Int'l BF upgrades from paper tickets
Sep 3, 2001, 12:36 am
#1
Original Poster
Join Date: May 2000
Location: Houston, TX, USA
Programs: UA 1K, AA Lifetime Platinum, DL Platinum, Honors Diamond, Bonvoy Titanium, Hertz Platinum
Posts: 7,969
Int'l BF upgrades from paper tickets
I just had the occasion to book an upcoming IAH-HKG-SIN trip. I'm on CO from IAH to HKG (through EWR), then on CX for HKG-SIN. Since CO and CX can't do an interline eticket, this will be sent to me as a paper ticket. The ticket was issued through CO telephone reservations on a single CO published fare to SIN (that is, it's not two fares end-on-end).
I'm able to take advantage of the new rule that allows me to use miles for a BF upgrade, even though the ticket includes non-CO segments. Also, the fare I wanted happend to be a K fare, so I'm not paying extra due to the new BF upgrade rules.
But, here's my question: The agent said that the only way to upgrade paper tickets is to have them issued in the class that was paid for, then use upgrade certificates at the time of check-in. A previous agent had said that it was possible to have paper tickets initially issued in the upgraded class, as long as the upgrades were available at the time of ticketing.
The ticketing agent checked with a supervisor, and it was confirmed that paper certificates are the only option when you have paper tickets. Does anyone know if this is correct?
I don't particularly mind paper certificates, but my hesitation is that if there is a problem with the upgrade reservation, you may not find out about it until you check in for the flight, at which time it may be too late to solve. In the past, I've bought coach e-tickets, upgraded to BF, and had the tickets issued directly into Z class (which would now be R class), and had this displayed on the paper eticket confirmation. This made me very confident that there would be no problems when checking in.
I'm able to take advantage of the new rule that allows me to use miles for a BF upgrade, even though the ticket includes non-CO segments. Also, the fare I wanted happend to be a K fare, so I'm not paying extra due to the new BF upgrade rules.
But, here's my question: The agent said that the only way to upgrade paper tickets is to have them issued in the class that was paid for, then use upgrade certificates at the time of check-in. A previous agent had said that it was possible to have paper tickets initially issued in the upgraded class, as long as the upgrades were available at the time of ticketing.
The ticketing agent checked with a supervisor, and it was confirmed that paper certificates are the only option when you have paper tickets. Does anyone know if this is correct?
I don't particularly mind paper certificates, but my hesitation is that if there is a problem with the upgrade reservation, you may not find out about it until you check in for the flight, at which time it may be too late to solve. In the past, I've bought coach e-tickets, upgraded to BF, and had the tickets issued directly into Z class (which would now be R class), and had this displayed on the paper eticket confirmation. This made me very confident that there would be no problems when checking in.
Sep 3, 2001, 8:01 am
#2
Join Date: Apr 1999
Location: Homosassa, FL & Ringwood, NJ -UA-G(Lifetime); SPG-Plat (Lifetime)
Posts: 6,120
Steve:
Were you told if you could upgrade the CX segment as part of the new "enhanced" program. I know you can upgrade a CO/NW connection in NRT, but since CX is not part of the Continental "family", I'd be pleasantly surprised if this was doable.
On the issue of instantly upgrade, I recently did this for NW. I called CO and wanted to book EWR-NRT-BKK, EWR-NRT on CO and NRT-BKK on NW. The agent said he could issue the ticket already upgraded, but he could not sell any NRT-BKK COACH codeshare seats since NW had not released any to CO. (This has been an ongoing problem for months-Note that CO CAN sell NRT-SIN coach seats on the NW codeshare). Therefore, we could not complete the transaction. I went to plan B and asked the CO agent to issue me (for the same price-$1,006 RT)) a wholely NW ticket (JFK-NRT-BKK) and upgrade them with miles from my OnePass account. It took him about 2 minutes and I was offered the choice of paper or electronic. I received an email confirmation in D class on NW about 10 minutes later.
[This message has been edited by Vulcan (edited 09-03-2001).]
