While re-booking a UA flight on the phone with the Global Services desk we had started a nice chat. I asked "so what's the water-cooler talk these days" the agent, (who BTW should be cloned 10,000.00 times as a United representitive - she was amazing. I didn't get her name but UA's customer service ghosts would die with UA reps like her!) so, the agent said chatter was that there is a lot of planning for Rio (I was booking a ticket to GIG-and said it's never been that easy to Rio on UA with all the long layovers and stops) She said I should start to see more flights after the CO merger. (Hmmm, wonder if that's EWR?) Also, both Varig way back and now Tam are decent alternatives in Star Alliance but always felt more distant than let's say Lufthansa or even US Airways, she disagreed and said that she makes a lot of TAM bookings. She mentioned that GIG is expected to pick up a lot even before the Olympics and World Cup.
But what she said that I found most interesting was that in a meeting she was in, (discussing merger news) that word was that the management team from Continental were blown away by the Global Services program and how much revenue it created. I told her the one thing that made me uneasy about the merger was the future of GS. She said after CO's Sr management said they "loved" the program, "the customer centered focus of it" "it's uniqueness" etc made all the UA team very excited.
Now, this was one very sweet UA employee and nobody from the C-suite talking, But I feel better. I have read many GS fliers here on A.net freaking out about it GS's future. Maybe this will give you some relief!