I'm sure the Continental parts will converge to mediocrity given enough time - but for now, they're still closer to Continental quality than to old-United quality.
The reason Continental part works is because CO systems were chosen as a part of merger and UA agents are not well trained in the mainframe commands. Airlines still use Mainframe systems with green screens for agent use
I'm talking about overall experience - the plane being on time, the agents being clueful, the air crew being competent and accommodating, etc.
I might have accepted your hypothesis about the merger, if it wasn't for the fact that my experience with united for YEARS before the merger had been dismal, whereas my experience with Continental was top notch.
In the last two years, my experience with continental degraded visibly (though not to the pre-merger united levels), and the very little united experience I did have was not really improved.
Note: My dichotomy might be wrong - I used to use continental mostly for international flights (with a few domestic), and only flew united domestically. It's possible that Continental/United is paying more attention to international flights than they do domestic, rather than the "pre merger" status of a flight or terminal.
- What was previously Continental, works well.
- What was previously United, doesn't.
I'm sure the Continental parts will converge to mediocrity given enough time - but for now, they're still closer to Continental quality than to old-United quality.