Continental Presidential Plus + President's Club
 

So, I've had the Chase Continental Presidential Plus card for the past 2 years for President's club membership. I'm Gold Elite.

Card has been great and the president's club membership was a little cheaper by having the card.

Now, everything I read is that Gold Star Alliance Members have access to 600 clubs around the world....

Gold Star Alliance get club access? They don't need to pay for membership? Does this mean that the lounges are going to be so crowded! Any reason to pay for president's club access if you can just get in by Gold A*?

Let me know.

Thanks!

As a *G from CO/UA/US you only get domestic club access the day of an international departure. If you only fly internationally, then save the money by cancelling the PC membership.

You don't get access on domestic itineraries unless you have a PC membership.

For my own clarification
 

As a *gold on a Y IAH-GIG ticket Monday I can enter the Presidents Club without a membership?

Yes you can.

This makes sense, but I'm surprised and disappointed that the page that the announcement email took me to (http://www.continental.com/web/en-US...n=StarAlliance) only said I had access to lounges while saying NOTHING about international flights.

I too have the Pres Club via mastercard and was trying to decide whether to keep it.

Update: I see a reference in http://www.staralliance.com/en/benef...access-policy/ to United and US customers having that limitation.

This is why I'm still not clear about this (from the Star Alliance Elite Benefits page):
"All other Star Alliance Gold Elite members may visit any designated Star Alliance Gold lounge before departing on a domestic or international Star Alliance member airline flight. You are invited to bring one guest to any Star Alliance member club or lounge."

What aren't you clear about? If you look at the sticky re: lounges or Ask CO Insider, all your questions will be answered.

Yeah...4 days in and *A hasn't updated the site to include CO. They must really suck. :rolleyes:

Seriously, though, the discussion has been had in the forum here several times. CO isn't any different than UA/US in this case. If you are a *G from any of the 3 USA-based *A members then you don't get lounge access on domestic itineraries. Those are the carriers that make a lot of money selling lounge access (no offense to NZ, which also does) and they are not going to lose that cash cow. So domestic passengers don't get access to lounges operated by those three carriers. If you want access on those itineraries you need to have a lounge membership or *G from a different carrier.

AMEX Platinum...
 

i pay $350 yearly for the AMEX plat - worth it to me as I get into the CO lounges as well as anywhere else so long as i'm booked on the ticket. The new kicker that i was fed from AMEX is that since CO now reciprocates with UA/US Air is that if I'm holding a CO ticket - and present my AMEX Plat I can have lounge access at their lounges (domestic or international) plus have 1 person along.

I've done this before at the Delta Rooms - holding a CO ticket, and show my AMEX Plat - they swipe the card and voila... in like flint!

To me the CO Mastercard limits you - it limits you to only that room - but since the AMEX covers every major airline in their agreement - (my understanding) is as long as the ticket your holding operates in the same alliance or network then you're fine. Just an FYI. Hope that helps.

Thanks,
Z.

I am not so sure about the AMEX and US/UA yet....wait till you have tried it before you say this :D

You will not get into UA/US clubs with an AMEX Plat.

Also OT, buy how do you get it for $350? It's been $450 for some time now for the Consumer and Business versions.

I know I can telephone CO and ask, but is there any empirical evidence when one logs in to CO's website indicating one is recognized as a holder of the Presidential Plus Card and therefore entitled to elite access/waived bag fees/priority bag tags/etc? I looked all over, particularly in My Account Summary, figuring that would be the most likely place, but found no such indication.

Two weeks ago I saw a CO passenger with AMEX Plat card denied access to the PHL RCC.
If he hadn't been so rude when informed by the lounge dragon I would have brought him in as my guest.

Yes. When you review the flight mileage credited to your OnePass account, the line under the flight number should read "Presidential Plus 25% Elite Mileage Bonus". Additionally, assuming you use the Presidential Plus Card for travel purchases, under the Non-Airline Activity mileage area you will see mileage posted under the following headings: "Presidential Plus Double Ticket Miles", "Presidential Plus Double Hotel Miles", "Presidential Plus Double Car Rental Miles", and "Presidential Plus Purchases".

Actually, the Chase Card gives you a regular President's Club Membership which will get you into RCC and US Clubs. I have used this new membership at all three in the past three weeks.... Also, you do not need to be ticketed on the designated airline to enter any of the clubs... SO, my assessment would be that the AMEX is the truely limited card... One more reason, I refuse to deal with them outside the one AMEX Hilton card that I am seriously debating dropping.



I think the same guy may or may not have been the guy who tried to access the US Club in PHL when I was there last week. I thought about guesting as well, but he had that arrogant DYKWIA AMEX card holder attitude-so I opted not...

"Bronze Elite," if you will. :)
 

OK. I should have mentioned that I just opened the PP account last week. My next booked flight isn't until April (unless business travel materializes), by which time my elite status will have gone bye-bye. Therefore, I won't get an elite mileage bonus.

