[conrad49]

Continental joined new "Star Alliance" with United.
Booked international reward travel thru Continental - United handling overseas flight (as Star Alliance partner). Called United for seat assignments - 2 months ahead of time.
United will not assign seats until day of flight for their trans-Atlantic legs.
Wife and I are likely to not sit together (so late getting seats).
United would only seat us if we purchased $200. extra fee (for "5 inch extra room" seat upgrade) - for each of the trans-Atlantic legs.
I have elite status. United's final answer came back after running my Continental elite# (note: it is valid).
This is a new policy, using their new leverage - never had problem with numerous other (shared) international reward flights with Continental and their previous partner network (and didn't have elite status then).
Customer service will degrade after a Continental & United merger. They will have a stronger strong-arm for adding-on fees. Reward loyalty isn't there, and elite is not elite.

[jimworcs]

The US airlines are using nationalistic arguments which make no sense. They are persuading customers and politicians that to compete internationally they have to be big. However, they do not face any competition domestically and their huge size is, instead, used to exploit their hub monopolies and they do what all monopolies do. They abuse their power.

If you are travelling internationally, it is never good to select the US carrier. If I was travelling Transatlantically on Star Alliance I would try to use Lufthansa. A bit more of a problem if you are travelling to London. This is precisely why there needs to be open skies between Europe and US which allows for cabotage. Ownership rules also need to be relaxed.

US airlines have created hub monopolies. Nothing will change until that does.