Ok, here's a situation I haven't encountered yet. I am planning a LAS trip, and can upgrade with the lowest fare on the outbound, but the return is almost sold out in A. What I want to do is book the outbound in the lowest class (use miles to up), and the return in Y, allowing for a Y-up to A. Since coach is wide open on the return, there is no way to book the itin this way on CO.com without pushing the outbound up to Y as well. If I book by phone, I lose 50% of the outbound EQMs. Any ideas?

Robin

try online and call internet support...this may get you the full miles as you are technically doing it online.

Another option... try itineraries by price and by schedule...you will be surprised how many different schedules/fares you get! continental.com is very hard sometimes to navigate, you literally have to trick it to get the schedules you want.

And...CO just changed their fare codes Jan 1st...it is a mess...very confusing...I actually ordered the book with the new info...call CO and they'll send you one.

good luck and have fun in LAS!

Well, it doesn't matter at this point anyway. I was looking at an outbound day loaded with Z9s and 3/4 empty FC cabins, thinking there would be a single upgradeable seat at some point that day. I was wrong. I am thoroughly disgusted with COs lack of reward avail, whether for free seats or upgrades, and I think it borders on fraud. Still sitting on 2 freebies from the "Fly 3, 1 Free" promo last year, have never seen avail for anything I checked. They will be tossed I am sure.. And this new situation for "hiding" the upgradeable inventory has me pulling my hair out. Being a "EWR Bound CO Slave" has me about ready to scream.. BTW, on the same dates, DL has FC fares LESS than CO's COACH fare AND NWs FC fare is half COs. I don't mind connecting to save several thousand dollars. CO is gonna have to kiss my cash goodbye for awhile.

Robin

Robin:
In answer to your first question.....
1.Book anything you like on the web that resembles what you really want.
2.Put that res on HOLD rather than purchase it.
3.Take the record locator and call web support 1-800-300-1547 (choice 3 on the voice menu) and talk to a web res agent. They can make ANY changes manually to your PNR and it will remain a CO.com res, allowing for full mileage and benefit.

As for pulling out your hair, that is referred to as trichotillomania and is associated with folks who are just this side of emotional wrecks. Please do not let OnePass drive you to the looney bin!

Hehehe.. I wonder if I will get Amex MR points if I charge my therapy to my AX... Perhaps for hair replacement as well...

Thanks for the tip.. I'll be sure to use it.

Robin

This is a very useful tip, thanks for posting! (And no, it wasn't "obvious" to me).

Just to add that the suggestion of booking something remotely like what you want and placing it on hold and calling eservice on the phone works to preserve the 100% EQM.
I was trying to book ERW-DUB and use a credit I had from a trip I had to cancel. Since the lowest available on line fare was a "V" I would get 100% EQM even if I called the regular CO reservations number. When I called they had no "V" inventory, even though I was looking at it on line and the lowest price they had was $250 more than the on-line price. At the agents suggestion, I called eservice. They held on while I completed placing the on-line booking on hold and getting a confirmation#. At that point they took the new record and were able to merge it with the one that I had the $350 credit in. The result was as I wanted. I got the lowest available fare and was able to apply a 350 credit from an unused ticket to to base 'V' fare.
BUT, it shouldn't be this hard.