ldsant

After moving from the West Coast to the East Coast this past year I now fly the airline who has the least expensive price. Since there aren't meals, there isn't service (friendly), and there aren't any differentials, why spend my $ (and it is all out of my own pocket) on an airline that has a could care less about their customers attitude?

777Brian

I jumped ship about the middle of last year. I was concerned that UA was not going to keep E+. I had earned 1P on UA so I did the AA Plat challenge since I knew it would be good through the end of this year. So far, I'm embarrassed to admit, I like AA a lot. There is a lot of talk about, "is the grass greener?" I tend to think that on the most basic level everything is the same. UA has its own pluses and minuses as dose AA. But they say variety is the spice of life.

For example, AA has better food in F and as a Plat I find the upgrades easier to get but there is no economy plus and I have to buy stickers for the upgrades. UA has economy plus, I enjoy the 3 class planes in the US, and the upgrades are free but I don't think the service is as good and I hate sweating the upgrades at the gate.

At the end of the day I've decided to diversify my elite status between the two carriers not sure what levels I will settle on (thinking 1P and AA Gold maybe since I fly about 85K a year, maybe a international MR to keep Plat), but having elite status at both airlines provides flexibility and I think the gap between mid tier and top tier elite levels is shrinking (i.e. the red carpet debate). The only thing I would be missing is the international upgrades (i.e. SWUs) but I don't have a ton of time for international trips lately and I've been pretty good at finding summer Z fares. When UA adds 75K level I may have to reevaluate. The dual status is nice when AA is signifigantly cheaper than UA, which I see a lot based on my travel patterns.

prestonh

I'm going to wait out the year and see what 2012 changes bring. I'm considering DL and/or AS status matches at that point as I'm probably going to drop to ~75-85,000 EQM flier (injury and relocation this year) and not sure what the 75K level is going to bring on the new UA. I'm not happy with the inflight service changes, high fares on my routes, poor upgrades on last-minute bookings, and RJ's everywhere. AS looks quite good (75K is their top tier) and flies to where I go (not to mention what looks to be an outstanding lounge and in-flight service for F). I'm also 25% to 1MM on DL (thanks to pre 2000 NW flying). DL does a good job in the SE (where I do plenty of work). I'm lifetime 1P so should always have E+. If I go back to 1-2 Oz trips per year, then I'll go back to UA but so far I'm a 1K the hard way...domestic.

ghfatw

You can call the US numbers if it is something not involving a fee or reticketing. You actually can call the US numbers easily anyway -- they just cannot help you reticket or even collect a non-US fee. And to make the service even worse, the call lines are not even open 24 hours. It is absolutely appalling. You get apologies of course that things are improving. But they just get worse. United service is an absolute embarrassment.

UA_Flyer

In reality I have already jumped...sort of!

For the first time ever in 19 years, I have decided not flying the tulip on transpac roundtrip.

I moved to CO on the outbound and AC on the inbound. Some may say CO is part of UA, so that does not consider jumping ship.

The CO part of UACO on transpac routes has better C seats, IFE, food (miles ahead), although services are about the same. UA side of UACO has gone down the tube, IFE contents have gotten signigicantly worse ( they have shown the same single episode of NBC's Chuck for three consecutive months from season 3, while CO has multiple episodes of the same show from the current season). Food quality on international F and C have also lowered significantly. No appertizer on an 11-hour flight between SFO and PEK!

I will also moving transatlantic to the CO side and also to LH.

Fares on UA side of UACO seem going through the roof, while CO transpac fares are quite competitive and somethimes 40% less in business. Go figure!

The positives are still there such as Global Services, but not as important to me when I fly paid C almost all the time. I am close to 2MM, and hope UA still provide lifetime RCC membership to 2 MM flyer. If not, AA will likely be my choice starting sometimes in 2012.

nigos

I passed the 2 million BIS mark this past week and will hit 100K for the at the end of the week. I plan to establish elite status with another airline over the next six months and then decide whether or not to play the loyalty game after news of the combined program is published. From Boston, I see little advantage of United over Jet Blue for my domestic trips.

SunLover

I will stick with UACO for the foreseeable future. The primary reason is my LTPC membership. Other reasons:

* UACO is keeping E+ and F
* P.S. transcons
* EWR convenience and routes
* Star Alliance membership
* FF program benefits and reward redemptions
* The option of transiting EWR/JFK/LGA stations


SunLover

schematic

This ORD-based GS is staying put. Sometimes I read these forums and wonder why I'm not seeing all this degradation of elite service in the merged United. The new boarding process sucks, and I dutifully complained via survey about it, but other than that I haven't noticed any material changes.

