Continental/United Merger - Death of a Houston Company

I've flown Continental most of the time, and I love it. Customer service and in-flight entertainment are both miles better than United or AA.

Though it's a good thing that I can now earn miles by flying United....

RIP Continental

 

Earning miles is not a problem because they both are apart of the STAR alliance. So United miles and Continental miles have been interchangeable, along with US Airways and a bunch of international airlines.

 

from what's in the press/chronicle, this is clearly a one sided deal. just further proof that everything is always about the money, and nothing else.

perhaps biased, but i feel we (houston) have more to offer than chicago, yet there was no indication that we were ever even brought in to consideration. simply ridiculous.

 

Weather is one of the only positives I can think of for Houston.

 

Out of curiosity, what do we have to offer over Chicago?

 

The main thing Houston has over Chicago is that it is much cheaper to do business here. You can pay employees less and they can get more (housing, food, etc..). Not to mention office space is cheaper here as well, however, I think one of the reason's they are staying in Chicago is because the city just gave United some incredible tax-breaks to keep their headquarters there. The penalty to break that agreement is probably too high to consider.

 

Good, Continental is awful.

 

Nasa now Continental....what is this Detroit south? What exactly is City Hall doing to fight anything? That's a boat load of jobs to try and replace.

 

Agreed. However, imo United is even worse...

 

as many flaws as it has, its the best major US based airline I have ever been on

 

care to explain?

 

Then we must have some really crappy airlines here in the US, because Continental is by far the best.

 

IMO, yes. the carriers in the US are pretty crappy compared to domestic airliners in other countries. I did a research paper for my MBA a few years back, and found that most US domestic planes are around 20-30 years old, while other countries average their planes to be around 10 years before they salvage or sell them.

Also, since I've been living in Asia, the domestic (not international) planes I've used in China, Thailand, and S. Korea are 10x newer, have better service, and better plane food. IMO, Continental has been an average to below average experience for me every time I've used them (over crowded, rude personal, a freaking hoagy/hotdog for a meal,etc.)

I can't pin point it, but blame the unions I guess. Or just the mere overall cost of running an airliner in the US versus in other countries.

 

You have no earthly idea about airlines. United has been a (relative) piece of trash for several years now. Continental compares very favorably to them. Not even close.

Sad day. I've been in the airline industry 25 years, a lot of that with CO in the past. I remember the disaster known as Frank Lorenzo. I remember the beginning of 1995 when it looked like CO was doomed to shut down. Gordon Bethune changed things around, brought in an incredible management team, motivated employees and took CO to a level far beyond any of the other "legacy" carriers.

But size and scale matter. When Delta and Northwest merged, it was just a matter of time for CO & UA. I regret that it didn't happen sooner when Larry Kellner was still in charge of CO. At least CO's management team will run the combined airline instead of UA's. But moving the headquarters to Chicago and keeping the United name has always been a foregone conclusion.

I hope against all hope that the poisonous employee culture of UA doesn't completely destroy what CO has. My current employer's HQ is in Chicago and (perhaps justifiably) UA's employees still show their bitterness about industry changes that negatively affected them. A while ago UA was on top of the airline world as the largest carrier and their employees were the highest paid. But unbelievably bad management and insatiable/unreasonable union demands brought them to their knees. CO, on the other hand, has weathered the changes much better because employees groups and management actually tried to work together. In the old days, UA's employee groups would have looked down their nose at a merger with CO. Now, many of them view it as a way to get a pay raise. The worm has indeed turned.

 

this says it best:

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/editorial/6973589.html

 

Continental is by far the best US based airline I have ever flown on.

 

I was born and raised in Houston (1984-2007) and have been living in Chicago for the past two and a half years for work, so I think I have a little more insight into comparing cost of living between the two cities than most people.

While it's obvious that cost of living in Chicago is higher than Houston, living in Chicago is far cheaper than what most people expect. We are not New York, not San Francisco, nor DC in terms of cost of living.

As a comparison, how much would a decent 1-bedroom apartment cost in Midtown, the Heights, downtown, etc?

In Chicago, you can easily find a nice place of this size for less than $1000. While Houston is no doubt cheaper, I don't need a car here (live about 50 yards from the train station/3 miles from downtown), so this helps offset the cost (no car, no gas, no car insurance, no parking).

As far comparing middle-class families living in the suburbs, I have no idea...