Greetings all ,
I couldn't agree more with the mentions above about the very poor practice of severely limiting award availability on Continental in its One Pass Award program.
In all classes of service
I was flying Continental as my only choice for an airline for about a 2 year period back when it was a somewhat better airline.
Gold Elite was as high a tier one could achieve at the time.This was right before Platinum Elite came out.And the upgrading of Northwests customers too.
The good old days ......I liked Continentals people......However
Could not not get a Domestic award ticket in First Class out of New York (lga) or an/upgrade/free ticket in 3 years for an Int business first class cabin on Continental
Except at 6:00 Am in the morning
After writing a letter first and then speaking to one of Gordon Bethunes assistants peronally about the problem who gave me his personal office number.
He said " its simple we are not in business to give away seats and lose money".
Its as simple as that...........We are here to make money
Have you tried our wonderful Easy Pass system ? That was enough for me And I never looked back or flew Continental again
According to Consumer Reports when they last did surveys Continental remained amongst the worst in the nation for award availability in the Domestic US.
What is amazing to me was how blind all their passengers were (self included) by flying them earning miles from partners other means.
To this day One Pass Miles still can't be used without the airline trying to extort them back in most cases.
The thing that I will never understand is how they got a way with it for years without anyone saying a thing and winning the Freddies year after year.
This year I believe they finally lost the Freddies as the public has spoken. It was amazing they won at all as long as they did.Its finally catching up to them to bite them wear it hurts with a huge loss of revenue.Now they have started impose a gazillion penalty fees which is a little to late because more then a few are already flying elsewhere.
For me I greatly appreciate Continental as they pushed me out their airplane door with there scheme.
As a result my earnings became superior in other programs. Now my Alliance Partners are World Class with superior reward choices and greatly improved availability in comparison to One Pass
Best thing that could have happened.As for my friends who have stuck with them they deserve gold medals for giving them 90,000 miles for two economy tickets coast to coast.
Arrggghhh! They won't get it from me.......I just went off First Class on British Airways through the Qantas program for less then that..........
A friend brought up a great point with regard to how Continental runs its One Pass Program
Continentals miles are basically worth 50 % less then almost all other carriers because of their stinginess
I couldn't agree more in theory
Happy Travels all!


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