Up until yesterday you could just listen to XM via the AOL Radio Player for free, but that agreement is over as of today, sadly. If you sign up through this offer you can get a free 14 day trial, which is much better than the standard free three day trial they offer.

Here’s something very interesting which many Mileage Plus members got emailed about:

Now when you see our flight crew in the concourse or at the gate area, ask them about our airline, the plane, the flight in general, or even questions regarding their own travel experiences and adventures as pilots.

Many of our pilots also carry these colorful cards showing the aircraft that each is certified to fly, so go ahead and ask for one. The Captain or First Officer can even autograph the fleet card if you would like.

Collect one. Collect them all. Have fun with this!

Aircraft trading cards

These fun collectors’ items show your aircraft with all of its relevant stats.

United’s pilots are the best in the business and are always happy to talk about their pride and passion.

So ask away…before you fly away on United.

(page can be found here)

This obviously isn’t anything earth shattering, but I find it interesting. I find United pilots to be among the most professional in the industry. 80% of the time they’re very friendly, have great announcements, always keep us informed, and for the most part turn on Channel 9, essentially allowing us to listen in on what they’re doing. My concern is that they weren’t consulted by management for this, and as a result this might backfire and as a matter of principle they’ll just start leaving the doors closed since they don’t like management offering their services for free, essentially. It’s sad, but I’m guessing that’ll be the reality.

Update: Thanks to a FlyerTalker for finding this gem on the linked aircraft trading cards page:

Did you know?
There are more than 6,200 United pilots (with the rank of either Caption or First Officer) who command United’s fleet of about 460 aircraft, in addition to the hundreds of pilots who are employed directly by our United Express regional flying partners.

I have such a hard time going through merger articles, I really do. Not necessarily because of the content being discussed, but mainly because all of this idle speculation is starting to annoy me. In the United forum on FlyerTalk I’ve seen reference made probably a hundred times to “what happens to my miles/awards/tickets/status/etc. if United goes under?” I really find all of the speculation like pretty sad, especially when UA is far from liquidation. If anything they’ll find a partner of some sort, but I really don’t think UA is going anywhere, at least in one form or another.

So on to the article, this time The New York Times.

With the United-Continental deal scrapped, a new set of pairings is likely to take place. UAL is expected to push to reach a deal with US Airways, with which it had also been discussing a merger, people involved in the talks said.

I’m curious who all of these people are that are “involved in the talks.” Are these the same people that said a CO/UA merger would be announced on Tuesday? As much as I think UA needs a merger of some sort, come on, USAir?!??!!? Other than the fact that they’re both in the Star Alliance I really can’t think of a single thing they have in common. Even worse I’m not sure what US brings to the table. Maybe a decent east coast network, but other than that nothing. Let me say that again– N-O-T-H-I-N-G, nada, zilch, the empty set, nuffin’! Come on UA, you’re not the Salvation Army, and if anything merging with US will only make the situation worse. What am I missing here?

Meanwhile, Continental is expected to press ahead with preliminary talks to create a three-way alliance — short of a full merger — with American Airlines and British Airways.

I find this to be intriguing. Not that I necessarily understand it or think it’ll work, but I’m curious. AA and BA have a hard enough time working together with their no miles from the US to Europe policy, so I really wonder what benefit they get from adding CO to the mix. I’m sure I’m missing something here since I think the leadership teams of all three airlines are competent, so I’m definitely staying tuned to see what they come up with. Again, I’m just not very imaginative.

They also hinted at forming a new alliance, saying, “We are considering alternatives to SkyTeam” — an alliance with Delta and Northwest — “as we carefully evaluate which major global alliance will be best for Continental over the long term.”

Very interesting. Of course that raises the question as to whether they would somehow start a new alliance or join OneWorld. OneWorld seems like an obvious answer when AA and BA are involved, but at the same time I have a hard time wrapping my mind about the concept of an alliance (NOT a merger) involving two Texas based airlines. Seems a bit too comfortable, especially without a merger.

As promised, I took some pictures of the Admirals Club at DFW in the A concourse. As a UA flyer my standards are of course pretty low as far as airline lounges go, and all the reviews I’ve heard of the Admirals Club have been quite positive, at least when compared to UA. I have to agree and at the same time disagree with such a statement.

The lounge itself is much nicer than any RCC within the US and most RCC’s outside the US. The club is huge, has plenty of space, has many separate rooms (relaxation room, main rooms, kids room, showers, etc.), and overall has a grand feeling to it.

The weakness, as I see it, is the food. The snacks the Admirals Club offers are basically non-existent. In the morning they had mini muffins and in the evening they had pretzels and cookies. Red Carpet Clubs, on the other hand, have danishes, yoghurt, granola bars, and some other things in the morning, and cheese and crackers, veggies and dip, chips, cookies, snack mix, chocolate, and the like in the evening. While UA’s food isn’t great, it’s possible to make a real filling snack out of it, which kind of makes the $300/year membership worth it when I think how much I’d otherwise spend on concessions at the airport.

At the same time AA allows you to purchase food in the lounge, which is somewhat reasonably priced ($8.99 per wrap, pictured below) for an airport and of ok quality, kind of like wraps you’d find in the refrigerated section of a supermarket. Overall I wasn’t really blown away by the Admirals Club. The architecture, seating, room, and “grandness” were all great, but the food and to a large part the staff weren’t as good as at UA. Definitely a great club when you can get in for free with a Plat Amex, but I doubt I’d join if I flew more with AA, since I can’t really justify two airline memberships.

Continental Airlines brought its merger talks with United Airlines to an abrupt end on Sunday amid concerns for the rival US carrier’s financial strength in the face of record fuel costs and waning demand for air travel.United and Continental have held preliminary discussions for more than a year, and the pace of the negotiations quickened this month with Delta Air Lines’ agreement to merge with Northwest Airlines…..

“The best course for Continental is to not merge with another airline at this time,” Larry Kellner, chief executive, and Jeff Smisek, president, said in a message to employees. “The board very carefully considered all the risks and benefits of a merger with another airline, and determined that the risks of a merger at this time outweigh the potential rewards.”

(full article here)

Ouch, this has to be really embarrassing for Chairman Tilton & Co! On one hand I’m happy this isn’t happening since I always thought the two carriers weren’t compatible, but what does this really mean for us? I think it’s safe to say that the state United is currently in (and for that matter most US airlines) isn’t viable in the long run, so something’s gotta give. Maybe United will be downsized substantially? Maybe they’ll find another carrier to merge with?

I’ve said it a bajillion times before, so let me say it one more time. Right now the three legacies that are looking for partners are AA, UA, and US. Forget about US, they bring very little to the table for AA or UA. At the same time both AA and UA are in really bad situations at the moment. There’s a good chance AA will need to file for Chapter 11 by the end of the year in their current path, and probably almost the same for UA.

I’ve always said CO and UA are great airlines, but not together. AA and UA, on the other hand, while both good carriers, are both on a one way road to some Chapter you don’t wanna be in. Together, however, I think they could be quite successful. So how can we make this work and keep the government happy? How about dumping all of AA’s MD80′s (basically half their fleet), eliminating the overlap at ORD, LAX, and JFK, and that alone will basically cover the decrease in fleet size. Other than that they’re quite compatible: similar FFP’s, both have three cabin aircraft (at least some for AA), fleets are somewhat similar, and their route networks complement each other nicely (UA in Asia and Australia and AA in India, South America, and to a certain extent Europe). The only issue would be the unions since we’d see massive layoffs, but at the same time that’s better than liquidation for either of those carriers, right?

 Pickings are getting slim, and this is what I think it’s coming down to.