Fare Class Changes – Eff. Jan. 16, 2009

[Bonehead]

I was searching for NW availability to NRT next fall, and saw anomalous CO standard BF availability, which the website would apparently let me purchase (I don't have that many NW miles, so I couldn't complete the process).

The same flights weren't available on CO.com at standard award levels.

I'm sure it's due to the "E" bucket changing and not being synced in NW's system. I wonder if some NW folks will get caught by this.

[JerseyCityS]

I just booked EWR GVA in late April, and I almost flipped.

It's priced at $824.10 total, roundtrip, and says E class BusinessFirst. No mileage used either.

Can this be true? Did I land the deal of the century, or will this end with a nightmare phone call, or rebooking from CO? It definitely says "BusinessFirst" E class.

Any ideas?

[Bonehead]

Originally Posted by JerseyCityS

I just booked EWR GVA in late April, and I almost flipped.

It's priced at $824.10 total, roundtrip, and says E class BusinessFirst. No mileage used either.

Can this be true? Did I land the deal of the century, or will this end with a nightmare phone call, or rebooking from CO? It definitely says "BusinessFirst" E class.

Any ideas?

See my post directly above yours. The "E" bucket is changing as we speak, from a BusinessFirst award bucket to economy. Unfortunately, you're in the back. Oh well.

[meFIRST]

The fare class bucket change is widely published on the website. Though you may have an argument here.

[LGAiahSAT]

I was looking at an ewr-mem-iah-sat-ewr multi leg and saw a few 'E' fares listed as First (for $240) and B fares shown as Y-ups.

Very interesting. Didn't try to book - will probably get an error.

[kmcg]

I just killed a few hours trying to book some great fares I stumbled across while searching on ITA. The search for coach on continental.com brings these up as First (E), and the website wouldn't allow me to purchase. Phone call to tech support confirmed that these are mistakes during the transition, and not bookable.

[GSNewell]

I'm on the phone right now with Continental confirming that the E fares I just booked will have me in the first class cabin. She has assured me several times that that is the case. She said it's a first class cabin ticket booked at an economy cabin price. E is above Y, she says.

BTW, I just booked TPA-LAS for $327 in first (E).

[Bonehead]

Originally Posted by GSNewell

I'm on the phone right now with Continental confirming that the E fares I just booked will have me in the first class cabin. She has assured me several times that that is the case. She said it's a first class cabin ticket booked at an economy cabin price. E is above Y, she says.

BTW, I just booked TPA-LAS for $327 in first (E).

We'll see if CO honors that...I wouldn't bet on it. Too bad the rep is unaware of the fare-class "adjustment" that is going on.

[aveRex]

Originally Posted by CLEHillbilly

Is the the EUA process being bothered by the class changes maybe...

Flew CO 254 (SFO-CLE) today with two colleagues....two of us EAU'd yesterday at the automatic 24 hour mark....before long 30+ on elite upgrade list. Third colleague is #1, right up to 30 mins before departure in the PC. Colleague gets the battlefield upgrade, but we still left with 1 empty seat in first....Gate agent came on board and told FAs first was full, but never looked. I asked the FA about it as we pushed back and he said I dont know why the seat is empty.

Similar thing happen on flight 444 (IAH-ORD) on 1/11/09. I was listed as #2 on the upgrade standby list from 24-hr checkin through final boarding. I noticed the seatmap with 2 seats held: 1B and 3F. Right before the flight door was closing, a first officer from another airline entered the plane and took seat 1B. As far as I could tell, the gate agents did not hand out any on-board upgrades, so seat 3F was empty. Upon landing and looking at the final upgrade list, the person who was #1 on standby was upgraded, but it doesn't appear that they ever got the seat.

[CO Insider]

Hi Everyone, thanks for your patience while we migrate our systems this weekend. We kicked off this process at about 5pm Central yesterday, Jan. 16, and as many of you have noticed, there's some occasional weirdness when booking and viewing reservations at continental.com and over the phone.

Here are a few updates for you.

1. Cabin of service labels will be confusing through the weekend. With this fare class shufflle, some fare classes will be crossing cabin lines for flights on or after Jan. 21. Specifically, any itineraries booked in E class on or after Jan 21 are in Economy Class, not First Class or BusinessFirst. The reverse is true for I and O class, which are now used as front cabin fare classes on or after Jan. 21 insted of Econony Class. Clear as mud? If any of you booked an E class itinerary because you thought it was for First Class or BusinessFirst, we apologize for the confusion, and will gladly offer you a refund if you contact us before departure.
   
   
2. You won't be able to view your seat assignments. As mentioned in my original post, all advance seat assignment functions will be unavailable during this system update. This also includes the ability for us to even show you what seat you've already assigned. It's there, really, but we just can't recap it for you this weekend. For those of you booked in E, I or O class, you still may not have access to viewing or changing seat assignments until Wed. Jan. 21. The exception to all of this is if you're within 24 hours of departure, at which point you can check in online or at the airport (seat assignment functions at check-in are unimpacted).
   
   
3. We hope to be done early on Monday. This particular change involves changes to nearly every reservation we have on the books right now, which is why it's going to take us all weekend.

Thanks to all of you for your patience.

[OPFlyer]

Thank you for keeping us informed.

[Russell745]

Originally Posted by CO Insider

We hope to be done early on Monday. This particular change involves changes to nearly every reservation we have on the books right now, which is why it's going to take us all weekend.
Thanks to all of you for your patience.

Hey, I'm here for you, Jints lost last week, got a lot of free time today.

[RobOnLI]

I wonder if I got in under the wire. I booked a ticket on Expedia on 1/15 for travel on 1/19 & 1/20. The ticket includes CO7 on 1/20 NRT-GUM. The upgrade came through about 2 hours after ticketing. Thanks CO

However, I was upgraded into "F" as I should have been. My reservation is showing "International BusinessFirst (F)" and my seat assignments appears to still be good.

I hope the agents in NRT aren't really confused by this and don't give me a problem.

I should also add the website shows I will earn 0% EQM Hopefully NW systems don't get too confused and give me no credit because I'm flying before 1/21. Maybe they'll err in my favor and give me 150% EQM.

-RM

[hughw]

Is it just my browser or is CO.com really having big troubles? I've done several ticket searched both economy and reward for several routes over the next month or two (EWR-CDG, EWR-SFO, EWR-ORD), and in all cases, I'm receiving the message "Continental.com could not find any available seats meeting your requirements. You may modify your search criteria, or call 1-800-300-1547 for assistance".

[Babu]

same error here, hughw.