Rhapsody in Blue has been added to the video.

http://www.youtube.com/user/ContinentalAirlines#p/u/0/jdI7kA2YqTw

It starts with an intro from Jeff Smisek and shows a plane with the new livery.  After that it switches gears to Continental.  It doesn’t try to go for attractiveness like many other official or unofficial safety videos, it is still a professional and to-the-point video.  Sorry to let down anyone hoping for a United-lina to offer them the same viewing pleasure as Deltalina.

US Airways is having a 3 day sale on club membership.  It is $249 for all status levels for 3 days only.  The rate is normally $450 for a general member and decreases based on status.

US Airways has upped their game recently by including free beer and wine (although certain stations must charge $1/beverage due to the liquor license).  They also had changed from a tiered approach to membership (just US, or US + United’s Red Carpet Club) so they have added a lot of value to membership recently.

I am a current Sky Club member but I’ve been eyeing US Airways Clubs.  This offer is almost good enough to pay cash and have my company continue to pick up me (discounted due to elite status) Delta Sky Club membership.

HT Gary

I have talked about the changes that are coming with the United/Continental merger livery.  The new livery features the name United, but everything else is old Continental.  As with any change there are people who like this and people who don’t.  This led a group of United livery loyalists to create a group Save the United Airlines Tulip.

Although I like United Airlines and don’t care for Continental I don’t really have an opinion here.  The tulip represents the U in United so one would think that since the name stuck that the logo should have as well.  When I think of branding I do recognize the tulip as United right away, but more so than that the main piece of United branding to me isn’t on the plane but rather a song.  Anyone on hold with United for a single transaction besides just flight status should be familiar with Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in Blue.”  This song instantly pulls up images of United to me even if the song is not at a part that I can consciously identify.  This fact became apparent right before the 2008 Beijing olympics.  United rolled out new commercials that were quite long and unrelated to United at first.  Due to the music I kept thinking “this must be one of the new United commercials.”  As long as United leaves the music to go with the name I don’t really care about the outside.  Many United planes never got painted in the white livery anyway so hopefully the merger will push the rest of the fleet through.

2008 – Heart

2008 – Butterfly

2008 – Sea Orchestra

2008 – Moondust

Post merger United decided to update their livery from the initial draft.  This one features United written in capitals with a new font instead of United written in title case with the Continental font.

Small victories, I’ll take it.

Just yesterday I got this e-mail from United

Starting today, we’re making it easier to use miles for award travel on Star Alliance(R) airline partners. Now on united.com, you can book Star Alliance Awards on U.S.

airline partners.

http://link.p0.com/u.d?hYGobFbk0fyrDX86g2V1R=1710

Here’s what’s new:

-Continental Airlines and US Airways – two of our largest airline partners – are the first Star Alliance airline partners available online for award travel.

-You can depart on one airline partner and return on another – all on the same online reservation.

More Star Alliance airline partners will become available on united.com throughout 2010. We’re also getting ready to introduce more enhancements to mileageplus.com. Stay tuned.

Which is great except for the fact that the current loophole just closed.  It was widely known on the Star Alliance airline forums on FlyerTalk that one could create a frequent flyer account with ANA and search reward availability on star alliance partner airlines.  Aside from what United decided to Starnet Block, this was a good indicator of what to suggest when calling into the Mileage Plus hotline.  ANA just changed so only accounts with points can search partner availibility.  United gives us the ability to look at CO and US Airways online, but there is no easy way to see other partners.  Time to sacrifice some hotel points to ANA to give me access to that search again.

http://www.bizjournals.com/phoenix/stories/2010/04/26/daily67.html

I don’t really like this.  From my Charlotte perspective it seems like Continental likes to focus on small flights with short connections and limited destinations even with connections.  I have no use for continental because either they don’t fly where I’m going, they expect me to make a 30 minute connection in the afternoon in EWR or they want twice as much as anyone else for the privilege of flying them (which probably goes back to supply and demand).

Until recently CO only flew regional jets (RJs) into CLT.  This meant that there was no chance of an upgrade.  It also meant a flight to IAH was uncomfortable.  They also don’t go anywhere…did I say that already?

United likes big planes.  United has a huge route structure.  United flies mainline into CLT.

I’d like to just see Continental go away instead of merge with my carrier.

According to MSNBC

New York Sen. Charles Schumer said Sunday that American, Delta Air Lines, United Airlines, US Airways and JetBlue Airways each have committed to him that they would not institute fees for carry-on bags. He said he was hopeful other carriers would follow suit.

This is in response to Spirit Airlines recent announcement to begin charging for carry-ons.

They had been renovating the Check-in area between the B and C checkpoints for a while (the short-lived Midwest check-in area). Now I find out why. Before Delta, United, American, Continental, and Airtran were crammed in between the A and B checkpoints. Now United and Continental have jumped into the area between the B and C checkpoints and they are really emphasizing the Star Alliance affiliation.

I did not wander down to see if any changes have been made to jetBlue, Lufthansa, or US Airways.

This was actually an entry for the Gold Coast contest on one of the other blogs (and I need to search to remember which one). This has also been discussed on Flyertalk when a jetsetting family member dies.

The way the airlines have it set up frequent flyer miles belong to the person on the account and in the case of death those miles technically go bye-bye. The thing is that airlines don’t know that someone died so the real limiting factor is that no living person knows the password to that account. For someone with a serious mileage balance part of the will should include user logins and passwords for frequent flyer accounts so surviving members can use remaining miles. Airlines like United require the redeemer to go to an airport in person to present ID for a reward flight booked over the phone in certain situations, but other airlines have different rules. Usually if the last name on the ticket is the same as the account holder there is less of an issue.

This won’t work on many US Airways flights since they are always full.  I knew I was taking a risk with a long haul United flight as well, but decided there is nothing to lose and an empty middle to gain.

The trick is that since most people only want a window or an aisle they will tend to not choose a middle seat if they don’t have to.

My husband and I were flying in Economy Plus on a Boeing 747 from LAX to SYD.  The 747 has a 3-4-3 configuration which means if I take the window and he takes the aisle the odds are that unless the flight is full no one will choose the middle.  That worked out and we had an open middle for the whole 14 hour flight.

What happens if someone actually takes the middle seat?  Depends on how much you love your seat versus who you are traveling with.  Many suggest you should offer the person the window or the aisle.  Since your are being nice anyway you could just give them the one you prefer less.  If you don’t really care about your travel companion you could also just keep your seats and have a stranger between you.