I am not trying to start a flame war here.

Currently a bit unhappy with American as I am Platinum there and dont feel that I get as many perks as I should for flying over 75K miles with them last year. Mostly the fact that I dont get upgraded all the time like you guys do on Continental.

How does this whole Northwest /Continetal thing work. Do you just enjoy status on both airlines? Do you really get upgraded all the time, or do you never get to enjoy that perk because there are so many elite members and they all get upgraded?

Has anyone swiched from American. Why? Are the perks a lot better and is the service better? Are you happy you made the move?

I even fly weird hours and days because I have to fly the lowest fare and a lot of times American isnt unless I really work it and fly out of weird places and times (hows tht for dedication)

Its going to be hard going from Platinum to no status, but I guess it may pay off in the end? I even have an Admiral's club membership until June 2002.

Thanks for your input.

You're welcome!

Your success on CO/NW will depend on your routes and home airports. If you fly mostly transcon to-from EWR during business times, upgrades have been very difficult to come by. Others will swear by a 100% upgrade percentage on all their flights. YMMV. But when you're not upgraded, get used to no more MRTC - and the smallest seat pitch and biggest attitude problem in the air on CO coach.

But, don't worry about being non-elite. Continental comps anyone for amlost any reason. Call one pass and tell them you're an AA plat. They'll drool to bump you to Platinum ahead of their loyal members who actually flew between 25-70k miles last year. Many of us DON'T consider that a good thing....others do.

Good Luck

Welcome Diamond Dog!

As NJDavid says, experience really depends on your routes and ticketing habits. Mr. Fish (Plat) has a very hard time getting upgraded on flights from EWR to ORD, LAX, SNA, and SFO, even on full Y fares. But since he books only a day or two in advance, most F seats have already been filled by other Elites. As a Gold, I have never been EUA'd, but I don't often give them the chance anyway, if there is F avail, I go ahead and use the miles in advance to be certain of the upgrade. Mr. Fish is also an AA Plat, and his experience there has been better than yours, he hasn't missed an upgrade yet this year. He has found that AA almost always puts him up front on a last minute Y fare. Just lucky I suppose. With your odd flight times and advance purchase, you might be luckier on CO, esp if you you don't do a lot of transcons.

I don't think you will have a problem being matched on CO; they should match you to Gold from AA Plat (perhaps to Plat if you're lucky).

As far as NW, I have never flown them, and Mr. Fish's experience has been limited. Perhaps someone from the left coast with routes similar to yours could give you more advice.

Good luck!

Diamond Dog

As you can see from the above responses where you live, and how far in advance you purchase your tickets will play a large part in how successful you are in getting upgraded on Continental.

Several FlyerTalk members state that they don't have much luck out of EWR, but last year out of 162 CO flights I was upgraded on all but two of those where I was elogible for an upgrade (and both of those were last minute tickets through EWR).

The attitude problem mentioned above also must be a EWR problem. Because I haven't seen that out of IAH (and I'm from New York).
But then I've also been in first class, and this has been a stressful year for everyone in the airline business.

Continental was also the most generous of all the airlines in 2001 with their bonus mile promotions. And that may change this year, but in the first six months of 2001 there were several FlyerTalk members (including myself) that earned over 1 million miles through these bonus promotions. So if you flew enough, you were upgraded (via EUA) or you had the miles to upgrade if you wanted to do do.

Good luck with your flying.

My bump experience was completely different -

Called the one pass center early this year when I started flying HP (on short notice) and continental to Houston. Was Silver Last Year on Delta asked for a upgrade on CO.

Only chased it two levels, the OP supervisor said that if Delta would upgrade me to PM to keep me they would match. (Anyone want to play poker with me I am easily bluffed).

Using Delta to Houston realistically would add four hours of traveling per week R/T so I stayed with CO to get the direct flights.

I did acheive Plat status (with my butt on polyester, legs tucked under a coach tray) on CO and have now even avoided Delta and/or code shares when the routing was more efficient due to their upgrade policies.

Just my 2 cents

Good luck on your upgrade



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"A Southwest line never gets longer, It only gets wider"

DD -

Funny, I've been looking at going the other way, thinking about switching to AA this year! Here's why...

In my home market (CLE), CO seems to love replacing 737's with RJ's. They've done a good deal of it in IAH as well. So depending on where you fly to, you could have a 0% chance of an upgrade in certain markets.

NW and CO service is VERY inconsistent. 75% of my flying is on NW, and no two flights on the same route seem to be the same nowadays. CO and NW obviously don't like each other, and their computer systems seem to talk to each other as well as bill and hilary.

if you look at the threads here, you'll notice that a lot of us have to do a lot of extra legwork to actually get what we have earned thru our continued patronage.

in my own case, as i worked my way from silver to plat in 2001, my upgrades on CLE-west coast flights was only around 50% when on CO. on shorter flights it was much better, at 80%+. it was over 95% when i connected to get to the west coast on NW.

you know the old saying, sometimes the devil you know is better than the devil you don't....



