Greetings all,

Most of the routes I fly are UA/UX - I rarely have to leave UA metal. I am, however, making a trip to CLE from PDX in a couple of weeks and all the flights available to me through my corporate travel desk are UA flight numbers "Operated by Continental Airlines."

I have read various threads about getting status-matched on Continental and then using that FF# on the tickets - but it seems like upgrades don't always work there. It seems like there are other stories about this not being as smooth or seamless as I would like.

So I'm writing here to ask how to do it "right." Right now I do NOT have a CO FF# or any status there, it's all UA1K for me. I'm booking the flights over the next 72 hours for travel in mid-May.

How should I do it?