Which airline, other than UA, offers the most nonstop flights from IAH?
 

I am currently based in IAH, and do a modest amount of travelling, being able to make silver some years. After the CO UA merger, things went downhill pretty quickly. I would like to know if I have any options. To the EU, I fly Lufthansa, and to China, I go on Air China where I know some of the cabin crew personally and can get "upgraded." For domestic, however, I am stuck with UA and dread flying every time. My question is, which airline other than UA offers the most nonstop from IAH. Mainly my travelling is to SFO, however, UAs pretty much cornered the market on that route. Any suggestions are welcome!

Eric

How far are you from HOU?

A bit closer than IAH. OTOH, Southwest is definitely a no go for me.

If flying Southwest from Hobby doesn't work for you try Spirit. They have added lots of flights from IAH.

If you are looking for a more traditional response then AA/US has more of the country covered with more conveniently routed flights than DL.

For me United is still my best option.

AA through DFW and/or PHX is probably your best alternative. Otherwise, pray for VX to come to Houston soon.

BTW welcome to FT!

Houston and San Francisco you are pretty much stuck.

For the other UA hubs (New York, Chicago, Denver, LA and Washington) you have options.

For IAH-SFO, you can always use Delta or AA (with at least 1 stop) or start flying Southwest out of HOU direct to Oakland.

Why?

I would never wish Spirit on my worst enemy.

sadly if you dont fly WN, then from IAH, you are hub-trapped to UA. Although AA does offer a LOT of daily flights to DFW so you do have a lot of one-stop options with AA.

AA/US combined airline has roughly 30-35 flights a day out of IAH. I should know....I do it almost every week living up in The Woodlands.....;)

I use AA/OW to go to Asia, Europe and South America through DFW and LAX mostly. Sometimes ORD. It can work better than people realize.

I'm also IAH based and have been looking for another airline to give my business. My most frequented route is IAH-EWR and unfortunately that makes it doubly hard to leave UA. After having one too many maintenance issues I decided recently to switch to DL and start flying to EWR with a stop... Not ideal, but less stress in my mind than worrying about all these maintenance and crew issues. I also chose DL over AA because I value a strong alliance network in Europe and Skyteam was more appealing to me than OneWorld. Hope this helps, see you at terminal A ;)

Delta nor AA fly direct IAH or HOU to SFO.

Why not WN? I fly them some and have no problems. Friendly, good on time, free bags, no change fees. No first class, but you can get A boarding group to board first, pick your seat, overhead space.

Not sure why OP would want to fly Spirit if he doesn't like Southwest.

------

Sorry OP, we Houstonians have no choice but to stick with UA or don't fly.
We have terrible domestic/international airline choices/routes.

But it's still better than living in Austin or San Antonio ..........

Devolve interior seating, although with UA going slimline, i guess the two are on equal terms.

A. AA's service to both IAH and HOU with a short hop to the DFW megahub makes for a compelling alternative for the people who won't go for WN.
B. WN at HOU.

Don't get me wrong, I realize that a lot of people here in Houston fly on UA (obviously) but of the people I know who fly for either work or leisure the only ones that fly UA do so as NRSA employee/family. Otherwise, they are on AA, DL, WN, or one of the foreign carriers. The notion that Houstonians have only UA to choose from is silly.

Sure there are short stops to each airport, given the fact Houston isn't a "little town" , we shouldn't have to worry about connecting here and there.

There's no true frequent flyer program we can build upon other than UA.

WN is just a slightly better RyanAir to me.