United Airlines booking system to erase Continental this weekend

The public face of Continental Airlines will vanish for good this weekend when the carrier and United Airlines adopt a single passenger reservation system, a step that -- at least in the public eye -- will finally cement their 2010 merger.

The move to a unified platform is by far the most significant change customers will experience since the merger of United and Continental to form the world's largest airline, known as United Airlines and owned by United Continental Holdings Inc.

"This, from the customer perspective, is probably the biggest thing that they will see," Martin Hand, United's senior vice president of customer experience, said on Wednesday.

"This truly brings the two carriers together from the customer side," he said.

Hand said United Airlines has adopted the reservation platform of the former Continental Airlines and has spent months training about 15,000 employees -- including reservations agents -- on the software.

United has already moved millions of passenger records to the Continental platform and has notified its frequent flyers of the upcoming change.

"That will come to a culmination overnight Friday night to Saturday morning," Hand said.

Early Saturday morning, the Continental.com website will disappear in favor of the United branded site.

Hand said the company chose the Continental platform over United partly because it offered more flexibility to users making reservations on the site.

He declined to disclose the cost of migrating to the single platform.

United and Continental closed their $3.17 billion merger more than a year ago. Former Continental Chief Executive Jeff Smisek leads the combined carrier.

The new United Continental spent much of 2011 rebranding itself and combining some of its customer service functions to slowly erase the line separating the two airlines. The company won government approval last year to operate as a single carrier.

United Continental has painted most of the old Continental planes in the United livery and is finishing the rest.

Out of public view, however, United Continental faces the tall order of blending its separate unionized work forces and achieving joint labor contracts.

Migration to a single reservation system comes with risk, as US Airways Group learned in 2007 when it attempted to combine the reservation systems of the former America West Airlines and US Airways. The two airlines merged in 2005.

A glitch in their combined system caused the self-service kiosks to fail, forcing passengers to stand in extraordinarily long lines and check in with ticket agents. Thousands of travelers waited in the lines and about 500 travelers at the Charlotte, N.C., hub missed their flights.

Hand said United consulted US Airways, its partner in the global Star Alliance, about the pitfalls of moving to a single reservation system.

Delta Air Lines had a much smoother transition to a single reservation system following its 2008 merger with Northwest Airlines.

"Whenever you combine different technology there's risk," said Ray Neidl, an aerospace analyst at Maxim Group.

"In the case of United, they have done a lot of planning. But you never can tell," he said. "At the last minute, there's always likely to be some bugs that pop up."

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Nation's biggest subway system, arriving NYC-area flights, Broadway halt for Hurricane Irene

NEW YORK (AP) — The nation's largest subway system and arriving flights at the five main New York City-area airports were to be halted at noon Saturday as Hurricane Irene spun its way up the Eastern Seaboard, forcing more than 300,000 evacuations and dimming lights at Citi Field and on Broadway.

All Broadway musicals and plays were canceled for Saturday and Sunday, as well as "Zarkana" by Cirque du Soleil at Radio City Music Hall and Lincoln Center Theater's "War Horse." It's the first time Broadway has shut down for an emergency since the blackout in 2003.

Bridges and tunnels also could be closed as the storm approaches, possibly clogging traffic in an already congested city. Taxis in New York City were to switch from metered fares to zone fares, meaning riders would be charged by which part of the city they were being driven to, rather than how far they were being taken.

But by Saturday morning, many New Yorkers appeared to have heeded the warnings about the approaching storm. Bridges and streets were nearly empty, with few people walking or driving. With the shutdown deadline looming, most cars on a train on the No. 1 subway line that runs the length of Manhattan's West Side were empty already in the early morning.

On Wall Street, sandbags were placed around subway grates nearest the East River, which is expected to surge as the hurricane nears New York.

The five main New York City-area airports were scheduled to close at noon Saturday for arriving domestic and international flights. Three of them, Kennedy, LaGuardia and Newark Liberty, are among the nation's busiest.

At Kennedy airport Friday night, travelers rushed to make some of the last flights leaving before the hurricane was expected to hit. Some terminal entrances were already closed ahead of Saturday's shutdown. Passengers waiting in line for security checks were led between terminals on ramps closed to vehicles as security agents tried to get the passengers through on time.

Officials hoped most residents would stay with family and friends, and for the rest the city opened nearly 100 shelters with a capacity of 71,000 people.

Irene was expected to make landfall in North Carolina on Saturday, then roll up the Interstate 95 corridor reaching New York on Sunday. A hurricane warning was issued for the city Friday afternoon, the first time that's happened since Gloria in 1985.

If the storm stays on its current path, skyscraper windows could shatter, tree limbs would fall and debris would be tossed around. Streets in the southern tip of the city could be under a few feet of water, and police readied rescue boats but said they wouldn't go out if conditions were poor.

Several New York landmarks were under the evacuation order, including the Battery Park City area, where tourists catch ferries to the Statue of Liberty. Construction was stopping throughout the city, and workers at the World Trade Center site were dismantling a crane and securing equipment. Bloomberg said there would be no effect on the Sept. 11 memorial opening the day after the 10th anniversary of the terrorist attacks.

But sporting events, concerts and even Broadway were going dark.

Bloomberg weathered criticism after a Dec. 26 storm dumped nearly two feet of snow that seemed to catch officials by surprise. Subway trains, buses and ambulances got stuck in the snow, some for hours, and streets were impassable for days. Bloomberg ultimately called it an "inadequate and unacceptable" response.

This time officials weren't taking any chances. Transit officials said they can't run once sustained winds reach 39 mph, and they need eight hours to move trains and equipment to safety.

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