I recently ticketed a Concorde flight on Air France using miles for April 2002.

When I reviewed the ticket I noticed that the last segment [Continental] back to Dallas was in coach. This was not the case when I made the reservation.

I called the rewards desk. They said there was nothing they could do, but that I was wait-listed for First Class. Since I spent 200K miles, I was not too happy and was thinking of sending the ticket back.

Does anyone have any suggestions on what I should do OR giving me the probablity of FC opening on a EWR-DFW segment?

What's your Elite status level?

I too am thinking about flying the Concorde to Paris this spring, but for 200,000 miles would expect to be in FC for the domestic portion of the trip.

ah yess... ya just gotta love the common sense approach used towards customers who actually claim awards from their miles.

mrs duxfan and i used our miles for a trip to Australia in QF b/c in the fall of 2000. when i booked the tickets in may 2000, i was cleared into B/C right away on the QF flights (after the normal delay of getting the award from QF). but i was told that we were waitlisted for domestic first "only as a courtesy".

excuse me, but, A COURTESY? does anyone at CO have any idea just how much revenue i gave CO just to get that 105,000 mile award?

i certainly hope you've at least been waitlisted. i was informed that my waitlist had priority over all elites, and i did eventually get the upgrade. but what made it even funnier was that every time one of the 3 segments cleard, i had to go to the CTO and have the tickets reissued. in the long run, it probably would've been cheaper to just clear me from the start!



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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)

I took the 200,000 miles Concorde reward on February 2000. My routing was MEX-EWR/JFK-CDG-JFK/EWR-MEX. Even though I was supposedly put on a waitlist for the return EWR-MEX portion, it never cleared and I was stuck in coach for the EWR-MEX flight (which, at 4:45 minutes, was longer than the 3:30 supersonic transatlantic crossing).

By the way, about 1 hour and 15 minutes after we had broken the sound barrier on the JFK-CDG, the aircraft suddenly shook and started banking to the right, as it lost speed and alttitude. A couple of minutes later, the trying-not-to look- too-horrified flight attendants (and then the captain) informed us that there had been an engine failure and we would have to turn back to JFK, although it would now take us about two and a half hours, as we would be flying at subsonic speed. We were greeted by firetrucks and emergency vehicles at JFK, although the diesmbark process was normal.

Anyway, after about an hour there we boarded a different Concorde (F-BTSC) which finally got us into Paris about 7 hours late. This last aircraft is the same that crashed outside Paris a few months later.

Boy, was I shocked!!

[For reasons such as these] I have no elite status on Continental.

It is humorous that they used the 'courtesy' quote also on me. It did not make sense to me at the time and it does not make sense to me now.

This line is a ridiculous as stating than a domestic flight with connections only one segment should be first class and the other should be a courtesy!?

I just reserved two F awards on Qantas for next spring. While I'm confirmed in first LAX-MEL and SYD-LAX, the parts from LAX to CMH are coach and waitlisted for first.

The explanation given is this: "The miles you spend on the award only account for the Qantas segments, your domestic connections are given to you as a bonus, with the class of service as reserved, only when available. We'll be happy to put you on the waitlist for first class. Given your status, you should have a fair chance of clearing the list anyway."

I've had the same thing on business class QF award tickets, minus the courtesy explanation (I just got "you'll be on the waitlist until the seats open up"). All of the domestic segments cleared to first weeks before departure, so I'm assuming that we did indeed have the highest priority on the waitlist. I seem to recall the OP member guide saying quite some time ago that international C/F rewards included "connecting domestic travel in first class." Those last three words are indeed absent from the current version.

I also experienced the reissue/revalidation fun on the award ticket - talk about making the day of a COEX agent in BTR!

I was told that my (non-elite) friend I'm putting on the Concorde will be waitlisted as a Platinum for F for the CO legs.

I've also had the same difficulties getting a CO FC domestic connection with a partner reward. I just booked two reward tickets on the Concorde for August. The Concord tix were no problem, as well as AF BC tix onward to SVO. However, due to CO's "A9 F0 fetish," they could only waitlist me for the SNA-EWR connection.

I decided to accept HP tix to JFK instead. Going into JFK, they make an easier connection to the Concorde. And HP could be confirmed FC, while I would have been waitlisted on CO. And, based on recent experiences trying to get an upgrade on CO transcons, I didn't think it was worth the risk! I just don't think someone burning 400K miles for two tickets should have to even risk sitting in the back of the plane, especially when booking 5 months in advance.