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I believe there are more instances of the abridgment of the rights of the people by the gradual and silent encroachments of those in power than by violent and sudden usurpations.

James Madison, 4th US president (1751-1836)

Thank you for all that have responded. I guess I should have been more clear on my traveling habits so you guys could better advise.

I cover the West so I fly out of SNA (Santa Ana, CA). I fly to Oklahoma city, Dallas, Phoenix, Seattle, Oakland or San Jose, Houston, San Antonio, Denver, Salt Lake, Las Vegas, Honolulu.

I usually book 2-3 weeks in advance. I only booked those weird hours and days because I have to select the lowest fare through my company and American is lowest only 40% of the time unless I fly "weird". Lowest fare always seems to be CO or NOrthwest.

Are you saying that if I call in ahead of time to request an upgrade I am likely to get get it (rather than just showing up at the airport)?

For the person considering switching to American: AMerican is OK, the service is probably about the same as CO. You probably earn the same amount of miles through their promotions as CO. The main reason I want to switch to CO is the frequency of upgrades. You get 4 electronic coupons for every 10k miles you fly (actual miles). Its 2 tickets for a flight to Dallas and 3 to ORD. So I spend the majority of time in coach, even though I am platinum. It seems like you gold people mostly ride in First Class.

The people at the paltinum center for American are incedibly average. I get the best customer service from the Admiral's Club and not the Platinum desk. I hear the Executive Platinum Desk (comparable to your Gold) is another story and that they are incredible but you need 100k miles for EXP.

Its really about the upgrades for me since I fly so much. This is the main reason I am doing this. It sounds like from your responses that I will be happy with CO in this aspect.

In case anyone is wondering about the food on 1st in American, you get heated nuts and drinks at first, a salad, a nice fish, chicken or beef entree. The thing that may set them apart is their Ice Cream Sundae bar with after dinner drinks.

Actually, AA Plat is the equivalent of CO Gold. Executive Platinum on AA is the equivalent level to Plat on CO. CO would comp Gold at best to an AA Plat.

My report after experiencing UA, CO and AA was posted at the end of last year at

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/Forum1/HTML/005933.html

YMMV

Greetings from another SoCal flyer. It's often quite a challenge being a CO frequent flyer while living in this part of the country. Let me see if I can break down your flying pattern -


-For PHX, DEN, SJC, LAS, OAK, and SEA you're going to most likely be on America West metal, not CO. From your post it seems that you are, like most of us, at the mercy of your company's travel rules, so you don't have an endless supply of time and $ to go through IAH (CO's westernmost hub).

-For HNL CO can't be beat, IMHO, although you will have to play the HoKeY though, to get an upgrade. This entails paying a higher fare to get a chance at using your miles to upgrade.

-For any travel to Texas, CO will suit you fine.

I'm just pointing out that with your travel concentrated in the west, you'll end up on HP most of the time. I'll let you be the judge of whether that's a good thing or a bad thing In terms of upgrades, HP will not upgrade you as a CO elite until you get to the airport. For what it's worth, I think there's only been one or two instances where I didn't get an upgrade on HP, those were flights back to the east coast.

Also, keep in mind that HP's F service is a world apart from CO's.

Any more questions/concerns, ask away.

Don't you get upgraded on any fare to Honolulu just like any other city in the US? With Gold status, don't they upgrade yo uautomatically (if they have room?)

I think for Seattle and Northern Cal I will be on Alaska. Do they upgrade you for Continental Gold Onepass?

I think CO flys on CO metal to Denver and Salt Lake, at least I am hoping so. Thanks

Flights to HNL (from LAX, IAH & EWR) are operated with BusinessFirst service, just like an international flight. Therefore, there are no complimentary upgrades like on domestic First.

I've taken alaska to OAK and I paid 40$ each way for a space-available upgrade at the airport. Things may have changed since then, I don't know. Since then I've gone through LAS or PHX on HP when going up to the Pac NW.


As for CO going to DEN and SLC, I was referring to how it's a shorter route taking HP through either PHX or LAS rather than going on CO metal all the way out to IAH and then up to DEN.

That's both good news and bad news. The bad news is that you must use miles to get your upgrade (and most of the time, purchase a higher fare to be eligble to upgrade). The good news is that you get service comparable to international premium service on this route, whereas every other carrier operating LAX-HNL provides domestic first class service, or even special "Hawaii configuration" aircraft and service which can be at or below regular domestic first class.