Last week United Airlines announced that their merger with Continental was completed, saying “they officially joined forces to create the world’s largest airline.”
Well, what they mean is the merger received legal approval. But merged, not exactly. The complete merger will not be done anytime soon. In the meantime, the two airlines, or one airline as they call themselves, are not making things less confusing for travelers or travel agents.
For starters, Continental and United will actually still fly as separate airlines for at least a year; that’s their own estimate. And they are, in some ways, very different airlines.
The number one difference for frequent fliers — Continental does not have economy plus, and there is no announced plan to change this. Even savvy travelers have been confused by this since Continental is already code-sharing on many flights.
While United has announced that their elite level flights should be able to get premium seats with Continental by the end of the year, those fliers may not realize Continental considers their “premium” seats simply to be the aisle and window seats towards the front of the plane. They do not have extra legroom.
Any competent travel agent should let clients know upfront who is actually operating any plane they book, but I do realize this doesn’t always happen. Online agents and booking sites do say “operated by Continental Airlines” for such United code-shares, but it’s not that hard to miss.
So what happens, and will continue to happen, is that passengers who book a United/Continental code share, expecting they can get the extra legroom, will be disappointed.
At this point too, there are no upgrades on code-shares. I had a friend of a friend call me a while back telling me they had already booked their son directly on a United flight to Barcelona. They wanted to know whether I could help them because the flight didn’t show upgrades available and they at least wanted to know how to waitlist him for business. When they mentioned that the flight went through Newark, I knew it was a Continental plane, and as it turned out, they had to rebook him.
There are many other issues, which could turn out to be trivial or major, depending upon when travelers discover the problems. For example, in some airports, such as San Francisco International, United and Continental are not even in the same terminal. Any United client who casually books a United-Continental code-share and goes to their regular terminal could find themselves at the wrong end of the airport.
Plus, word just was released that the Amex/Continental deal for Membership Rewards will end next September. If anyone was wondering, it appears that the surviving frequent flier model will be United’s Mileage Plus program.
One customer-service merger change, however, is already in the works. At the end of next week, Continental will stop serving free food in coach, to match United’s “Buy-on-board” policy. That was fast! This should be a good clue to anyone who wonders whether other changes will make the new combined airline more, or less, consumer-friendly.
Janice Hough is a California-based travel agent a travel blogger and a part-time comedy writer. A frequent flier herself, she’s been doing battle with airlines, hotels, and other travel companies for over three decades. Besides writing for Travelers United, Janice has a humor blog at Leftcoastsportsbabe.com (Warning, the political and sports humor therein does not represent the views of anyone but herself.)
