ijgordon

This appears correct, regarding IAH-LIM. I priced an itinerary on 3/1-3/9 (random dates) and it came to $824 + 40k miles, no co-pay.

bocastephen

Is the IAH-LIM segment stil using 752s? With the BF seats, but just transcon service?

CALGal727

It is today.

FLLUAFlyer

I don't think this is correct. It may no longer be considered BF, but if you try to book a ticket IAH-LIM in M or B (as a Plat Elite), it does not give you the option to upgrade as it once did.

It may no longer require a co-pay along with the 20k miles, but neither does EWR-LIM if you are Elite (it is waived).

sbm12

EWR-LIM absolutely requires a co-pay unless you are on a Y/B fare. It is treated as a BF market still.

My guess is that the website just isn't updated correctly.

bruceba

Still no Y/B/M upgrades yet!

FLLUAFlyer

I have a EWR-LIM booked for December, out in S back in B. It allowed me to upgrade using 20k miles each way, no co-pay.

The interactive upgrade chart shows 20k per segment for US to N. South America (including Peru), with fees starting at H fares, but waived for Elite members.

sbm12

That's a bug. The EWR-LIM route is supposed to have co-pay as a BF-marketed route. Congrats on the freebie.

CALGal727

[QUOTE=CVCONDE;14992012]I don't think this is correct. [QUOTE]

My OP was correct. Comp. Elite upgrades are now available for the IAHLIM flight. I made no mention of H/M/copays. Res. is not my area of expertise.

GYEWorldTraveler

I flew IAH-LIM a couple weeks ago and received a complimentary upgrade. I think the entire BF cabin was full of upgrades actually. And it is flown by the 757-200 with the BF seats. The service I would not say is BF and is not on par with the flights to Europe on the same plane but I was very pleasantly surprised to be upgraded since this forum says that they did away with the upgrades to Lima. It even has an upgrade standby list on continental.com for the flights so maybe since its the low season or since they werent filling the BF cabin they decided to reinstate IAH-LIM upgrades??

And btw its only a 5.5-6 hr flight, much like a transcon on CO, nothing special with meals or anything, no idea why they would market this as BF, especially given the hours the flight operates.

ijgordon

There does seem to be a bug of sorts. It's pricing EWR-LIM at a 40k miles r/t upgrade with no co-pay, but it's listing the class as () (blank) and the seat selector only shows economy and the abbreviated rules & restricted are those shown for a coach award ticket. I don't know what would happen if you actually went to ticket it.

IAH-LIM does seem to be showing the class correctly as "International Business (R)" and allowing seat selection in business.

FLLUAFlyer

I upgraded the my EWR-LIM flight for 40k, with no problems. It rebooks the ticket into R class. The price screen shows the cost as 40k, and the co-pay as "Waived".

sbm12

It will be "R" either way if upgraded; the fare bucket doesn't define if it is BF or not.

Seems like a lot of stuff messed up for LIM now with the changes of IAH back to a non-BF route.

Jaimito Cartero

This change to BF was doomed from the beginning for the IAH-LIM route. I'd be interested in knowing what the paid seating is from EWR as well, as I'd really be surprised if more than 75% are sold.

I've flown this route a couple of times, and even after upgrading elites there were still empty seats up front.

Are the redemption rates different now for FC seats via IAH?

ijgordon

It's interesting (but not surprising) that there was a fair amount of armchair-CEOing in this thread disputing the rationale for changing the service classification on these routes. It's more interesting that nobody shot down the armchair CEOs under the typical guise of "we don't have access to the data like management does".

I think 75% paid BF loads would be a good number for them. Less than 60% would probably be bad.

If I were them, I would consider the interim step of keeping EUA off the route, but dropping the co-pays. I'd have to think there are enough elites that would redeem a mileage upgrade given the length of the route if they knew they couldn't get it for free.