Goodbye Continental…Hello United

Yesterday marked the last day of Continental Airlines, and I must admit, I am pretty sad to see them go. Growing up, we used to fly Continental once or twice a year from Boston to Ft. Lauderdale with a layover in Newark. 9 times out of 10, my family would volunteer for a bump and we’d be put on the next plane down to see our snowbird Grandparents. We loved the thrill of being bumped and knowing that this would secure us another vacation down to sunny Florida to see our Grandparents. I remember loving Continental and as I grew older continued to think highly of them with their phenomenal customer service. Well today is the start of a new era = the Continental and United systems have been fully integrated. My hope is that once everything is sorted out, customer service will go back to the way things used to be and best practices will be similar to what we once knew and loved about Continental (I personally think things went way downhill once United got involved).

If you’ve been checking your account today, you might notice a few issues – miles being wiped away, reservations all over the place, lifetime status not updated, etc. From working on many system integrations the past years, these things are not easy and I am actually impressed that the United site is actually running this morning. If your account is incorrect, DO NOT PANIC. Give it about 24 hours to let the tech guys fully do their thing and figure out all the bugs. Give it to Monday morning for things to be back to normal.

Fortunately, my profile is fully up to date with the correct number of year-to-date miles, segments, and lifetime miles. I previously only had miles in my Continental account and nothing with United. I also did not link my accounts previously since I was keeping my Continental account number anyways and had no United miles to be added. Seems as those with just Continental accounts are working fine in the system. You can read more about the United/Continental integration that took place today on this FlyerTalk thread.

The new changes:

• The United and Continental site is now one and has kept the same look and feel as the prior Continental site, however, the URL is now: www.united.com
• All flights that were scheduled to operate as Continental Airlines (CO) will be operating as United Airlines (UA)
• MileagePlus is the single loyalty program
• Your frequent flyer number will be your existing Continental OnePass account number, not your existing United MileagePlus number
• If you previously only had a MileagePlus account and NOT a ContinentalOnePass, you should have received an email with your new converted 8-character account number
• If you previously had both a Continental OnePass account and a United MileagePlus account, your OnePass account number will be your new MileagePlus number

Things to note:

• If you have a flight scheduled today and you need to check in at the airport or check bags, I’d suggest getting to the airport slightly earlier than normal, the check in process could take a tad longer with a new system and place and some potential pandemonium
• Make sure to update your number in all places where your MileagePlus number is stored, i.e., AwardWallet, hotel programs, etc.
• If you are not seeing your full mileage balance displayed and looking to reserve an award ticket, you are able to put your itinerary on hold for 72 hours for free with United’s FareLock option

After 78 years, goodbye Continental, you will be missed. C’est la vie.