I have no idea how I learned, but as a parent, reading upside down comes in very handy as you can show the pictures in a book to your kids while you read it to them upside down.

As far as lifetime elite is concerned, I don't think CO wants to change its current formula. Whatever it is they're doing, it seems to be working.

Those of us that work at the airport have very little access to OP info and have no way to tell what the total number of miles were flown during the life of the OP account. We can only see how many EQMs, segments, and total number of miles are currently in the account. We can not see how many miles were cashed in for rewards in the past. If those numbers are available only someone in the OP department can access them.

Finally, someone said what I was thinking while reading all the posts here. Why would CO want to emulate UA, DL, and the other airlines who offer lifetime elite status? They are all in bankruptcy.

1993, the last year that Continental offered Infinite Elite status, was also the year that CO emerged from bankruptcy number two.

At least there has been some movement today! :D
 

It seems to me the long term revenue from those in pursuit of lifetime status would mitigate any perceived losses in the end.

Is our beloved CO really in a position to claim such distinguished superiority? :confused:

Honestly, how hard on the bottom line could lifetime silver be? If you want to make it hard, make it BIS miles like UA, no 500 mile minimum, and set lifetime silver at 1.5MM or 2MM. It may be difficult (nigh-impossible for someone who doesn't travel for business or a non-flyertalker), but at least it's a tangible goal to strive for. Intentionality being what it is, the mere existence of a goal will spur people to earn towards it, even if it's much more difficult than lifetime status on other airlines.

wow, my psych degree does come in handy on occasion..

I'm not sure that's right, as the literature (I've still got it!) for the Infinite Elite program stated - at inception - that it would run for 7 years and that to get in, you needed 5 sequential years of earned top level participation. I really think that it was another scheme by CO to try to lure business fliers to the program during their "worst" period and to (possibly - if still in business) reward those who took the bait.

As for not flying any more after one got into the club, it ain't so for me. Living in Houston makes CO definitely my preferred domestic carrier, and I flew lots internationally too - until the upgrades got so difficult that it made more sense to look to other providers.

Even with the incentive for Infinite Elite - running for 7 years, my friends at CO tell me that there are extremely few IEs around. At the time of the promotion, there were very real concerns that CO wouldn't survive, and I think a lot of travellers put their eggs in other baskets. And let's face it, the service was abysmal then.

I belive Infinite Elite Status is for Plats that have quailfied 5 years in a row.

It is not for anyone. There is no such earnable status anymore.

I really believe that these people are dirtbags about this.

When someone works for CO, they get pensions and retirement benefits and all that.

When someone is a top tier customer and earns a million miles, they get nothing when they retire.

A platinum status costs the airline about as much as a few bags of peanuts. All the other airlines are trying to retain loyalty - and Continental is willing to drop a veteran flyer who kept them in business all these years because he had a bad year. I didn't drop them when they had a bad year.

They give this platinum status out to anyone that has an Amex Centurion card - even though they are complaining that too many CO FF's have platinum status.

I began my flying adventures in 1997. I have since been silver four times and am now beginning my sixth year as a platinum.

Since AWA bought USAir, I have been pondering a change. I do about a quarter million a year, that's enough to kick into top tier status on CO and on *A and still have miles left over to take whoever I feel like taking. By not adopting this lifetime status, they are pushing me away to another program. That's great thinking.

Do it! I still fly and love CO, but previous changes (mostly lack of international upgrades) made me look elsewhere - first to UA, and then to DL. While DL has turned out less than optimally, my decision to explore UA was definitely a good one. The *Alliance is great and much more integrated than SkyTeam, and the added flexibility of having 2 alliances to choose from opens all sorts of doors. I still fly CO domestically (and non-BF intl, unless I pay for a fare sale BF tix) - where I have a 90+% upgrade success, but look to other programs when I want that long-haul internatinoal U/G.

UA treats me very well for my input too - perhaps better than CO.

CO FFP Life Membership
 

Currently there are 6 Star Alliance member/pending member airlines with life membership in their FFP. Skyteam has 4 member airlines with life membership, and in OW only 2 (AA and QF).
I have been trying to summarize for analytical purposes the Life Membership rules of the airline FFPs.
http://forum.airwise.com/forum/show...118&postcount=7

To assist in choosing the best FFP I would like to research the past programs, such as the CO abandonment of their own program when faced with no viable commercial reason for amending their membership rules.

CO summary
My understanding is that in 1993, the last year that Continental offered Infinite Elite status. Further, 1993 was the year in which CO emerged from its second Chapter 11 bankruptcy process. The Infinite Elite program stated at its inception that it would run for 7 years and that qualification for lifetime status required that you reach in 5 sequential years top level qualifying mileage.

My questions are:
1.Is the above CO summary paragraph correct?
2.Was there an earlier lifetime membership program?
3.Are there any signs of marketing managers at CO changing course with their FFP?

Gold Member

As a member since 85, I cannot remember any other such earlier lifetime membership program. If I intepreted thier responses correctly at the last 2 DOs, changing course is not a priority at this time.

I think this is implicit in your paragraph, but you might want to make it explicit. When the program was ended, CO grandfathered those people "in progress". So, I qualified with my fifth year in 1994. My "welcome to infinite elite status" letter is dated February 3, 1995. Does anyone know what he last year those on the grandfather program could actually get in was? Was it 1994? 1995? 1996? Somewhere in there I believe.

Yes, I believe 1993 was the last year to start the Infinite Plat 5 year run. It was only advertised for about 2 years, but started earlier. There was no earlier program.

I do not recall any stated 7 years of progam offering. The program was discontinued at CO's discretion. Reasoning - once people achieved it, their flying on CO dropped.