My Sordid, Incestuous Airline History

the announcement of the American-US Airways merger today got me thinking about all the consolidation the industry has and continues to go through, and what a tangled web alliances and partnerships have weaved as i look back at my flight history. i made up a diagram (it’s not pretty; i’m no designer) that shows the more significant (domestic) airlines in my past and how they are related to each other. as far as i know this is factually accurate, but i’m not as well-versed as i should be in airline mergers and acquisitions.

• Western and PSA — two of the earliest airlines i remember flying on as a kid. one of them, i am pretty sure PSA, is the first flight i remember, from [tooltip title=”” content=”Los Angeles” type=”classic” ]LAX[/tooltip] to [tooltip title=”” content=”Sacramento” type=”classic” ]SMF[/tooltip] when our fourth grade class went to visit the capitol for a day.
• TWA — the airline i flew in college ([tooltip title=”” content=”Chicago O’Hare” type=”classic” ]ORD[/tooltip] to [tooltip title=”” content=”Sacramento” type=”classic” ]SMF[/tooltip] via [tooltip title=”” content=”St. Louis” type=”classic” ]STL[/tooltip]) thanks to their Youth Travel Pack, four one-way flights for less than $550. Also, airline that took me (family trip) to Europe for the first time in 1988 (89?), [tooltip title=”” content=”Los Angeles” type=”classic” ]LAX[/tooltip]-[tooltip title=”” content=”London Heathrow” type=”classic” ]LHR[/tooltip].
• America West — i flew them a lot (and to a lesser extent, Northwest Airlines) when i first started traveling for work (several jobs ago, sadly i don’t travel much for work anymore). i earned Continental elite mostly by flying America West, and it was on America West that i got my first taste of elite upgrades (via Continental Silver Elite — they were relatively easy to get as I recall).
• Northwest (+KLM) is also the airline i took on my first solo trip to Prague in 2005, the trip that started my travel obsession in earnest.
• United is my current carrier of choice, with a fair number of US Airways flights due to the fact that i fly to [tooltip title=”” content=”Philadelphia” type=”classic” ]PHL[/tooltip] a lot.
• i actually earn most of my American miles flying on Alaska, but flights on either of these are few and far between and thus not shown above.
• i don’t remember the last Delta flight i took, but it likely was (and is what i’ll most remember them for) the flight that took me home from my two years in Germany — [tooltip title=”” content=”Stuttgart” type=”classic” ]STR[/tooltip]-[tooltip title=”” content=”Atlanta” type=”classic” ]ATL[/tooltip]-[tooltip title=”” content=”San Francisco” type=”classic” ]SFO[/tooltip].