Thread: United/Continental Merger -- Let's Fly Together

We are going through this (albeit on a much smaller scale) with Frontier and Midwest. italgreco is correct in that the admin positions were all consolidated. Midwest no longer has a headquarters and many of Frontier's positions are also being moved to Republic in IND. Most positions involving customer contact and operations have remained, except for the few outstations in markets that were closed.

The absolute worst part is merging the computer systems. We still have to jump back and forth between YX and F9 systems...which isn't too bad except for our DEN-MKE flights, which both systems have flights on, and we frequently have to move non-revs back and forth between the systems.

Add in the code share complexities and it can get bad (like around spring break this year when the F9 systems weren't pulling seats out of inventory for YX flights and our Airbus 136-seaters were overbooked by 40 people!

But there are always growing and merging pains, and this too shall pass. :-)

Our main concerns for the time being is

1. Where will we end up in seniority, which in turn decides if we either stay in our station or have to relocate, or in some cases, will it cause a job loss. Not a major issue if you have alot of seniority. But a big issue if you have less than say 7 years. (And that's just a figure I threw up there because nobody really knows.)

2. Pension plan we have now is it going away or will it get frozen or rolled into 401k, go to the Pension Guarantee Benefit System or start with a fresh plan ????

Alot of other things will have to get hashed out. Like flight benefits, seniority versus company time, operation systems used, how the subsideries will get effected, recall rights, union negotiations, and everything else that goes along a merger. But seems everyone is pretty much taking it in stride. Not much we can do about anything right now. No control. It is what it is.

I am upbeat about the merger but I plan to retire soon from UAL. Should I wait to ensure non-rev benefits all both UAL and CAL routes? With a terminated pension from UAL, passes are my main concern. Any ideas?

Originally Posted by pacificlaura

I am upbeat about the merger but I plan to retire soon from UAL. Should I wait to ensure non-rev benefits all both UAL and CAL routes? With a terminated pension from UAL, passes are my main concern. Any ideas?

Pacificlaura : That's a difficult one to answer. To be honest, the only reason why I came into this industry 100 years ago. When PA was split between UA/DL, UA honoured PA seniority. Thus if you completed
say, 20 years with PA and were due to retire within a year of UA taking over, you were entitled to the same flight benefits as if you were UA for the same period.
Whilst it was not a merger per se, UA took over the PA routes it had acquired. I'm still not sure what benefits CO enjoy, ours are certainly very good. They spoke today about a timeline and I'm lead to believe it will be 2 years .... can you hold for that long ???? It may be worth having a word with HR, likewise, CO staff in the same position as yourself. Thinking out load though, if the new company is set to be named United, surely they cannot restrict you on routes : I.e. these were true CO and these were true UA ... but I guess stranger things have happened !

Throw that flight benny question along with the other 100 or so questions undetermined thus far. We just don't know. UA has good flight benefits? I sure hope so because I thought ours was pretty good. I would suspect that upon the merger, you can fly all UA routes regardless of wheather you retired from UA or CO. Looks like in this merger, we (CO) is the smaller fish by far. Was looking over the UA seniority list and its quite intimidating to say the least. But we don't really know what's what, how they will hash it out and how many technicians are actually working as A&P's. How many will take the early out, how many will not want to move around or relocate. So its not even worth looking at this list. Check your PM box, for a rough estimate on travel benefits.

I'm excited. I'm a CO retiree, living in Bangkok. Now that we will be able to fly on United, I can use them out of BKK, since CO doesn't fly here. How soon should we be able to fly on UA? I hear some say not before the end of 2010.

You're right, at the very least. End of 2010. I fly to Philippines and I don't see UA flying in there. So no real boost from my angle there. Looks like same OAL from NRT to MNL.

A CO retiree living in BKK, one of my most favourite cities.....I'm a CO retiree living on the Gold Coast of Australia and get my ZED tkts issued by the GSA in SYD, who issues yours, the CO GSA in BKK??

I was in the Gold Coast at Surfers Paradise back in 1989. You're lucky to be living in that area. Very beautiful. How is retirement living down under these days? I flew down there on Qantas from GUM/Port Morseby/Sydney. I remember they quit the flights to Sydney in the mid 1990's sometime.