United & Continental

To me, the most interesting aspect of the just-announced United-Continental merger is the depth, scope, and professionalism of the merger website. The interactive combined route map is pretty kludgy, and quite a few questions are left unanswered, but overall it’s amazing what they’ve put together in probably less than three weeks (the amount of time since “serious” talks were made public).

The business commentators, travel pundits, and frequent-flyer geeks will be having a field day dissecting this merger to the nth detail. To us, this seems pretty neutral: Continental seems a “better” airline (especially with service); United has kept us somewhat loyal with Economy Plus; a merged frequent-flyer program helps our orphan Continental miles a bit; and we don’t expect much in the way of reduction of options from our flying hubs.

We do like the fact that the new name will be United, but the logo will be Continental’s. United’s old, ugly, inconsistent paint jobs won’t be missed.

Oh, yea, and “United” (the new you), if you’re listening, please keep E+. That’s pretty much all that’s kept us even this loyal to you. Remember, Frontier, Alaska, and JetBlue are out there for us, and we’re happy to keep flying them, too.

Photo courtesy United