My previous employer obtained for me gold status which must have been arranged with Continental through the corp. travel department. I didn't travel enough at that time to earn it through flight mies/segments.
Recently I changed jobs and joined a major company in Houston in a position that requires me travel a great deal more. On occasion I travel with my boss who had plat. status last year and gold this. On our last trip together the both of us had not bothered to call the elite line for an upgrade. When we checked in at the Pres. Club I asked if there were any seats in First and was told it was sold out. When we received our boarding passes he had been upgraded. This was the first time this had happened he said. His ticket was the same fare as mine and purchased about the same time - about two weeks in advance. The only real difference was that he booked his through our company's travel desk and I got my on CO's website. I use the website in order to get the purchase bonus
I know that CO cuts deals with large companies (the company I work for is CO's largest corporate customer out of Houston). Does CO have special upgrade poicies for elite employees of large corp. customers? The travel desk won't answer my question about this.
Thanks
Recently I changed jobs and joined a major company in Houston in a position that requires me travel a great deal more. On occasion I travel with my boss who had plat. status last year and gold this. On our last trip together the both of us had not bothered to call the elite line for an upgrade. When we checked in at the Pres. Club I asked if there were any seats in First and was told it was sold out. When we received our boarding passes he had been upgraded. This was the first time this had happened he said. His ticket was the same fare as mine and purchased about the same time - about two weeks in advance. The only real difference was that he booked his through our company's travel desk and I got my on CO's website. I use the website in order to get the purchase bonus
I know that CO cuts deals with large companies (the company I work for is CO's largest corporate customer out of Houston). Does CO have special upgrade poicies for elite employees of large corp. customers? The travel desk won't answer my question about this.
Thanks
I do not know if CO has special upgrade procedures for large corporate customers. They do have the Chairman's Circle program which is for some CEO's. For Chairman's Circle members, they will upgrade them into either F or A class...instead of only capacity controlled F class on discount tickets.
Your travel desk or travel agency may simply have called or electronically requested your upgrade through CO for your boss during the 3 day Platinum window. In other words, travel agent may have called to request upgrade instead of your boss. I know www.biztravel.com
has something where you can request an upgrade, and in the appropriate time window they will try to upgrade you. I am not sure if this is done by a computer link, or if Biztravel reps just call CO when the pnr pops up in the queue at the upgrade window opening time.
Your travel desk or travel agency may simply have called or electronically requested your upgrade through CO for your boss during the 3 day Platinum window. In other words, travel agent may have called to request upgrade instead of your boss. I know www.biztravel.com
has something where you can request an upgrade, and in the appropriate time window they will try to upgrade you. I am not sure if this is done by a computer link, or if Biztravel reps just call CO when the pnr pops up in the queue at the upgrade window opening time.