I totally agree Ngaire, the airlines just don't care anymore and that attitude shows. We fly AA or UA most of the time and just getting a reservation is stressful, much less trying to upgrade or anything like that. I too fly on the foreign partners whenever possible (i.e, I would prefer a UA flight number that is operated by LH, as opposed to an LH flight number operated by UA) although I must say our last few flights to Europe on UA have been pretty nice, and the one we had on LH was fantastic.

As an ex "stewardess" which is what we were in those days long ago, it makes me very sad.