As a long-time Continental elite member I can't think of anything worse than Continental and United merging.

Continental has far and away the best service, particularly for their frequent fliers. Automatic free (no-miles needed) upgrades to 1st class on domestic routes for elite members (UAL charges miles for upgrades if they are even available) and actually providing food at no charge - even if it's a crappy little sandwich - are just two ways that they show that the customer is the number one priority.

United's service on the other hand is abyssmal. On a recent trip my flight from San Diego to San Francisco was cancelled and they rebooked me on the next flight which left the next morning. When I tried to change the flight online to an earlier flight so I wouldn't have to find a hotel I was told I had to call. When I called, the automated system guided me through my options for changing my flight, but it tried to charge me a $75 change fee. ON A FLIGHT THEY CANCELLED!! I eventually got through to an agent who changed it without a fee, but I wonder how many people would have paid the fee.

United has employees who must get trained that the passengers are impediments to getting their jobs done. For instance, tyring to get out of IAD as a snowstorm hit last year we were constantly told that there were no flights leaving IAD, DCA, or BWI. We went to the terminal anyways to try to get at the top of the standby lists for the next day. We asked to get anywhere on the West Coast, preferably SFO, OAK, or SJC. They said no way and we couldn't leave until the next evening at the earliest. When I told them Continental had a flight out of BWI the next morning. They said, "OK, we can put you on a flight to LAX leaving in 45 minutes and connecting to SFO." We got on the plane and it was at least 30% empty - apparently rebooking people on that flight would have been too much work for the ticket agents, so it was better to inconvenience the passengers instead.

This is typical, a company with either high prices or crappy service buys out a competitor with better prices or service, not to acquire their assets or performance, but to eliminate favorable alternatives in order to keep customers. I expect that if UAL and COA merge that all the frequent flyer policies from COA will be abandonded.

Then there's the issue of hub airports. UAL has hubs in SFO, DFW, and ORD (with AA having hubs at DFW and ORD as well). COA has hubs in EWR, CLE, and IAH. If UAL buys COA, would it make sense to keep the CLE and IAH hubs given their proximity to ORD and DFW? From a passenger's standpoint they should keep them since there's much less traffic through CLE and IAH since COA is the only major using those airports as hubs. From UAL's perspective, they should probably shut down the CLE and IAH hubs to - as they might say - consolidate operations to effect cost-savings and enhance shareholder value while providing customers with streamlined choices in itineraries.

Great - more traffc through ORD where there's never any weather issues.

I avoid Southwest (and United - though for different reasons) like the plauge. You wind up with everyone rushing to get to the front of the boarding group line in order to avoid the middle seats. I had one flight on SWA where someone showed up at the podium an hour ahead of time to take care of some items. As soon as she said a single word - boom - mob-scene rush to the boarding lines!

Then there's the 50% chance that you'll be stuck next to someone who doesn't realize that not everyone within 10 rows wants to hear their conversation with their friend (use your inside voice, people).

Putting aside parents that think the world revolves around their children (their world does, mine doesn't), my biggest pet peeve is the jerk/jerkette who feels the need to slam their seat back all the way as soon as the welcoming announcements say, "Sit back, relax, and enjoy the flight." I swear that if there wasn't an announcement like this, half the people who do this wouldn't even think about it.

Don't people realize that there are people sitting behind them? People that might want to use the seat-back tray for doing the crossword or using a laptop (which is impossible if the person in front of you reclines all the way). I've almost had my laptop screen broken several times when the top of the screen almost got jammed in the recess for the tray. Forget being able to watch a DVD or get some work done.