Orbitz and CO.com
 

I'm flying to Manchester, England in August for a wedding and I was online looking for a CO flight. At CO.com, the flights were about $900 round trip in coach. I decided to look at Orbitz, travelocity, etc. Orbitz had a flight with Flybe, that was CO operated (CO20, CO21) for $600. My question is, has anyone bought flights from Orbitz? Will i get CO miles for this flight (i am Gold)? How come CO doesn't have this fare?

I already tried to use miles but there are no Standard rewards in coach or business for the dates i need. Will there be more reward seats released closer to the flight?

Thanks FT'ers
W

I have bought tickets on Orbitz many times and always receive CO miles.

If you have not purchased, don't be surprised when you click purchase that the quote becomes the same or similar to CO.

I don't know what you mean by "flybe".

Good luck.

FlyBe is the CO linked carrier in the UK. CO dropped the British Midland affiliation.

CO will sell you this ticket if you call them and ask for it specifically.

co.com (and their agents) are biased toward selling CO-metal flights (that's where they keep most of the revenue). It's important to keep these types of biases in mind when dealing directly with companies. Nwa.com and other airline websites also have biases against codeshares. These codeshares can sometimes be cheaper and/or more convenient, which is why there's value in checking third-party sites, who may not have the same (or different) biases.

As for partner-coded, CO-operated flights, since they're not CO designated, co.com won't offer those up.

As for mileage, the check the partner page: http://www.continental.com/onepass/e...line/flybe.asp

Okay, thanks for the info all.

As for my other question, what are the chances that more reward seats will open up as the dates of my travel get closer?

That link covers BE operated flights, no CO operated on BE tickets. The CO page covers CO operated flights, and indicates the various fare classes and then has a * noting "or equivalent" fare classes. I would guess that you'll only get 50% EQM on your ticket, though I doubt the $300 price difference is worth the 3000ish EQMs.

s.

Is it only the cynic in me that says you'll get nothing for CO-operated, flybe-coded flights? co.com doesn't specifically include it, so I would assume it's excluded unless you get confirmation from CO.

I think your right. I was wondering if anyone has had any experience with FlyBe? They seem to be the Southwest of the UK (along with EasyJet). I plan on flying to Newcastle sometime next month...

I was thinking that as I posted the last comment about the web pages and what was listed there, but chose to think positive and hope that they would honor it. The key, IMO, is that the CO page says "CO-operated flights" on it. I'm sure a call to OPSC could clear it up, but I think that it'll ultimately depend on the booked class on BE, and that CO will grant 50% EQM.

S.

My guess would be that the flybe class maps to a CO class, and you'll get miles/EQMs based on the CO class. But you won't know what that is until you buy the ticket, and if you call, you'll get some confused answers.

I called Onepass about the flight. They said i would get miles, depending on the class of fare. As someone already pointed out, i won't know until i buy...but at least i'll get the miles :p...hopefully