it seems to me STAR already has three hubs in the NYC area.

Wrong! :D

The news was posted in the LH forum a couple of minutes after it was posted here and so far completely ignored by LH forum regulars who are too busy discussing Euro 2008.