In the Continental-United merger (read: Continental acquisition of United), integration means that most things are being done the Continental way. Not everything, mind you, they tried briefly to use Continental’s boarding procedures but realized ‘back to front’ was a problem when they were upselling passengers for economy plus up front and then those passengers boarded last and had to gate check their bags.
But even there, it’s mostly Continental leadership making those decisions. They’re keeping Rhapsody in Blue, at least for now, but even that was touch and go for awhile.
The victors, of course, get to write the historical narrative. And they’re getting in some zingers. I do think that Continental meal service has been better than United meal service on the whole in recent years, but this line from United’s (i.e. Continental’s) executive chef, Gerry McLoughlin, was still striking:
Ultimately, the goal is that the combined airline gets the positive ratings from customers that Continental traditionally received. Success comes down to a mindset, McLoughlin said. United tried to design food that fit well in serving carts, while Continental tried to create great food and figure out how to fit it in the carts, McLoughlin said. “We reverse the way we do things,” he said.
I’m not sure I’d call Continental’s food great..
Now, speaking of Continental ‘winning out’, here’s the test version of the new integrated United website that will go into effect at the beginning of March. Looks strangely like the Continental website, no? Except of course that it now says ‘United’ and shows combined United-Continental mileage balances when you log in. Fortunately the Continental website supports more partners for searching award availability, although it does also have frequent pricing glitches (generally charging you more miles, not less, natch).
only if “great” = two for twenty from applebee…
Hope we don’t get too much “cocky” sauce from CO’s chef.
I’m glad you acknowledge that Continental bought out United, as opposed to thinking this was any sort of ‘merger of equals’. You may not like it, but at least you’re not in denial.
There are other flyers (and some bloggers) who take offense at everything that Continental did/does and is being applied to legacy United. Maybe they would have been happier if US Airways acquired United instead?
It’s little surprise that “the Continental Way” has mostly won at the merged carrier. For almost 20 years, CO was a rising star, and UA was a setting star. It was pretty obvious which airline was better run, so it was completely natural for CO management and policies to become predominant in the merged entity. I think this is good for everybody — except perhaps for folks with rose-colored glasses nostalgic for the old UA way.
Is the CO food “great” in an abstract sense? Of course not. Is it some of the best that you’ll get on an airplane in the USA and probably Europe? Yeah, it is.
Rhapsody in Blue was never in question. And the CO website wasn’t either, considering that they’re keeping the back-end systems that are already fully integrated with it. Oh, and there are still a few award pricing “bugs” in the CO site that work out decidedly in favor of the customer, too.
I’m not really sure what the point of this post was, other than to demonstrate disappointment with a set of systems and processes that work better, not worse. I just don’t get it at all.
interesting that I signed in with my PM number and password, but in the summary, it showed my Continental number and status. Are they only going to be using continental numbers going forward?
@David, yes the new Mileage Plus numbers will be your current OnePass number and United’s Mileage Plus numbers will no longer be used. If you do not have a OnePass number, one will be assigned to you when the merger starts on March 3, 2012.
With regards to service, I have found in my limited experience that CO’s amenities on its Business First routes with the recently renovated 777 C cabins do have better food than UA’s Business class. The amenity kits are a nice pouch, and the appetizer cart is great. The desert cart is also nice as they have mini deserts for thos not wanting an ice cream sundae.
I have also observed that the CO employees take their job to provide good service seriously, and they seems to be much more happy with their company. Service can always vary across any airline, and United’s service is often excellent or completely apathetic. I hope the UA-CO merger does in fact bring the best of both companies together.
I used to be a Platinum Continental whore before I moved out of Houston. Now that I live in DC I’m looking for the john with the flashiest metal to climb aboard. Anytime I had to fly other than CO I was appalled at the lack of service, on-time arrivals, food options (no breakfast on a 3 hour flight departing at 8 am? really NWA?) and other amenities. Other than economy pitch CO was a great airline to be enslaved to. I only hope UA doesn’t destroy CO’s great customer service.
I actually prefer tha CO website. ((This coming from a long time UA 1k)
@Seth I disagree that Continental food is the best you’ll get transatlantic, it’s not bad and I agree that it’s better than United’s, I rather thought the hubris and braggadacio is a bit much, Continental won, be humble about it 🙂 No question the Continental web architecture is better, though!
Let’s see…on the good side:
E+ comes from PMUA
Top-tier being 100K comes from PMUA
Three-class planes comes from PMUA
SWUs and Regionals come from PMUA
double open jaw awards come from PMUA
one way awards come from PMUA
being able to use regionals for hawaii flights comes from PMUA
channel 9 comes from PMUA
on the customer unfriendly side:
mileage expiration comes from PMUA
good stuff coming from PMCO that I as a 1K am happy to see:
reduced prices for short distance coach awards
no starnet blocking
greater routing flexibility on awards
upgrades on award tickets
regional above-the-wing handling at hubs migrating back to mainline employees (see SFO) – lord how I wish they would do this at IAD
consistent exit row numbering (how many times did an A320 swap kick folks into E-?)
same day confirmed changes with a wider time window and routing flexibility
partner award availability on the website
being able to see upgrade lists online
mobile app
I thought everyone would be overjoyed that continental.com won over united.bomb. In addition to its glitchiness, I couldn’t stand united’s web interface when searching for flights.
Such displays of modesty are characteristic of Continental. I feel so lucky they allow me to be their customer :-/