Originally Posted by CO Insider

Hi sushibear, I'm sorry for the frustration. At the root of your issue there are two problems. First of all, continental.com doesn't currently handle open jaw, stopover and circle trip itineraries for reward travel. It will some day, but for now, such isn't the case. Second of all, the system used by our contact center doesn't build flight connections the same way continental.com does, and unfortunately the itinerary on 11-Mar AUS-IAH-MLM having Standard Reward availability doesn't automatically come up when requesting availability because of it's longer layover in IAH. Normally, the workaround in this case is very easy - we'll just build the connection one segment at a time. But in your case, the AUS-IAH leg is not open for Standard Rewards, except when used in conjunction with the connecting IAH-MLM flight. Although this doesn't happen often, it's definitely frustrating when it does.

If you'll send me a PM with OnePass number, we'll get this reservation built for you at the Standard Reward level. I'm also following up internally to address this discrepancy. Thanks very much for the specifics in your post.