Just a suggestion but the Mexicana Executive Club is much nicer that the RCC in MEX. There is a gym and the food is better. Are there any RCC that have gyms. Shame Mexicana joins OneWorld the beginning of April.

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"Carrying the United torch in the darkness that is USAirway's Pittsburgh."

I know...all those poor One World passengers who will have to deal with MX's delays, terrible customer service, awful seat designs, and connections through MEX.

LOL

What do you really think?

When I say that, this is the result on this board:

I think that MX is the biggest piece of **** that ever ******* existed as an airline. Their service ***** ***, the food tastes like ****, their reservation system is ****** up......

United & Mexicana :
United wins hands down. MX is not consistent in their services, their aircrafts have no IFE (UA has), when their flights are full they got cramped as everything and their mother gets carried on board and stuffed, pushed and punched until it fits, wherever. That has been probably the reason why MX got no additional pax from UA. Regarding upgrades one could either get them for free or travel compulsory in coach, depending on the mood of the MX agent, while with UA you could upgrade or get E+ .

American & Mexicana :
Amazingly interesting as neither has IFE, but MX offers free booze (as UA) and AA charges 5 USD, MX offers hot meal in Y (as UA) versus no meal at AA, MX has an outstanding lounge in MEX (UA is excellent) versus AA which offers a selection of coffee and hot water; On a good day there may be yoghurt but don't count on it much, MX metal passengers will get double bonus when flown under AA flight number (unlike UA). So, I see no good reason for an AAer to keep flying AA metal, plus some AA routes are equipped with Less Room Throughout Coach aircrafts, and when flying for other cities than MEX MX offers lounge access to AAers !
Question to self: Will MX offer lounge access to AA elites, as they're not OneWorld ?

So MX move seems smart, for MX.

[This message has been edited by pb9997 (edited Mar 04, 2004).]

United & Mexicana:

United needed Mexicana more than Mexicana ever needed United. Without Mexicana, United has virtually no presence in the Mexico/US market. Bad news for United all the way around.

Strategically, United should have done everything possible to maintain this relationship. By not keeping it, they made it possible for their chief international competitor (AA) to basically lock up all of Latin America. By establishing this relationship, AA has basically assured its continued dominance of this region. That dominance should continue even if access to some restricted markets is liberalized because AA has done everything possible to capture all of the major traffic flows either through its own presence or that of its codeshare partners.

American & Mexicana:

AA already had quite a significant presence in the Mexico/US market. Regardless of what other airlines chose to do in the future, this was going to be a sustainable presence because of the location of AA's hubs and focus cities, ORD, JFK, Miami, DFW, and LAX.

By aligning themselves with Mexicana, however, they ensure that they can stymie whatever plans Continental and Delta/Aeromexico had for the region.

As for Mexicana, AA's track record in the region has proven that AA has no problem coexisting with its codeshare partners. Though LAN and AA still compete on Santiago/Miami routes, LAN's relationship with AA has been good to the extent that both have been quite successful in crowding out the competition (e.g., UA and CO) in the important markets they jointly serve. I am sure that Mexicana will appreciate that added muscle.

As for United, it still has a lot to learn. Dominance in a market is no longer assured by route authorities that are restricted. The future will bring more liberalized agreements. As those agreements are enacted, more and more US airllines will challenge UA on the point to point routes it used to have all to itself (e.g., China, Southeast Asia, etc.). Without codeshare partners in key markets, United's lead in those markets will be quicklly surpassed.

So, whatever anyone might think about Mexicana's customer service standards, this was a big loss for United and its competitors know that.