Continental - United Merger

[PRR 60]

The US Department of Justice will not oppose the proposed merger of Continental Airlines and United Airlines. With that obstacle gone and pending expected shareholder approval, the merger is expected to be completed on October 1.

As a condition of the DOJ not opposing the merger, CO/UA will lease 18 slots at capacity-controlled Newark airport to Southwest Airlines (WN). This will mark WN's second third incursion into the New York metro area. They presently serve Long Island Islip Airport and LaGuardia. WN service at EWR is expected to start in the first half of 2011. Watch airfares plummet at EWR.

In the "no news yet" category is the fate of the ability to transfer miles and points between CO OnePass and Amtrak AGR miles, along the CO allowing AGR S+ members into the CO President's Club lounges and Amtrak permitting PC members into Club Acela . The merger of CO OnePass and UA Mileage Plus should occur quickly after the airline operations start to merge. That will be when the fate of all the non-Star Alliance partners of both programs will become known.

Washington Post

Corrected

 

[the_traveler]

In the "no news yet" category is the fate of the ability to transfer miles and points between CO OnePass and Amtrak AGR miles, along the CO allowing AGR S+ members into the CO President's Club lounges and Amtrak permitting PC members into Club Acela.

I belong to the "no news is good news" club, but I am taking the possibility of UA pulling out of the transfer options seriously. (I'd be a little more confident if UA was merging into CO. UA pulled out once - without warning!

) Personally, I have transfered as much as I can out.

I'm OK with "losing" 71 OnePass Miles, instead of 5K or 20K, if they drop out overnight!

 

[WhoozOn1st]

Characterizing my United points total as "meager" would be an overstatement. The recent snail mail exhortation from the airline to use my points before they expire was forwarded to the WhoozOn1st LLC Peoples Free Democratic Department of So What. Not enough to fly around the block, and none to be added in the foreseeable future.

Seems that partisans of both airlines have strong views on the paint job selected for the planes of the merged carrier; it's all about "branding:"

United and Continental airlines designing brand as they prepare for wedding

"Continental CEO Jeff Smisek and United CEO Glenn Tilton struck a deal to keep United's name and Continental's logo and livery April 15, a week into the monthlong talks that culminated in a May 3 merger announcement, according to Securities and Exchange Commission filings."

 

[Trogdor]

This will mark WN's second incursion into the New York metro area. They presently serve Long Island Islip Airport.

Umm, they also serve this little-known, back-of-the-woods airport known as LaGuardia.

 

[PRR 60]

This will mark WN's second incursion into the New York metro area. They presently serve Long Island Islip Airport.

Umm, they also serve this little-known, back-of-the-woods airport known as LaGuardia.

Oops! I forgot about LGA (and who can forget LGA). They don't have a big operation there, but they are there.

 

[jis]

At Newark they will have an 18 slot operation, which is exactly the current size of United's operation at EWR. So it won't be huge either.

 

[jis]

In the "no news yet" category is the fate of the ability to transfer miles and points between CO OnePass and Amtrak AGR miles, along the CO allowing AGR S+ members into the CO President's Club lounges and Amtrak permitting PC members into Club Acela . The merger of CO OnePass and UA Mileage Plus should occur quickly after the airline operations start to merge. That will be when the fate of all the non-Star Alliance partners of both programs will become known.

All new aircrafts being delivered to Continental starting latter half of September will be delivered in the new United livery. United is not receiving any new aircrafts at present. I expect the livery change to be quite quick at least on Continental planes since the change is simple. The United planes will take a little longer, but still I hear it will be relatively fast.

The Board vote is on the 17th of September.

UA and CO will continue to operate on separate certificates until perhaps about 2012 is what is being stated. Also been stated on airliners.net is that after the merger, AirMic which currently operates on a separate certificate will cease to do so, and will be merged into the same certificate as CO and UA.

We wait with bated breath to hear what will happen to the FF programs. Putting the two together I will have close to a million and a half lifetime actual miles.

 

[Devil's Advocate]

UA was a nearly worthless airline in my view, but they did have E+ for a $300 annual fee when I didn't fly them enough to earn status. It didn't make much difference for domestic flights but for long international treks it was a godsend. I never flew CO much but I had more respect for them than I ever did for UA. CO just didn't have the right routings or times and generally didn't work out for me that well. It will be interesting to see what this huge mega-airline will do with so many routes to Europe and Asia under one certificate. My guess is a continued reduction in total available seats along with corresponding increases in airfares.

