I am newbie to collecting FF miles - but after what I have read @ FT the past year - I'm really bummed I didn't start sooner!!!
Just have a few questions and any help would be GREATLY appreciated.

I have Continental One Pass for myself, spouse and daughter.
So far we have accumulated:
Myself- 11,451
Spouse- 6,186
Daughter-6,186

I'm not quite sure why it is we originally signed up with OnePass - but we would rather be with NWA - being in Detroit.

1)Is there a way we can combine these miles/accounts to maximize the benifit?

2)Is there a way we can transfer to NWA?

My wife & I are going to Venice in August - should we collect these miles under a new Worldperks Account and make the transition?? - or should we stay with CO -because when we return we will be close -if not at reward level.

Is there a way to use any of these miles for a room in Venice or surrounding area?


Last newbie question:
My friend flys frequently domestic & overseas(in fact he is going to Venice as well) - but he does NOT collect miles(I've tried to tell hime about FT!!!) - he says I can have his if I want them.
IS there a way for me to collect miles from his flights?

Now try not to flame me too bad!
: )

Thank you again.

basically the answer to all your questions is no.

In your case, it probably would be best to keep your Venice miles in CO's program.

You could then, next year, begin accumulating miles for yourself in WP since you will enjoy the benefits of CO Silver for domestic upgrades, boarding, check-in on CO, NW, or AS. I would probably enroll your wife and child in WorldPerks and count the miles to VCE in their new accounts, otherwise, you will have just more orphan miles in their Continental accounts. In your case, silver on CO gets you enough miles for a domestic reward ticket. The remainder will be orphaned and you will not benefit from the 50% bonus next year because you will be accumulating in NW's program.

Elite status is somewhat like fishing, once the hook is set it is tough to wriggle off.

Given that you've started in OnePass for everyone, I would continue to build that account for everyone as long as you can ensure that your spouse and daugther can have activity once every 18 months.

Although you live in DTW, you can still buy NW tickets and credit NW flights to your CO account. Unless you have some compelling reason to want to build in NW (e.g., you want to bank WorldPerks miles so you can redeem an award on Cebu Pacific which is partners with NW but not CO), I wouldn't orphan the CO miles and throw away the modest head start you three already have.

We don't fly that often...
In fact I'm quite sure all of our accounts are due to expire if they expire after 18 months - is there a way to check this online?
My Daughter's will surly expire as she is not making the Venice trip(4yr old).
I thought I read somewhere here about transfers to Hilton Rewards - but I am not able to find it now.
Any further suggestions??

Thanks to all for your expert advise!

As your question appears to be CO specific why now ask it there or suggest moderator moves this thread to that Forum?

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~ Glen ~

Come visit HERE the most ** FRIENDLY FORUM ** on FlyerTalk. No flame wars, no personal abuse, no substance abuse. Not much of anything really!

You might want to look at the AMTRAK forum. I believe that you could transfer CO miles in 5K increments to AMTRAK, and then transfer AMTRAK to Hilton or United. You and your wife can do a family account. Use for hotels. Did this to get husband's Hilton account to reach 100K so we could do a VIP award. Moved daughter's to United which I then transferred to Diner's Club which will get tranfered to BA for their 2 for 1 deal.

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Ms.DtG

ozstamps seems right on the money.

The best help using OnePass miles will come in the Continental Airlines forum. I'll move this thread there for you.

Regards,
Gary
aka gleff
MilesBuzz and Delta moderator

I have looked through the Amtrak forum and saw nothing about how to transfer mile to them - then to Hilton.
Also do they give you mile per mile tranfer?
How many miles would it take to tansfer to Amtrak>Hilton -to obtain a reward room?
Any help on this or any links to helpful threads would be much appreciated.
Thank you again.

The miles CAN be combined using the OnePass MilePass Transfer option. The cost is $5 for every 500 miles transferred between accounts.

Well, the amtrak forum does have ton of info about transferring CO miles into Amtrak Guest Rewards.

but, check their website..

http://www.amtrakguestrewards.com/Re...45&category=PE

Sorry kid, but you're a day late and $5 per five hundred miles short, that limited time offer expired May 30, 2003.


[This message has been edited by snake (edited 05-31-2003).]

welcome. having been around a little while, i think this forum has gotten a bit more kindler and gentler. i wouldn't say harmless, but it is much better than it used to be. a year or sixteen months ago, this forum was just filled with a lot of nasty people.

so, i don't think you will be flamed. welcome.

regarding combining accounts, there is no way to do this. right now, there are only subtle advantages to having miles on one airline or another.

i love how you get elite upgrades on NW mileage tickets from coach. since your wife and your sister have so few miles, maybe they should start collecting NW miles. they don't have many orphan miles. or, maybe you could have them wait until they collect 25,000 miles so that they could at least get a free ticket. then, they could start with NW. it's really a toss up.

I am a newbie to this, so let me know if this is incorrect.

This is in reply to your statement that your miles will expire on CO. I use the IDine service to acquire miles for my CO account. You can access the site via the CO website. You can register either credit cards or debit cards on the site, and then collect miles to all three accounts.

If you have orphaned miles and want to use them, another option is sending them to Hilton. You will suffer a devaluation (5k CO -> 10k HH) but if they will expire anyway, it gives you something to do with them and you may be able to redeem them, considering that Hilton allows multiple people to share a Hilton account (like spouses, don't know about children). We were like 8k short of a Hilton award and I had her send her lonely 5k CO miles over for 10k Hilton to our joint HH account so we could redeem.

About the 18 month expiration, the exact verbage from CO is "Miles never expire but CO reserves the right to close an account with 18 consecutive months of inactivity." My wife's account actually was inactive for about 4-5 years and they never closed it, but I would not bet on it, especially if there are a lot of miles to lose.

Hey don't worry about accumulating more miles on CO. Unless you're going to redeem an award for Cleveland in the winter or Phoenix in the summer - you'll never get to use the miles anyway

The Hilton transfer is the route I would take.