cbchicago

UA will be offering the free upgrades on Hawaii flights starting 3/10. However, will CO offer the free upgrades on their Hawaii flights for UA Elites? Will CO Elites be able to upgrade on UA Hawaii flights? Just one of my many questions. Im really looking forward to see if they can make this work between the two reservation systems. 2010 will be very interesting.

channa

Where did they say 3/2010? I thought UA said Q2 2010, which as far as we know, doesn't even mean 4/1/2010.

CO does free upgrades on Hawaii flights that are not marketed as BusinessFirst. BF flights are IAH-HNL and EWR-HNL.

ExExpat

I'm just irritated that as a 2P, if I book a seat on a UA flight on United metal, TWO levels of CO elite will clear their upgrades before I do. What kind of loyalty reward is that?

channa

It looks worse than it is, actually.

Two things to remember:

- Most Elites fly their home carrier; and
- There is a finite number of Elites at any given time

It's not like thousands of CO Elites are going to start flying UA all of a sudden. And if they do, those seats they're vacating will likely be fillled up by a proportional number of UA Elites flying CO.

So it's a wash, really.

FormerAmtrakTraveler

I (soon to be 1K) personally can't wait for this to start. I need UA for NC to Asia but have found recent UA domestic fares to be insanely high! Assuming lack of E+ means bigger FC for us to snatch that free UG :-)

uastarflyer

Don't forget the No bag fees! By the way, does anyone know if a 3P escapes bag fees on CO? The card is part-silver after all. That may determine whom I give my 3P nomination to...

Definitely Indeed!

Right They will? And give up E+? Only on common segments maybe.

LNKed

Count this 1P as happy.

For 1P and higher, the UDU priority remains unchanged, i.e. unaffected whatsoever by this change. And now I have a reasonable chance for being upgraded on CO. ^

As for the 2Ps and 3Ps, I may understand that you feel slighted, however, I assure you, you are not. Reciprocity means just that: on average, every CO elite flying UA metal on a particular day will counter a UA elite flying CO. It all evens out- so I really don't know what all the fuss is about. This is good for everyone.

Steph3n

No, these changes won't suck revenue from CO, why would i credit my miles to m+, I have no desire need, or ability to fly UA. You overstate the 'power' of UA they have VAST gaps in their domestic coverage of the south and southeast.

Your hopes are way too high, upgrades are for domestic only, and certain Caribbean and latin american markets (CO) not sure which markets UA will carve out exactly yet for their upgrades. BusinessFirst markets on CO are copay+miles.

brsp18

I totally agree with this point. Outside of houston, newark, and cleveland, i'm not even sure where continental would be necessary for me as a 1k.

I can't remember the last time i flew somewhere and thought CO was a potential better option than UA.

United737522

^ to UA
^ to CO
^ to *A

I like and welcome these changes.

Some of the responses here have been typed with lots of anger and little thought. The changes will have little to no effect on Premier. If anything, these people will be more likely to be upgraded.

If we should be sending UA angry notes, it should be about the dumb double cabin upgrade rule on 3 cabin aircraft.

andrewwm

Not necessarily. Currently, CO elites flying on UA are stuck in E-. Now they will be in E+ and on the upgrade list. Likewise, UA elites currently flying CO get general seating. Now, when someone like I will be flying CO, we will be competing for F (above CO golds, in fact). That's gotta mean less upgrade opportunities for home elites.

Still, I think the number of elites on any given flight from the partner airline will be relatively small.

Grace B

Still makes my switching to AA look awfully good!

I knew from the start that the weak-minded management of UA would cave in to CO. It's a merger when you're not having a merger.

What a shame, but that's life...

GadgetFreak

The biggest beneficiaries of this are NY based GS and 1K as well as those who pay relatively high coach fares. UA has had little to offer in NY for a few years. They effectively abandoned that market in my opinion. I was about to walk away from them completely and switch to DL or JetBlue as my second carrier. This changes everything. This means I get decent upgrade priority on CO and from what I understand immediate upgrades on higher fare tickets if I fly out of EWR rather than LGA or JFK. That adds a vast number of options for me that UA doesnt provide. Im actually doing a mileage run to qualify again. I might have anyway but possibly not. Im already looking at CO now for trips where AA is too expensive or doesnt have good schedules. I will still keep AA as my primary carrier but UA/CO is now a strong alternate. And I dont have to fly Delta! This is great! ^^^^

jerriblank55

Yeah, but the CO elites who were already going to be on your plane will be the difference between you having a shot in h**l in getting upgraded and having no shot in h**l.

Say there are 3 CO elites on board a 757 (understatement, probably)-- that's three more people between you and one of the 24 F seats. That's significant.

EWR764

You fail to consider the possibility of 3 of the UA elites normally on the flight possibly flying on CO instead because it fits their needs better. The shift from carrier to carrier is usually incremental and balances out. UA flyers may now be in the upgrade pool with all of the CO Elites, but the number of available upgrades has also nearly doubled as well.

Generally, reciprocal upgrade arrangements don't materially affect the upgrade % of a carrier's given elite level, because most people are elite members of a certain program because that airline makes more sense for their travel pattern. If I'm an EWR-based CO Plat, I'm probably not going to switch a substantial amount of my business to the other airline, and the same is true of the IAD-based 1K.

Since CO/NW's reciprocal upgrade arrangement ended earlier this fall, I have not noticed any better upgrade success than usual.

I think UA lower-tier FF's should be more concerned over the fact that UA has shifted toward an unlimited free upgrade model that disproportionately favors top-tier members. Upgrades for CO Silvers are hard to come by.