I don't agree with this. I have tried unsuccessfully many times to upgrade a paid ticket, wound up using instead miles for a free B/F ticket when going trans alt or trans pac on vacations. So Co lost usually the cost of 2 tickets and upgrade fees and we flew B/F free.

Jerseygirl:
In the last week or so, CO released tons of R seats to Asia (HKG/PEK). Up until then there were Zero R seats after May 24. If you ever wanted to buy an H ticket and upgrade to PEK (~$1,500) or HKG (~$1,600) now is the time. Last I checked theay had released avaialbility thru September 30.

This has been a sore point with several of us who wanted to buy a ticket and upgrade rather than use miles, yet, while there were plenty of standard award BF seats available June thru Sept, one could not buy a seat and upgrade on the spot. Hoepfully, this has been fixed going forward and when BF award seats are released, R seats should be available at the same time.

If you have availability of the KVS tool, you can monitor R availability as it becomes available.

But they forgot to send over some R seats on 2/10 to HKG!

PS: KVS Tool = Cool
PPS: KVS Tool + Access to SHARES = VERY Cool!!

I also don't agree with this. "Never allow someone to fly for free?" A goal of FF redemptions might be avoiding the displacement of revenue seats, but this must be balanced with the goal of making the program marketable.

Airlines approach this concept in different ways. CO, DL and NW are notorious for keeping availability limited, usually until close to departure, while AA and UA are known for their generous redemption options.

How do we know who would have otherwise paid for their ticket vs. not going at all? The airlines certainly don't.

the 20k reward is definitely a positive.

It was not too long ago when all domestic CO awards were 20K. It was a big selling point of the program just 4 years ago or so.

Other airlines like UA and AC have a 15K reward for short haul flights.

the 15k rewards are for N/S distances of < 750 miles. These are good to 1,500.

Any info on if the 1500 apply to connections or only nonstops? Is it 1500 nonstop distance between A and B, or 1500 including the connecting point?

Now what would _really_ make me happy is if they somehow modify the rules to allow US--Mexico short haul awards. Nothing like blowing 35k on a 40 min. RJ.

well, this opens up most of the continental USA to IAH flyers for only 20k, and includes YYZ.

I thought that the 1500 miles means a ROUNDTRIP of 1500...not each way...
ie.750 max each way...

I hope thats not the case tho...

Since people usually only post when they have problems...

I flew last year on three reward tickets. Two were BF.

The BF were to HKG (end of Sept.) and MPL (via CDG, first week of Nov).

I used 120k for HKG (NW via NRT out, CO direct to EWR back) and 100k for MPL (Co to CDG, then AF).

Both these tickets I booked when I wanted to book them. I think I left HKG a day later than I wanted, but that was to avoid NW and the stop in NRT on the way back.

So you can get what you want, when you want it. All the time? Doubtful. But I am 3 for 3. And I have some many RDM miles because of AmEx that I don't care about using EasyPass or not. I just haven't had to.

Anyways, just my experiences...

Unfortunately IAH-BOS is 1597 miles each way, so it definitely remains at 25K miles... however, that said, I have found excellent last minute weekend availability for this routing as an elite (in the M bucket). 25K miles plus a $55 fee for booking two hours before flight time for Friday-Sunday travel certainly beats paying full Y. This use alone justifies collecting Onepass miles for me (and QF awards eat up the rest).

An absolutely riduculous analogy.

Not exactly.

The Golden Rule is supposed to be: Don't give someone a seat that could be sold to a revenue passenger.

It's a subtle difference, but very significant.

Steve