More to the point, what I am saying is this: Shouldn't CO have something in my account saying something to the effect of "Elite Airport Services". That would let me know before I take my next flight that my boarding pass will say "Elite Access". I shouldn't have to wait until check-in time to find out something is amiss and then scramble to have it fixed. Right?

Why worry about something that is months away (April)? Make a purchase on the card. If it posts to your account then you can rest assured your account has been properly flagged and when you print your boarding pass in April it will say "elite Access". Additionally, you will soon receive a President's Club membership card as a result of your PP account. It will show your OnePass number and state "Presidential Plus" which will be further evidence that your account has been properly flagged as a PP account holder.

Did you get the $150 travel club bonus?

Again, I might travel before April. And I have called CO to confirm my status, so I'm not overly worried about it. Still, I think that's beside the point. My Account page should identify the Elite Airport Services for which I have paid, shouldn't it? That's what the My Account page is for, right?

Not yet, but you can bet I will keep an eye on that and let you know.

Where do you find out about this bonus? I got a card for a $75 credit for signing up for this card, but I'd rather have this $150.

Be aware that there are multiple Chase card offers and they can change from time to time. J.Edward and I are talking about the Continental Airlines Presidential PlusSM World MasterCard®. The $150 TravelBank offer expires January 31, 2010.

I find no reference on the My Account page to the card-related Elite Access.

I agree with the AmEx Plt limitations. I have AmEx Plt solely for PC access and may be $100 per month of spending at Costco. I can only get into PC when fly Continental. The limitation had never bother me before since I never considered flying with NW or DL domestically. However, I will consider flying UA, it might be time to get President Plus instead of AmEx plt.

Thanks. With all the other crap on the My Account page (see below), I don't think it's asking too much to show entitlement to elite airport services. I e-mailed CO about this yesterday. I'll let everyone know if/what they reply.

Welcome, RNE
OnePass Number: XX000000
Mileage Balance: 2,718,281
OnePass Elite Level: Uranium
Star Alliance Elite Level: Uranium
Year to Date Elite Miles: 1,123,581
Year to Date Elite Points: 666
Flexible Elite Miles: 0
Lifetime Flight Miles: 3,141,592

I received my Continental Airlines Presidential Plus World MasterCard today and when I called to activate it, I asked the nice gentleman at Chase when I might expect to receive my 150 greenbacks. "After your first purchase," he replied. OK. A lap dance at the Platinum Horse should do nicely. ^

I don't think there's a place on the My Account page that shows it, but there is a backdoor way of finding out if PC access has been linked to your OP number.
From just about anywhere on CO.com, go to Products and Services>President's Club Lounges. On that page, there should be an item under Replacement Cards that says "Request a New Card". Click on that and if your OP number is linked to a PC membership, you should see a membership expiration date listed. Don't actually finish clicking through to request a new card or you'll probably get charged. Also, I don't think the links in this post will give you the info you want unless you've already logged in at CO.com. Hope that helps!

Put me on the bandwagon for duming the Amex Plt for this card. If anyone else is doing it, you will only get a pro rated portion of your annual 450 fee back if you have another Amex.

I was thinking about my benefits with CO as a Bronze Elite and I'm wondering what the association is between Chase and CO. Does Chase have similar cards with other airlines? Do other card issuers have such arrangements with airlines? Are there cards offering elite benefits with UA or US?

mainline To reiterate and emphasize, the AmEx Plat charge card only admits you to the airline lounges of the carrier operating your flight that day (before and after), regardless of how your ticket is paid or if it is an award ticket. Be careful about codeshares even within the same alliance. For example, in the past with CO-NW, you could only use the lounge of the carrier operating the flight, which typically meant that a RT ticket between MSP and IAH resulted in lounge access at only one airport, and creative attempts to play with the ticket stock didn't work. Similarly, regional carrier partners generally don't count for actually obtaining lounge access, although the technical rules aren't totally clear on this. (However, if you could somehow do a connection in each direction involving both mainline metals on each day, this could be a solution.) You also don't get access to any partner, alliance, contract, or specially named lounges regardless of the signs on the door. International lounges, in my experience, are generally not included either, based on some technicality that they are business class lounges rather than club lounges. The lounge dragons aren't always correct about the rules, but they definitely error on the side of denying access whenever possible, just as they interpret the policies on partner and alliance lounge acccess. You should be prepared to argue with them.

On the other hand, the annual charge card fees can be less than a single lounge membership alone, so depending on your travel patterns and usage of other card benefits, it can nevertheless be very worthwhile. Another option is to combine AmEx Plat with Priority Pass as a backup, which unfortunately no longer covers the DL Skyclubs although it does still cover many of the other domestic lounges. (Current detailed information, including lounge locations, hours, and facilities/services, is available at prioritypass.com, which is accessible to nonmembers.) Similarly, you may be able to buy a day pass when you would otherwise have no lounge access, although the calculation suggests that three normal paid day passes (for all day at one airline's domestic clubs) cost slightly less that an annual Priority Pass plus daily fees for three clubs. However, one also needs to compare guest access policies and costs.

