ssm949

Despite my Atlanta residence, I have officially reached the end of my rope flying Delta on the West Coast... (3) trips this week to the Delta Hanger at LAX have put me over the edge. It's either back to Continental or a nervous breakdown. So all you happy United travelers, what should I expect? Please tell me that the new United looks at least a little like the Continental I loved and left, when I relocated to Atlanta 2 years ago? And please tell me First Class Cheeseburger is still alive and well

PS... will Delta Diamond Status Match to United Premiere 1K or only Platinum? If I have already earned Delta Status for 2013, will United match through 2013?

Thunderroad

You might want to opt for a nervous breakdown. Read through the various threads here to get people's impressions of many changes we're not liking. I'd try to be more constructive, but you're catching me just as I've discovered some miles and electronic global upgrade certificates missing from my account, something that's not all that unusual at UA these days.

ssm949

At least your global upgrades are usable on flights other than those booked in Y

halls120

Had my first encounters with DL last month in a long time, and they were uniformly positive. Before my flight on a DL/AF codeshare, I called DL to see if I could make a change to my reservation that the system wouldn't let me do on line. I currently have no status on DL, yet my wait time was less than 2 minutes to be connected to a very polite CSR who tried hard to do what I was looking for, but the end, told me I'd have to call AF. After I got home, only one of my four flight legs (the most recent) was credited to my account. Used the on line request for mileage credit, and overnight, two of the missing three were restored. 24 hours later, the last leg was added, with a nice e-mail apologing for the delay.

Skypesos may be useless, but I am so far very impressed with Delta's CS.

willygreen

I'm Gold with Delta and United. United matched my status last fall and I started flying them. They matched my status but I had to fly 22 segments or 17,500 miles in 90 days, which I did. I will probably fly enough on both United and Delta this year to maintain Gold on both.

I live in a small town in Michigan and my choices are to fly United through ORD or Delta through DTW.

I dread the days that I have to fly United. The planes are old, uncomfortable and don't have WiFi. This new merger is a joke with missing miles and agents that don't know how to use the computer system. I just tried calling MileagePlus and was told the call center was closed - at 7:45 EST. Delta gives me 24 hours. I find myself wishing for the Delta experience.

With that being said, United has much better fares for West Coast destinations for me, so I have to take them as a low cost alternative. But I don't enjoy it.

Believe me, the grass is not greener.

bubbashow

Have you been on a DL rj and seen that "real" meal? LOL. Your qualifications of a meal and mine are two entirely different things.

ssm949

I realize there are problems on both sides. My biggest reason to move to United is... competitive fares on the west coast, a real meal when upgraded, the opportunity to use award miles again, more comfortable coach seats (at least on the CO planes), better clubs (at least the CO clubs), and the opportunity to talk to a person when all goes to sxxx. And of course the most important reason... if I stay with Delta, they WILL drive me insane I flew CO for over 10 years and never felt that way.

A couple places where I give Delta the nod... more FC seats (though capacity is so tight in the past 6 months, even Diamonds are having trouble upgrading), WiFi (usually too slow on the 757's to use effectively though), generally good inflight service at least with ATL based crews (food is terrible, even on International), and can usually get through to reservations on the phone quickly.

After reading through the thread, it look like most folks are "United"... I would love to hear from some Continental folks out there? Back in the early days, when CO first joined Star Alliance, I hated when I had to fly United or USAirways. Is there any of the old Continental left? Based in NYC previously, I was lucky to ever upgrade on a EWR-SFO flight... still, I was a lot less irritable than I am today on Delta upgraded frequently to First Class.

Bear4Asian

I agree. I was Delta Gold based in MSP and after I moved to SEA I did a status match to United. For me the best UA benefit (as a Premier Executive 50k miles/yr) is the ability to get Economy Plus seat with @ 4 extra inches of seat pitch. This is a huge plus for me - 6 ft/235 lb. especially on long TPAC/TATL flights.

azepine00

Ua forum has been historically extra extra whiny.... you may see posts now saying how things were great pre 3/3 and horrible now but if search back a year or two or three you'll find endless whining again and again and again... non revs, starnet, tilton, udu, swus etct etc - all sorts of topics. Strangely those folks dont seem to leave ua.
Those interested in fair comparison should try to fish out facts out of this nonsense. Most obviously Ua attitude towards ff program and customrs has always been much much better than that of dl. Ymmv.

TWA Fan 1

Yes, but DL has this currently on TPAC and TATL, as well as on some transcon. They call it Economy Comfort.

It is planned to be phased into the entire fleet by the summer of 2012 and is free for DM Gold and above.

I'm an ex-CO flying out of NYC, and DL is, for me, easily the best choice out of NYC, especially for the foreseeable future as the UaCo merger continues to stir things up over there.

hobo13

It looks 90% like CO. You'll be happy. And had you left in 1977, you could come back today and find the same reservation system still in place. Hang a disco ball in the gate area, and you'll feel like nothing has changed!

Bear4Asian

My partner is Delta Gold and he had to pay for Economy Comfort on Delta from Asia to US.

I'm Gold with United and I don't have to pay for Economy Plus on United from Asia to US this year. So unless this has changed that is still advantage UA.

ContinentalMillionMiller

I was Platinum on CO for over 13 years - now 1k on UA. I switched over from Delta 14 years ago. I've never looked back.

O'yea, I've seen some changes, and no, I don't like them. I was sour on this from the get go. I've always hated flying UA. And I live close to IAD, so it's been dang hard to avoid.

In the last two or three years as CO came in line with UA, I have seen the mileage bonus as a Platinum on CO go from 125% to 75%. I hurried up last year and got my 25 extra points to gain 1k status not only to stop the bleeding of my bonus miles further but to ensure AU's.

Yep, those AU's for us loyalists are drying up - fast. I recon I am about 75% now in success as a 1k. A big part of that lowered success is the regional and systemwide upgrades that so many of us have now. The other problem is the selling off of those upgrades to non-elite - ala AirTran.

Reward redemtion on CO has always been very, very good for coach and BF seats. Not sure how it will be on UA. I suspect it will be better than Delta's three tier circus. I've been sitting on 200k Delta miles for four years.....can't use them for squat as a regular member with them.

As much as the merger and its changes stink for us CO junkies, it still is the best program, at least currently, for those of us who fly domestic flights in the states - honestly. And with so much invested in CO/UA and 2MM in my sights, I'm stuck.

I just thank God they still have Dewars!!!

Winkdaddy

Hello,

I am a Delta gold medallion and recently moved from Manhattan to New Jersey not too far from EWR.

I am considering switching to UA/CO simply because I am now so close to EWR and have a couple of questions. Sorry I know so little about UA/CO and their frequent flier program so bear with me.

1. I would expect I would fly enough to be Gold Premier. How are complimentary upgrades out of EWR at this staus level? My primary routes are to the southeast like ATL/CHS/GSP/CLT. On Delta out of LGA/JFK my upgrade percentage is about 80%, though I rarely travel at peak times and choose aircraft with maximum FC seats.

2. Does UA/CO even do "Gold" status matches from Delta?

Thanks!

aacharya

You're asking a question at a rough time in FF history, with the changes in the program. But before the naysayers start going off-topic, my thoughts:

1. On those specific routes, you'll do very well, especially off-peak. You will
not be upgraded very often, however, to/through ORD/IAH, and the
tcons.
My profile will give you my numbers as a Gold this year. (all very low fares)

2. They do, but normally now require a challenge.

http://united.com/web/en-US/apps/mil...omoCode=TB8230