http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20100502/bs_nm/us_united

People are crying on the streets of Houston; and up in Ohio, Clevelanders are ready to push Hopkins into Lake Erie.

Drat - was just getting into Continental and racking up FF miles (they fly to Mexico and have great service)!

From what I have read, Houston will remain a major hub. I've heard nothing about Cleveland.

Continental says the frequent flyer programs will be integrated, keeping the best (for them or us?) features of each. There has already been a lot of interplay, as both are Star members. But the new largest airline in the world still can't seem to find their way to Fairbanks. And when I asked about service to Russia, they only listed Moscow, although I know Star partner Lufthansa flies to St. Petersburg. One of the problems with Continental's web site is that it doesn't grasp a lot of Star alliance flights, and gives you a message that you have to call to check on an itinerary; perhaps they will fix this as part of the merger; perhaps not.

They are keeping CLE as a hub for now, but the writings are all on the wall that they'll gradually shrink it down to nothing. [Read: PIT, CVG, STL]. I do feel bad for Clevelanders (I was born there), but that is inevitable.

I finally made Silver Elite with Continental and now this. Would I be better to cancel my Continental Credit Card in the next few months and get another one with United (once my miles have been posted to United) for more bonus miles?

wally - Why do you need to cancel your CO credit card? But sure, you should get a UA card sometime down the line to get the bonus miles before the two programs combine. Assuming the merger get through, of course.

Clevelander here. Also have 60,000 continental miles saved up.

One paper today seemed to feel there would be serious antitrust issues, and I don't think this administration is as hands off on such issues as the last. So an agreement has been signed, but it isn't really a done deal yet unless they have gotten approval in advance from the bureaucrats.

Jeff Smisek: "I didn't want him (Glenn Tilton) to marry the ugly girl, I wanted him to marry the pretty one. And I am much prettier."

Doug Parker and the folks at US Airways must be feeling really good about all of this now.

I had met Jeff Smisek a few times, and really enjoyed his take-no-prisoner speech, and his dry humor.

BTW, he later clarified that he wasn't talking about Doug. He added "Doug is a very handsome man", according to WSJ.