I am a Plat Elite, have accumulated nearly 2.5 Million TravelBank and OnePass Miles since 1982.

This year I qualified for Plat in August, flew 92 actual segments for 90,000 miles.

I currently have 521,000 miles on my OnePass Account.

I purchased a BusinessFirst ticket from Houston to Rome for travel in January and wanted to bring my wife along with me.

Based on the above, no problem - right

WRONG !!!!!!

I sent an e-mail to OnePass 12/22/00 and cannot get them to even respond to me.

Does anyone know a better way to present my case.

I feel if I cannot get a free ticket on a flight I paid a premium fare on, with my travel background, how does anyone do it??

Well, first you can buy a BF ticket for her, because regardless of your years of loyalty, CO's attitude is if you want to fly in BF, pay for it.

Next you can buy a coach ticket for her at a higher price than necessary, and use miles to upgrade it. CO will deduct the miles, and put you on a waiting list for BF upgrades. You'll know if you you got the upgrade within 30 days of the flight, but probably sometime shortly before you board. If you do not get the upgrade, CO will allow you to pay them to put the upgrade miles back into your account.

Or you can ask for a BF award ticket entirely on miles, and if it's available, go through the same 30 day - maybe by boarding mess as above. But in this case, you can't get the miles back if you don't get the BF seat...you'll have to fly in coach.

Or you can choose to fly an airline with a reasonable international upgrade policy, and tell CO what to do with their awards.
www.denycontinentalthefreddie.com

GEAPS, (Ignore that post above. NJD is really a nice person with a current cause. Please take into consideration that NJD is from New Jersey.)

Welcome to FlyerTalk. I see that this is your first post of, hopefully, many more. It does take OnePass about 2 weeks to answer an e-mail. Secondly, if I were Platinum, and I am and will be for 2001, I'd call the CO home office here in Houston and ask to speak to someone in marketing. I have done this and gotten the desired results. With 500K+ miles in your account, I can assure you CO will want you to use a big portion of those miles.

Above all, do not demand anything. That just puts them on the defensive. Ask them to help you solve a problem after giving them your OnePass number so that they can determine who/what you are.

Hope you are successsful!

[This message has been edited by JAWS_II (edited 12-30-2000).]

Although I hold the American Express Platinum card in the same high esteem as NJDavid holds the EUA's it might be just the "ticket" for you. One of the benefits of the card is free companion tickets with a paid Business class ticket on certain airlines, and Continental is one of the airlines that participates in the program.

I'd check with AMEX and Continental to see of your flight would be available.

In the good 'ol days Continental had "Companion ticket rewards" that required less miles and had better availability of seats.

Just another reason to support NJDavid's Deny Continental the Freddie campaign.

Whooaaaa there Jaws. Not all of us Jerseyans are full of the negativity that NJDavid displays...

Hold on there, my good Texas buddy Jim,

Not everyone in New Jersey sees standing up for the rights of the consumer as negative.

In fact, I'm bouyed by the positive feedback I've personally received so far.

Maybe in Texas (and the lower-class parts of Jersey) they take a good shafting lying down, or don't notice when they're getting one....


(with fond rememberances of Catman-Jaws43 NJ/TX fights of the early FT days)

Excuse his geography Jaws... for he does not know of which parts of NJ he speaks.

[This message has been edited by IM4Travel (edited 12-30-2000).]

Ahhhhh! I see you Northeast Texas Folks defend Texas, too. It's been awhile since we've heard from our small Texas County of Jerzee.

By the way, congrats on having Jerzee County's Administrator named to Dubya's* Cabinet.

* Dubya= Texan for "W".


[This message has been edited by JAWS_II (edited 12-31-2000).]

David,

Since Geaps is Platinum, why do you say that he has to wait for 30 days prior to the flight to confirm the free BF seat? Assuming that it is available (big assumption) he should be able to confirm it at any time. And since only Platinums can confirm more than 30 days out, he shouldn't be that far off.

And I agree, that the Amex Platinum 2 for 1 may be the absolute best option here.

I was under the impression that the confirmed BF award came from the same bucket as the upgrades, and if there were none available, they would not be in either case.

If I am mistaken, I apologize.

I tried the Amex Platinum route, but both passengers have to fly together on all segments. Due to work commitments we fly back at different times. Thanks

Thanks,

I will take your advice and see what happens.

Freakflyer...as a three years in a row Platinum (requalified for 2001), I believe you are mistaken in your comment that Platinums are allowed to upgrade international flights prior to the 30 day rule. I fly overseas on 'upgradable' tickets 4 or 5 times each year, and I've never been allowed to confirm a BF seat prior to 30 days. And I always make sure that there are plenty of F seats available when I make my initial reservation, so it is not a case of them not being allocated yet. If I am in error about this, please let me (and more importantly-- the OnePass Platinum Service Reps) know about it!!
PS-Sorry to disappoint all those naysayers out there, but I've always gotten my upgrades anywhere from 30 to 10 days prior to my flights).


[This message has been edited by mauld (edited 01-02-2001).]

[This message has been edited by mauld (edited 01-02-2001).]