I Survived Too: Merger Day at ORD

When I booked this weekend's travel, a few months back, United had announced that it planned to merge all its systems with Continental's at end of business on Saturday, March 3. So I was pretty certain that by flying on Saturday afternoon I'd be in the clear.

Later, they switched up and announced that everything would merge overnight/early Saturday morning. So I prepped for disaster, leaving home on Thursday for ORD, ticket numbers documented offline, mileage balances recorded as proof, and reservations printed in hard copy. Saturday morning I tried to check in online, having totally forgotten to do so the previous night (rookie mistake!).

But online check in via iPhone app was broken. I tried on my laptop using the Continental-fied pss.united.com website. No dice. I'd have to go try a kiosk at the airport.

When I got the ticket lobby, I hit the nearest kiosk. It couldn't find my reservation. Not good. So I found the Premier Access 1K line, which only had about 10 people in it. The Economy & international check in lines were longer, but not horrible. And UA staff were out in force: greeting people, answering questions, and most of all, manning the ticket desks, with supervisors looking over their shoulders. The problems of the non-GUI HP SHARES system are documented elsewhere, but based on what I was seeing today at ORD, it didn't seem like there were major problems they couldn't handle on day 1.

Best of all, though, were the t-shirts UA ticket personnel sported, as seen in my photo above. The front said, "Merger Day One," and the back said: "I Survived."

I chatted with a service rep who said that while the scene wasn't too bad now (mid-day), the morning had apparently been horrendous. Lots of angry pax, confusion and broken systems. She also said that it was just as well that I had forgotten to check in online the previous day: all the people who had done so arrived at the airport to learn that their check ins were not in the system and they had to hit the ticket counters anyway.

One way or the other, when I made it to the counter, the agent found my res, gave me my boarding pass, and sent me on my way. By the time I got online here in the United Club, my current year and lifetime mileage balances had shown up in my MileagePlus account, along with my upgrade balance.

I logged in to the Club wifi network (the "T" in T-Mobile is for "tortoise") using my old MileagePlus number, not my new alphanumeric OnePass-ish number. Not everything has been updated yet, I guess.

Why Your United Lifetime Flight Mileage Suddenly Increased

Happy new year folks. Crosscheck and I were talking about this blog, and the fact that we have tons of great ideas for things to write here while we're flying, but when we get back on the ground our brains are blank again. I'm going to try a different approach this year, which will be to write shorter posts more often, generally around the time I'm flying.

Like today, when I completed my first two segments of 2012. But today I'm not writing about my fight experience. I'm going to explain why my lifetime mileage on United suddenly jumped on New Year's Day from 552,000 to about 675,000. It has to do with coming up with a single system for tracking mileage, that handles CO and UA accounts fairly and equitably.

Up til now, MP accounts tracked "BIS" miles: Butt In Seat while on board UA and United Express aircraft. CO's OnePass counted these EQMs (elite qualifying miles) as well as "bonus EQM" - like miles from partner airlines, or airline credit cards or other promotions.

As a way to get people back on the same page, United recalculated lifetime MP balances to include not only the BIS mileage on UA aircraft, but the bonus EQM on UA as well (previously excluded). This is a one time bump. As United pointed out, "the lifetime miles balance will either increase or remain the same."

If you have a MP account as well as a OnePass account, UA will be combining their lifetime miles to come up with a single, new MP lifetime balance. This is the number with which you'll start your 2012 frequent flyering. And sometime late in Q1 of calendar 2012 the balances will no longer be shown as CO and UA separately, but instead will be combined.

What does this mean in practical terms? Well if you're a UA Premier Gold member, you will have more competition now, and may have a harder time getting upgraded on UDUs (or whatever they are calling them now). Best way to ensure the upgrade? Pick a higher-ranking fare class when you book your ticket.

Last thing to note is that as of January 1, 2012, the bonus party is over. If you want Million Miler status, you're going to have to earn the rest of the miles the new fashioned way: by actually flying. This from UA:

Starting January 1, 2012, flight miles on the new United (including Continental), Copa Airlines, or Copa Airlines Colombia will accrue toward Million Miler status.

So don't give up on promotions, MP Dining, transferring your Marriott Rewards, and so on. Those will still be credited toward award mileage balances. But the EQMs will come from flying, and (maybe) from the United MP Explorer Visa card (but probably just from dollars spent on EQM...I'm not even sure, and I have the damn card). 

Confused? Don't worry about it. The mileage wonks will track this stuff for us. Our job, as always, is to fly fly fly.

Onward!


Image: Old and new MP logos via Plane Picky.