Were you told if you could upgrade the CX segment as part of the new "enhanced" program. I know you can upgrade a CO/NW connection in NRT, but since CX is not part of the Continental "family", I'd be pleasantly surprised if this was doable.
On the issue of instantly upgrade, I recently did this for NW. I called CO and wanted to book EWR-NRT-BKK, EWR-NRT on CO and NRT-BKK on NW. The agent said he could issue the ticket already upgraded, but he could not sell any NRT-BKK COACH codeshare seats since NW had not released any to CO. (This has been an ongoing problem for months-Note that CO CAN sell NRT-SIN coach seats on the NW codeshare). Therefore, we could not complete the transaction. I went to plan B and asked the CO agent to issue me (for the same price-$1,006 RT)) a wholely NW ticket (JFK-NRT-BKK) and upgrade them with miles from my OnePass account. It took him about 2 minutes and I was offered the choice of paper or electronic. I received an email confirmation in D class on NW about 10 minutes later.
[This message has been edited by Vulcan (edited 09-03-2001).]
Sep 3, 2001, 1:34 pm
#3
Original Poster
Join Date: May 2000
Location: Houston, TX, USA
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Vulcan wrote:
No upgrade on the CX segments. But I didn't expect this.
Here's the quote from the new rules:
So, this portion of the new rules appears to be working exactly as advertized. Also, in my case, the lowest fare was a K fare, I didn't have to pay anything more under the new rules.
As an interesting side note, the cheapest CO fare for my itinerary was the one I got, and was a K fare, so upgrades are no problem. If I fly the same route, except remove the HKG-SIN segments, then the cheapest K fare goes up about $400.
Vulcan wrote:
The last time I tried to do this with a NW segment NRT-SIN, I ran into the same problem you did with BKK. There was no availability on coach on the NRT-SIN segment unless it was booked in conjunction with a NW trans-pacific flight. But, I really would prefer to do IAH-NRT on the CO nonstop instead of connecting with NW, not only because it's non-stop, but because it's on the 777 (better entertainment and emPower ports) and BusinessFirst service is by all reports better than NW's premium product.
On this trip, I wanted to do a stopover in HKG, so the NW flight from NRT-SIN was not an option.
<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Were you told if you could upgrade the CX segment as part of the new "enhanced" program. I know you can upgrade a CO/NW connection in NRT, but since CX is not part of the Continental "family", I'd be pleasantly surprised if this was doable.</font>
Here's the quote from the new rules:
<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Plus, when you purchase an international ticket and a portion of your travel is on Continental Airlines and the other on Northwest Airlines or America West Airlines, you can now use OnePass miles to upgrade on all flights. If your flight is on an airline other than Northwest or America West, you can now use your upgrade on the Continental portion of your flight — eliminating the need to purchase more expensive point-to-point fares on both airlines.</font>
As an interesting side note, the cheapest CO fare for my itinerary was the one I got, and was a K fare, so upgrades are no problem. If I fly the same route, except remove the HKG-SIN segments, then the cheapest K fare goes up about $400.
Vulcan wrote:
<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">I called CO and wanted to book EWR-NRT-BKK, EWR-NRT on CO and NRT-BKK on NW. The agent said he could issue the ticket already upgraded, but he could not sell any NRT-BKK COACH codeshare seats since NW had not released any to CO. (This has been an ongoing problem for months-Note that CO CAN sell NRT-SIN coach seats on the NW codeshare). </font>
On this trip, I wanted to do a stopover in HKG, so the NW flight from NRT-SIN was not an option.
Sep 4, 2001, 10:32 am
#4
Join Date: Apr 2001
Location: Varies :-)
Programs: AS; AA; UA; DL; VS; BA; Nat'l Emer. Exec.; AGR
Posts: 2,250
<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by Steve M:
...and BusinessFirst service is by all reports better than NW's premium product.</font>
...and BusinessFirst service is by all reports better than NW's premium product.</font>
Trip report LAX-NRT-SIN and HKG-LAX
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Life's a banquet, and most poor suckers are starving to death! - Auntie Mame
[This message has been edited by LGA (edited 09-04-2001).]