 

[Guest]

In the "no news yet" category is the fate of the ability to transfer miles and points between CO OnePass and Amtrak AGR miles, along the CO allowing AGR S+ members into the CO President's Club lounges and Amtrak permitting PC members into Club Acela . The merger of CO OnePass and UA Mileage Plus should occur quickly after the airline operations start to merge. That will be when the fate of all the non-Star Alliance partners of both programs will become known.

We wait with bated breath to hear what will happen to the FF programs. Putting the two together I will have close to a million and a half lifetime actual miles.

I know you travel alot jis, hope you dont get stuck with too many miles that become worthless as has happened in the past to many! :help: Perhaps youve already used them, or converted to a better program, but if you havent you might want to consider burning or transfering them while you still can???

 

[rrdude]

We wait with bated breath to hear what will happen to the FF programs. Putting the two together I will have close to a million and a half lifetime actual miles.

I know you travel alot jis, hope you dont get stuck with too many miles that become worthless as has happened in the past to many! :help: Perhaps youve already used them, or converted to a better program, but if you havent you might want to consider burning or transfering them while you still can???

JIS, just think of all the blenders you could buy, or you could have magazine subscriptions for you, and hundreds of your friends, to every magazine ever published, for life!

 

[jis]

We wait with bated breath to hear what will happen to the FF programs. Putting the two together I will have close to a million and a half lifetime actual miles.

I know you travel alot jis, hope you dont get stuck with too many miles that become worthless as has happened in the past to many! :help: Perhaps youve already used them, or converted to a better program, but if you havent you might want to consider burning or transfering them while you still can???

JIS, just think of all the blenders you could buy, or you could have magazine subscriptions for you, and hundreds of your friends, to every magazine ever published, for life!

Actually, I have minimal remaining points in United Mileage Plus, and have enough points for a round trip business class to India and back on Continental. I understand that no point will be lost from either program when they merge. The points will simply be added together. Of course some award thresholds might change, The more interesting question is what the thresholds will be for lifetime status for people with over a million lifetime actual miles. That is the only real uncertainty at this point.

I'd never use points for buying blenders and magazines. RT to New Zealand is a better use of them any day My intention is to use them for flying to far away places. In general I never transfer airline miles for non-airline usage. OTOH, I do transfer non-airline miles to airline FF programs to top up for airline usage. For my purposes that is much better usage of those points than for knick-knacks, or even for things like Amtrak rides. For that I collect enough Amtrak points anyway. While riding Amtrak trains is fun, flying to far away places is even more fun as far as I am concerned, specially if it involves further train rides at the other end.

BTW, I have never had problem getting award seats on international flights either on Continental or United in business or first class. You just have to start working on them early that's all. I have done numerous award round trips by business or first class from EWR or JFK to Singapore, Bangkok, Hongkong and Delhi sometimes alone and sometimes with a friend added on. So no sweat, I am not worried about losing out on those.

 

[jis]

Continental and United announced a bunch of interesting pieces of information today.

They announced that the merged airline will use the FAR Part 121 operating certificate of Continental Airlines, and the Part 145 maintenance facility certificate of United Airlines.

They also announced a bunch of appointments of the leadership team. In general Marketing, Finance, Flight operations and Schedules went to ex-Continental guys and Technical ops, Labor relations, Strategy, Alliances and Loyalty program went to ex-United guys. Of this of course, to this group probably the Loyalty program is of the greatest interest since that would cover the Frequent Flyer Program of the merged airline.

 

[Trogdor]

Cue more paranoid "there goes the AGR transfer" postings.

 

[Devil's Advocate]

Cue more paranoid "there goes the AGR transfer" postings.

Interesting. So by expressing dismay that we may see sweeping short-notice treatment by a staff we've seen this from before, posters are not merely showing reasonable concern but are instead betraying paranoia?

 

[Trogdor]

The key difference between UA and CO is that CO has a hub at EWR, and code-shares with Amtrak up and down the NEC. UA had no such agreement.

 

[jis]

The key difference between UA and CO is that CO has a hub at EWR, and code-shares with Amtrak up and down the NEC. UA had no such agreement.