Now if I were still based in NYC and still travelling domestically a lot, I'd be on DL and B6 for sure. I've always had much better customer experience with them. Alas, in Chicago UA and AA are really the only options for a heavy traveler.

UA-NYC

+1 for these as an NYC-based flier (though EWR is a less desirable option as I drive to all three airports from Fairfield County, and it's the furthest for me by far). However I'm starting to steer int'l travel more to the other Star carriers - CO seems to price out much higher for me ex-EWR than most others, and I have no desire to fly 57s across the pond.

IF CO decimates PS seatwise as rumored, devalues miles, or goes back to aggressively hawking TODs, I will then start to re-consider, with AA the most probable target.

mre5765

UA/UX owns Colorado. With a couple dozen or so flights out of COS each day, jumping ship is unthinkable.

Even if UA pulls out of DEN, while I would expect all the DEN flights would go, and flights to IAH, IAD, ORD, SFO, and LAX would stay, with the frequency to the California hubs increased. So I imagine I would stick it out.

FlightNurse

Lots of great pictures of meals you have...

Often1

Presuming that you have the luxury of choosing a hub and therefore a primary carrier, I would advise waiting for at least 12 months. Clear that marketing efforts and cost structure will result in all legacy carriers vastly changing their frequent flyer program. Even if they don't change the rules, the practical impact of: 1) reduced capacity; 2) increased paid F travel inbound from overseas; paid F and Y/B travel by increased US domestic travel and an emphasis on large corporate account discounts mean: 1) fewer seats available for UG and therefore fewer UG, if any, below GS and even those largely at the gate; 2) a lot fewer award seats; and 3) lower availability of discounted fares (why would a carrier sell a coach seat at deep discount when someone willing to pay Y/B.

All in, the new business mode is that you will sit in the cabin in which you purchased a ticket. There will, of course, be occasional exceptions, but the days of folks spending less than $100K/year being UG are coming to a close. Whether that happens first on UA, DL, AA or US is anybody's guess.

FlightNurse

The big question really is, will PS Service be expanded to EWR once the merger is complete. It seems that UACO are slowly letting out in press releases what to expect from the new airline.

CO does not have PS service, but it does fly a interntional config 757 between EWR and LAX, but the service is not BF. To keep people happy, it only make sense to add PS service out of EWR to the west coast (SFO,LAX) which wuold be a big draw for some people. Reconfig CO's 757-300 to the new PS planes. This will allow the E+ on these planes to have the same leg room as regluar E+. Now not to keep EWR as the Red headed step child, it only seem as a + for EWR to get PS service. This will keep the NYCer's happy as well as the Jeresy people (we know how hard it is to keep those people happy)

Yes, there are peple who want to pay for the cheapest seat and get a UG, there are people who do the instant upgrade Y/B fare's, and then there are those who just purchase a F ticket. The reason why I'm jumping ship is simple, the service and food. I never thought food would be a big concern to me, but lately my travels are on longer flights, and I do like to get to the airport at least an hour and half before departure time. But to buy food at the airport is just insane, when I can fly and get a meal that is better, and free drinks instand of paying $10 for a personal pizza and a soft drink.

I think the other airlines will wait to see how many jump from UA to DL,AA, AS,US before others make changes too. I personally think UA is making a big mistake on the changes they are making.

SunLover

This is unlikely to happen. EWR is a fortress hub. There is no serious transcon competition for CO there, and they routinely charge > $1,000 for a non-stop flight. A cash cow on 737/757 planes with E- density.

JFK is an open station. UA has to compete with AA/DL/B6/VX on price for non-stop transcons. PS was the Y service differentiation, and a good feeder of F/J traffic to/from NYC to their west coast Asia flight network.

PS has worked well in a competitive environment, but I would doubt they would move the service model to Newark. UACO does not have to.


SunLover

sinoflyer

AA is banking on the "cornerstone" strategy by focusing on 5 key markets: DFW, MIA, ORD, JFK, and LAX. If you are based in any of those markets, their service should be impressive -- in the short term. As they are on track to lose $1B this year, I have my doubts that this strategy will work.

I'll consider AA after/if they come out of bankruptcy as the surviving carrier.