This is what came up when I went to check reward flights to AMS. Seems like OP rewards thinks they will be codesharing on HP flights next February. . .

CO2160 DCA
7:14 PM EWR
8:31 PM ERJ 0 Fri., Feb. 14, 2003
10 h 6 m
CO70 EWR
10:05 PM AMS
11:20 AM 764 0 Fri., Feb. 14, 2003


Connects in New York/ Newark, NJ (EWR). Continental flight 2160 operated by America West.

HP does not fly DCA-EWR. I would assume that with the demise of the HP-CO partnership, the flight number ranges previously set aside for HP flights are being reassigned.

The interesting thing is that there was any availability at all! (At non-EasyPass extortion amounts, that is.)

I have something else that should pique some interest:

What is the new "U" class on CO all about? When I did a search on itn.net and the German-language booking site, I saw several flights which listed U inventory like this:

CO000 A4 U2 D0 F0 E0 Y9 etc.

I'm thinking that this is perhaps the start of a ConnectFirst type product on CO...???

"U" class is what CO uses for EasyPass rewards in First, Business, and BusinessFirst cabins. It's been used for at least two years. Usually it will have the same availability as "A", "C", and "J".

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I am not a sanctioned representative of Continental on these boards, just an interested participant.

Given that this is the case, under what situation would U ever be less than J or A? I'm not trying to pick a fight - I'm just curious.

Also, 86, although I've never had the opportunity to book such a flight, is it in practice possible to do the following: book a multi-carrier EasyPass award when inventory is tight? For example, let's say I wanted to go IAH-LAS-HNL-IAH, including a stopover in LAS. To get to LAS-HNL, could I fly AS to SEA, then NW to HNL, all in the premium cabin, with seats coming out of unrestricted inventory (the other segments being on CO)? It would seem that this is allowed per the rules, and in fact would be a great, somewhat unique feature of OnePass if it were to be allowed. Can it be done in practice?

Good eye, Steve M. I try to choose my words carefully.

"U" and "W" (coach EasyPass) show zero during the "Latin Holiday" (around Christmas-New Year) period, for the Latin area markets. I don't get the rationale for that--another revenue management question when I see them again. We res agents can still get the last seat, but we have to call "Support", who in turn usually has to call revenue management. We always get the seat, but it's not an efficient way to do it.

You can use multiple partners on rewards, standard or EasyPass. It's no problem. However, AS does not open up more availability for EasyPass. KL is limited for EasyPass--you don't get the last seats, although it is still helpful. NW EasyPass is limited for overseas flights, but not as much as KL, it seems.

As I noted awhile back, we can now book AS first class seats directly--no more convoluted requests.

Back to PRI's "This American Life".

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I am not a sanctioned representative of Continental on these boards, just an interested participant.

[This message has been edited by ResAgent86 (edited 09-14-2002).]

Where does one go to find the availability as listed above? I'm having no luck at all. Thanks!

http://www.aeroplan.de/ap_rb_galileo.htm

ResAgent 86. I would be interested to know if the NW "I" seat availability to Asia that we see on this site corresponds to the "I" seat availabilty that you see on the CO reservations system. I have received several personal emails swearing that they see NW "I"seat availability to BKK/SIN and NW confirms it when they call, yet when they try to call CO and buy a NW M fare and upgrade with miles, they are told that there is no upgrade availability. Perhaps you could check this for us?
Thanks
Ed

No, it doesn't seem to. NW is tricky to book to Asia, as it seems NW doesn't want to give us the space without a workaround. I've posted this before, but it is worth repeating. I suspect many CO agents don't know this one, but would be willing to learn.

If you are trying to get NW reward seats to eastern Asia, especially BKK, (the toughest), have the agent not only look at NRT-BKK, but also from a NW US gateway to BKK, including the NRT connection. In Continental's computers, most of the time you will see more availablity for NW if you look at, for instance, SEA-NRT-BKK, rather than if you check NRT-BKK. NRT-BKK sometimes will show zero for all buckets, including revenue, but it's not true. Obviously, the agent needs to account for the date change in NRT.

Even if SEA-NRT does not have "W", "D" or "I" class, NRT-BKK can show it when you bring up SEA-NRT-BKK as a pair of segments. If SEA-NRT does not have the class I need, I just book any old class for that segment only, and the correct class for NRT-BKK, selling as a pair of segments.

Once SEA-NRT-BKK is booked, I delete the SEA-NRT segment, and then can add, for instance, EWR-NRT in BusinessFirst.

If this doesn't makes sense, let me know.

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I am not a sanctioned representative of Continental on these boards, just an interested participant.

[This message has been edited by ResAgent86 (edited 09-14-2002).]

Thanks, ResAgent86. To rephrase your suggestion, the agent should look at ANY NW North American gateway to find for NRT-BKK seats and then grab the seats for all segments. Then delete the segement(s) from the US to NRT and replace it with an EWR-NRT segment on CO or something else. I will try this next time.
I generally book M fares and upgrade from the I bucket. I have also the general suspicion that agents don't look for I seats for upgrades, but look for the more difficult "D" free seats. This is based on the fact that the last 4 tickets (upgraded M)I booked to Asia from JFK (All NW metal, since I could not get CO metal to NRT) have been ticketed in "D" class. Could this be a problem as well and should I be sure that the agent is looking for "I" and not "D" seats???
So, I guess another qustion is: If I buy M and upgrade from the I bucket, what class should the ticket show: I have had it show "D" mostly, but sometimes "C".

I really want to give CO some money here but the system makes it awfully difficult.

And thank you again for your input. If CO is looking for ways to bring in revenue, I for one would pay extra ($25/$50 per trip) to have direct access to your expertise.


[This message has been edited by Vulcan (edited 09-15-2002).]

You got the technique right for booking NW rewards to Asia.

We used to use "D" for both standard mileage tickets and for upgrades. At some point, I think in the last year, we started using "I". It wouldn't hurt to tactfully interject this information into your conversation with the agent to make sure you got a bright bulb. "I" is more available.

I never get to see paper tickets, so I don't know what class they show. E-tickets should show the class as booked, otherwise the ticket would be out of synchronization.

Thanks for the compliment, Vulcan.



[This message has been edited by ResAgent86 (edited 09-15-2002).]

Thank you again. Whenerver I check the Galileo site for EWR/JFK-NRT-BKK/SIN, there is usually 0 seats in D from NRT to BKK, but there are always plenty of I seats for both JFK-NRT and NRT-BKK on NW. So I guess the only question then becomes if the CO Res system sees the same number of "I" seats that the Galileo system does.

Continental mentioned wanting to charge for premium services. I'd personally be willing to pay to be connected to ResAgent86 when making my next reward reservation!

What a nice tip, and thanks for posting it.