My current guess (just a guess mind you) is that the code-shares with both Amtrak and SNCF will remain and perhaps grow over time. As for what will happen with point transfers between the FF program and AGR, I have no clue. That is a completely different kettle of fish. There may be additional Star Alliance issues that come into play there, since Continental/United points must be honored by all *A members.

BTW, the other difference between UA and CO is that CO also code shares with SNCF. I am not sure if UA does any of that. OTOH, UA seems to have pretty much handed over significant parts of Europe service to Lufthansa and SAS via code-share, so maybe Lufthansa's code-share with DB counts as UA code-share. I don't know. With the merger with Continental, the new UA will again have robust Europe service from both coasts and in between too, using their own metal.

 

[jis]

It is official....

UAL Corporation, the parent company whose primary subsidiary is United Airlines (NASDAQ: UAUA - News), announced today that its stockholders approved the merger of a wholly owned subsidiary of UAL with and into Continental Airlines (NYSE: CAL - News), clearing the way for the merger to close by an expected date of Oct. 1. More than 98 percent of the votes cast and 84 percent of the shares outstanding were voted by UAL stockholders in favor of the transaction. More than 98 percent of the votes cast and 75 percent of the shares outstanding were voted by Continental stockholders in favor of the transaction.

Read the whole article here.

This article will give you some idea on when visible changes will take place. Nothing expected, except perhaps a few new planes showing up in the new colors, until early 2011. The two new 777s that Continental just received are in Star Alliance livery, not Continental livery.

Meanwhile Continental and American Express announced that they are discontinuing the relationship between Amex points and Continental One Pass effective 1st October, 2011. This means no transfer of points from Amex to Continental One Pass, and no access to Presidents Club for Amex Platinum Card holders. I guess it is time for me to dump the Amex card now.

 

[jis]

United Continental Holdings Inc. went into operation 1 Oct. This company now owns two subsidiaries - United Airlines and Continental Airlines. A few planes have come out in the new livery.

CEO Smisek is on the safety demo video of both United and Continental welcoming passengers to the new United. See:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LzA6U0lXnBA

and

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jdI7kA2YqTw

As you will notice, much to the delight of many, they have decided to retain the United "Rhapsody in Blue" theme music which IMHO is more timeless and more easily recognizable than the music CO used. I guess one could say that the 900K miles on United has rubbed off on me, but I still remember how I felt I was almost home as I boarded a United plane in Bangkok and heard the "Rhapsody in Blue"!

FF programs and lounges will probably merge in 12 months or so at the earliest. For FF program the rumor is that the 2012 program will be the merged one, with 2011 continuing as is with step by step changes through the year bringing the two closer together.

Single operating certificate will probably happen somewhere between 12 and 18 months from now. But cross fleet use of equipment is probably as little as 6 months away.

Planes will probably get rebranded faster than some of that.

For planes that have been rebranded, the call sign on ATC will be:

for Continental in new colors" "Continental in United Colors"

for United: "United in new United Colors"

This will be used mostly on ground to identify aircraft to ground control.

 

[Ryan]

Wow, that new livery just looks weird.

It looks good, but it's just jarring to see that Continental tailfin and "United" painted up front.

Glad to hear that they kept "Rhapsody in Blue" as well. Most of my airtime (back when I was traveling for work) was on United or AA.

 

[jis]

Wow, that new livery just looks weird.

It looks good, but it's just jarring to see that Continental tailfin and "United" painted up front.

Glad to hear that they kept "Rhapsody in Blue" as well. Most of my airtime (back when I was traveling for work) was on United or AA.

I flew RT to Orlando from Newark last weekend. On the way out after having worked overnight the previous night to complete a deliverable, by the time I boarded the flight in the afternoon I was totally wiped out, so I dozed off while waiting to depart the gate. Suddenly in my dozed state I woke up and sat bolt upright as I heard the Rhapsody in Blue, thinking somehow I was back in time 10 years flying United! And then Smisek came on the screen welcoming all aboard United(!) and explaining the merger process and how it will unfold. It was strange, but in a nice way somehow. I have very fond memories of flying the old United when its First Class was really First Class!

BTW it looks like UA/CO is expanding service significantly at Dallas Love Field as Southwest is poised to start service to Newark Liberty!