United and Continental Airlines merge
Creating one of the world’s largest airlines, United Airlines and Continental Airlines have merged. The new carrier will be called United Airlines.
Members of both airlines’s frequent flyer programs should benefit as the FFPs will merge into one program and mileage balances will be combined – probably in early 2011.
If you have never applied for a Continental credit card for bonus miles, this might just be the time – while you still can.
The combined airline is expected to remain in the Star Alliance network (along with US Airways). Delta is part of SkyTeam while American Airlines is in OneWorld. Mergers have dwindled the US carriers in the various alliances. Delta, Northwest, and Continental were all once part of Skyteam but since Continental moved over to * Alliance and Delta swallowed Northwest, Delta remains as the only US based SkyTeam airline – limiting options for US based flyers.
With this merger, United is looking like a mighty appealing option.
More info can be found at United’s website (http://www.unitedcontinentalmerger.com/)
