How do you search for award availability?
 

I'm not well-versed in CO flying, but have a few miles to redeem. I've been plugging various dates into the website, but thought that perhaps there is a better/easier/quicker way. Could a kind soul give me a crash course in the best tools/techniques?

Is the award inventory viewable through the Availability Tool?

I suppose that if I want to know award availability for AS or DL, I have no choice but to call OnePass. True?

Thanks in advance!

I have found the best way to do it without wearing out your fingers is to call CO, and let them wear out their fingers. Then, take the wait list opportunity offered you and hope!!!!!!!!!!!!

I try the website (i.e. wear out my fingers) first.. usually get screwed and then have to call them.. Right now (today) I'm looking for IAD-TUS and am not finding squat for the timeperiod I would like. So step 2 will be to call OP (YUCK) and see what the partners may or most likely not have available

Interesting, I didn't know they had waitlists for awards. Can someone give a comprehensive explanation of how these waitlists work? Some questions I can think of:

Can you ask to waitlist for any flight, or do they say "you can waitlist for this, but not for that"?

Can you waitlist for partner flights?

How far in advance do you normally get the waitlisted flight?

Are miles actually taken out, and do you have to pay the redeposit fee if you decide to pull out (i.e., you have to make your go/no-go decision before the waitlist comes through)?

Thanks!

[This message has been edited by maximizer (edited Feb 04, 2004).]

Searchin' for Continental's award availability is kinda like searchin' for WMD's. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/wink.gif

TH, when are you looking to travel???

This is my strategy, to be honest: ASSUME you won't find availability on CO, and plan to combine other partners to get where you want to go. My experience is that partners (i.e. NW, Alaska, KLM, COPA) have more award seats available.

To check DL availability, you could log into the Dl site with a SkyMiles number then poke around from there.

Awards have the extra bonus flexibility of allowing you to combine partners-- you could, in theory, fly TUS-IAH on CO, IAH to MEM on NW, then MEM-ATL on DL if that's the only thing available. On a revenue ticket, that many different airlines would mess up the fare.

The site http://usr.v7.com/wpaa/ allows you to check NW, CO, KLM, and AS availability one week at a time. Note that if you have CO elite status, it is worth logging into continental.com and checking day-by-day as special award inventory is available only to CO elite members.

Good luck!

Re. waitlists, you can waitlist for any CO flight. Likely you would have to ticket something undesirable while you wait for the desirable waitlisted flight--- if the flight clears, then you can change- but change fees will apply. If you redeposit, redeposit fees will apply. There's no free lunch (unless you're Platinum).

Frankly, I would not bank on a waitlist clearing. My experience as a Plat has been very spotty: I've found award seats open up to the general public long before my waitlist actually came through. Saying that, it's wise to be vigilant and check availability often--- especially within 14 days of the flight. Miraculously CO seems to release award seats close to departure--- of course, last minute ticketing fees apply http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/rolleyes.gif but if you're ticketed already, the last minute fees won't apply to changing dates to within 14 days---- but then, they'll get you for the change fee. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/rolleyes.gif http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/rolleyes.gif

Good luck!

Can you change dates for award travel once you have already been ticketed? As long as I stay with the same origin and destination, is this possible free of charge? It is with Delta, just wondering about CO.


Thanks!

I believe you need to redeposit the miles and reticket. Last time I did this it was around $35.

Free for Plat; $35 for Silver/Gold; $50 for others
 

Skyteam, if the origin/destination/stopover citiers are the same, you can change dates for a flat fee per change-- meaning if you change the outbound, then the following week you call to change the return, you have to pay the fee*2. :-/ Fees are waived for Platinums, cost $50 for base members and $35 for Silver or Gold.

Redeposit is only necessary if you are changing the cities (i.e. flying RDU--LAS instead of RDU-LAX). Changes to connection points do not require redeposit.

Does being SkyTeam Elite count? or it has to be CO Gold?

Does the CO website also search COPA avail (for awards), or do you need to call?

Codeshare flights may come up, but if it doesn't have a CO number, it won't come up. I had to call for COPA flights.

Of course not !!!

I know damn well I flew this on COPA as a reward flight.

EmailKid

Are you sure this is the case? I was under the impression the only fee was for redeposit (non-Plat). I thought once you booked an award it was good for a year, and you could change to an award of the same value with different dates and city pairs for no fee. Am I mistaken?