It's a sad commentary on "the new CO" when it's easier for a CO Platinum to get a reward ticket on AF's Concorde than an upgrade to domestic FC on CO's transcon!

First CO made me do the HoKeY Pokey. Now they want me to do the TurQey Trot. So I'm gonna do the Partner Polka!!!

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"Read my lips! No more benefit cuts!"...Gordon Bethune

[This message has been edited by SemiElite (edited 03-21-2002).]

hehehehe.... I loved that as well. Everytime a segment would clear into First, I'd get a message from CO telling me that I'd need to have the ticket reissued. Then the same thing with a schedule change. Tammy at the CO ticket office here in Akron reissued those tickets 4 times! I almost felt sorry, but CO told me that it was their "policy" on these partner tickets...

Partner Polka, I love it! I polka with NW all the time now!

Jose: Consider yourself lucky: you got 7 hours of Concorde flying time while other people only get 3.5. Be glad you didn't have to fork over extra miles.

A domestic connection to the QF gateway is not a "bonus" or a "courtesy"!!! It's contractually part of the reward ticket!!!

From the CO website:

"Flights to/from North America include connecting travel to/from 48 U.S., Canada, the Caribbean, Central America and Mexico."

Now, that's as clear as it comes!!! Sure doesn't look like a "bonus" or a "courtesy" to me!

Just to note though, this is buried deep in CO's website. To find it, you have to click "Important Reward Information" just under the Qantas logo. And for the record, this also applies to virtually every CO partner reward.

Just another example of a CO agent making up the rules on the fly, without any regard for the facts!!!

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"Read my lips! No more benefit cuts!"...Gordon Bethune

[This message has been edited by SemiElite (edited 03-21-2002).]

I'm on a award tix this weekend to NRT in BF. All segments cleared at ticketing except the EWR-DCA, which finally cleared today, less than a week before travel... but it cleared. For the Concorde experience, I'd suck it up and wait. I'm gonna guess they will come through, I know I'd be pissed though if I blew that much mile and it didnt clear.

It doesn't suprise me that SNA-EWR is difficult to snag FC award seats on - this is exactly the type of route where they probably actually sell a lot of FC seats.

This is one of the better and unique features of OnePass - whether it's a wholly domestic award or the domestic connection to an international partner award, you can use any combination of CO, HP, NW, and AS flights. No other program is better in this regard. Of course, the CO Whiners (I don't mean you, SemiElite) will never admit that there are actually good aspects to OnePass, which in some cases are in fact substantially better than what's found elsewhere.

I feel your pain, but I'm not sure that just because you're connecting with an international partner, that additional award inventory should somehow be opened up for your domestic connections. Especially on a flight like SNA-EWR, there could easily be demand for FC award seats for every available seat, considering the number of int'l departures from NYC-area airports, on CO and partners.

I don't think it's just partner awards that have this problem, but I could be mistaken. I think that anytime you're waitlisted for a FC segment on an award ticket, that the tickets are issued for the class confirmed at the time of ticketing. If you later clear the FC waitlist on a segment, the entire ticket needs to be reissued. Perhaps the difference is that if it's an entirely CO ticket, you'll probably have an e-ticket, in which case the reissue can be done over the phone. But, the entire ticket is still "reissued" in this case, as opposed to just changing the segment affected.

This is one of the more frustrating aspects of OnePass awards as far as I'm concerned. The real problem is what happens when your upgrade doesn't clear prior to arriving at the airport on day of departure. In this case, even though you've "paid" for a FC seat on that segment, you're only ticketed for a coach seat, and in my experience it's unlikely that you'll be seated in FC even if there are available seats. What usually happens is that they fill the FC seats with same-day free upgrades for elite members, and on most flights, they run out of seats before they run out of elite members.

Ignoring for the moment whatever systems issues may be preventing this from happening, I think it would be better if they issued these waitlisted segments in a class such that it was a FC award ticket, but confirmed in coach. This way, they could easily seat you in FC at the airport if there are any seats available, and I think this should be done ahead of any 2-hour elite upgrades. It's much like having a paid FC ticket, but not being able to confirm a seat in F beforehand.

Common sense dictates that if you are burning 400K miles on an award that additional first class award inventory should open up.

Continental does this because they can get away with it, not becuase it is the right thing to do.