While this deal has been floating around the travel blogosphere all week, it is noteworthy enough to mention here. Chase is offering 50,000 Continental bonus miles for signing up for their MasterCard OnePass credit card. Even better, the miles...
Would You Have Switched Seats?
During my Continental mileage run last week, I had a particularly difficult seating predicament that arose on a Houston-LaGuardia flight. My upgrade had not cleared so I was seated in 7D, an aisle seat in the bulkhead row with...
United Technology Systems Will Dominate Post-Merger Airline
UPDATE: I cannot edit the title because UPGRD will get dinged by Google, but the author who I lifted this story from last night has revised his article. It seems that it will be CO’s technology systems, not UA’s,...
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Star Alliance CEO Jaan Albrecht Addresses Consolidation, Latam, Gulf Partners, and Russia
Star Alliance CEO Jaan Albrecht sat down with Business Traveler this week after a Star Alliance board meeting (in beautiful Queenstown, New Zealand) to discuss a wide-variety of topics. Here are some of the highlights: On consolidation: Consolidation is...
UA’s Smisek Discusses Channel 9, 747 IFE, and the Future of Three-Cabin First Class
Speaking in Sydney yesterday, United CEO Jeff Smisek touched on a number of areas we’ve been eagerly waiting to hear about: -No Ch 9 (ATC communications) coming to CO aircraft–two expensive -No timeframe on determining the future of three-cabin...
Platinum Upgrade Doldrums on Continental
You would think a last-minute aircraft upgrade from a 757-300 (24 first class seats) with a 767-400 (36 business class seats) would bode well for my Continental upgrade chances on a Wednesday midday flight. But this is Continental we’re...
Lifetime Status Program Coming to US Airways
After years of being the only legacy carrier in the United States not to offer additional perks to their million-miler fliers, US Airways has finally announced their intent to recognize that monumental threshold. The benefits won’t be great–you’ll only get...
Joint Venture May Be Key To Wooing LATAM Into Star Alliance
The push for metal neutrality continues! During an airline conference in Houston today, United CEO Jeff Smisek announced that United Airlines is interested in forming a trans-border joint venture with Air Canada and a joint venture with an airline or...
787 Delay Prompts United to Postpone Launch of Houston-Auckland Service
Back in May, Continental announced plans to begin non-stop service between Houston and Auckland in November 2011 on one their newly-delivered 787-8 aircraft. But if you’ve been reading the news lately, you know that Boeing has, well, run into...
The Verdict is Out: Continental Airlines to Blame for 2000 Air France Concorde Crash
I can’t say that I am surprised by the decision: PONTOISE, France – Continental Airlines and one of its mechanics were convicted of manslaughter Monday by a French court, which ruled that debris from a Continental plane caused the...
Poll Reveals Challenge Facing United and Continental
A recently released Zagat survey of 8,000 frequent flyers reveals a conundrum for the new United Airlines: passengers seem to love Continental and hate United. Continental certainly does many things well. Their website and mobile app is slick and...
From Hate to Great: Continental vs. United at Las Vegas International
As I have harped on many times before, attitude is key when it comes to forming my overall impression of a flight or travel experience. The amenities, ticket price, and hard product can all be great, but unless the...
What the Spell Checkers Missed at United.com
Believe me, spell checking is not the easiest task in the world. Automated spell checkers are not perfect and without careful proofreading (as I have found more often than I’d care to admit on my own blog), a lot...
United, Continental Pilots Angry Over Outsourcing
United pilots have long protested the "regional creep" that permeates deeper in UA’s schedule each year. Essentially, more regional jets served by United Express subsidiaries are taking over routes that used to be exclusively mainline. For example, Los Angeles-Portland/Seattle...
United Returns to Lima! New Service from Houston with Domestic 767-300s
Starting in February, United will take over Continental’s Houston (IAH) to Lima (LIM) route. Currently, Continental operates a 757-200 on this 3,143-mile, 6.5 hour flight, featuring 16 BusinessFirst seats (though this winter they will be transitioning to a 757-300...
A Rundown of my Weekend Mileage Run: Snack, Breakfast, Lunch, and Dinner on Continental Airlines
Last weekend I did a mileage run from Los Angeles to Denver and back via Cleveland on Continental. The fare was something like $160 r/t including taxes and gave me a chance to get some work done in the...
Why the 2011 United/Continental Elite Program Isn’t the End of the World
Reading some of the responses on Flyertalk today after United announced changes to the Mileage Plus program for 2011, you would think the world was coming to an end. Relax. I’m not happy about the changes either, but we may...
United Integrates Check-In at O’Hare…Sort of
Starting Tuesday, if you’re flying Continental out of Chicago O’Hare, you will check in with United at Terminal 1 rather than at CO’s traditional check-in and ticketing desks in Terminal 2. But there’s one small problem: Continental customers will...
UA’s Smisek: Cleveland must "earn its hub status every day"
With a mega-hub in nearby Chicago, word on the street is that Continental’s Cleveland hub will be a casualty of the merger with United. CLE is only 314 miles from ORD. While San Francisco and Los Angeles (UA’s West...
United, Continental Pilots Butting Heads Over Seniority
The dust of the merger hasn’t even settled yet and already Continental and United pilots are quarreling. Let’s hope this sibling rivalry is ironed out faster than America West and US Airways pilots have worked out their differences (we’re still waiting on that)… On...