NOV 22: I E-mail CO
"I recently applied for and got the Presidential Plus World MasterCard. When may I expect to see the promised $150 appear in my TravelBank?"

NOV 27: CO E-Mails Me
"Please feel free to contact Continental's OnePass Service Center at 713/952-1630, 6:00am-8:00pm, Monday-Friday concerning the $150 for the Presidential Plus World MasterCard credit card approval."

NOV 27: I Call OPSC
On-hold quite a while and got transferred twice. They don't know anything about the $150 offer and ask me where it is on CO.com. I was out shopping with TSMRSRNE and did not have the URL handy. And because it's too long and convoluted to recite over the phone, I sent the URL in a reply to their e-mail.

Status:
As I reported previously, Chase "appears" to have confirmed the $150 bonus, so maybe I don't need to have CO confirm it. Still, it would be nice to know CO is aware of this offer and able to advise me about it. And I do have a question about if my membership in the travel club having expired will affect my receipt of the $150 into my TravelBank.

! Your membership is expired.
The continental.com Club Member Since: 12/1/2005
Membership will expire: 6/6/2009

www.presplus150.com
 

Today I received a letter from Mark Bergsrud. (Me and thousands of others.) He entitled it The Smarter Card for the Continental Traveler. It's a print version of the offer for the Continental Airlines Presidential Plus World MasterCard, including prominent mention of the $150 TravelBank bonus in the first paragraph. I already have the card, of course, so the letter was of little consequence to me, but it did provide a more mnemonic URL that links to the offer details on CO.com. I thought I'd share that with you.

www.presplus150.com

Additionally, I found pertinent fine print that (I think) answers my question. To wit:

TRAVELBANK: You will receive a $150 travel credit with this offer. You will qualify for and receive your credit after you are approved for the Continental Airlines Presidential PlusSM World MasterCard. If you already have a TravelBank account, the $150 travel credit will be added to your existing account. After qualifying, please allow two to three weeks for the travel credit to be deposited into your TravelBank account at continental.com. Credit can be used when booking Continental flights at continental.com (excluding reward travel). This one-time offer is valid only for first-time Continental Airlines personal cardmembers with new accounts. Existing Continental Airlines personal cardmembers/accounts are not eligible for this offer. Chase Bank USA, N.A. not responsible for offer fulfillment."

Mark was sweet to send me this letter informing me of the offer. Perhaps the Senior Vice President of Marketing Programs and Distribution should inform Customer Support about such marketing programs so they would have a clue what customers are talking about when they call in with questions. :rolleyes:

The Plot Thickens
 

Overnight an e-mail hits my inbox from Deb Walden, Executive Vice President, Customer Experience, Chase Card Services and Mark Bergsrud; you know who he is. In the e-mail, this dynamic duo thanks me for acquiring the Continental Airlines Presidential Plus World MasterCard and then goes on for five paragraphs touting the perks and benefits I'll receive. Nowhere is the $150 TravelBank bonus mentioned! :mad:

My PClub membership expires 2/10... TravelBank $150 promo expires 1/31/10. Was planning on jumping to PP card instead of renewing and currently do not have any CO-branded Chase cards (aside from debit).

Is there any other real incentive to apply for PP now (considering TravelBank offer)?

Also, it's my understanding the card is branded as a rather "exclusive" for "highly qualified" folks. Credit wise, I'm good, but doubt I'm "highly qualified" - anyone with additional insight here?

It would be interesting to hear from anyone who has actually received the $150 TravelBank bonus, if there is anyone.

Don't sweat your FICO score if it's just pretty good (750+). Mine is 810, last I looked. Even with a score under 750, Chase would probably qualify you because of the annual fee. It might crimp your limit; that's all. Nevertheless, you should not let the prospect of denial keep you from applying for the card, if it is a savings on what you would spend anyway for PC membership. And don't forget the $150 TravelBank bonus...assuming that's real. :rolleyes: Yes, a credit check may ding your score, but you can have two or three checks a year suffering little if any effect. I do. And if your FICO is so bad you don't get approved, then the credit check ding won't matter too much to your already-bad score. So, I think your decision is clear.

Points taken, and thanks.

Assuming I'm a reasonable person (usually), given I apply now and am approved, I'm essentially ditching the final 3 months of the paid PC membership.

MMmmm... I think I'll still proceed, and advise if/when the TravelBank credit is applied.

No worry. CO will refund the unused portion of your paid membership.

Even better - off to apply! Thanks again!

A bit off the point here but it is PC. I see *A has just changed their website to include paid club access as P.C. is acceptable. They replied to a question why Maple etc had been listed and not PC and said they would change -appears to have been done in last 24hrs - well done *A.
Eligible Paid Lounge Membership Customers include United Airlines Red Carpet Club, US Airways Club - Star Alliance Upgrade, Air Canada Maple Leaf Club – Worldwide and Continental Airlines Presidents Club.