alex0683de

Hello everyone,

for some reason the search function isn't working as it should be, so I'll ask a question that has almost certainly been asked many, many times before. I apologize for this.

I presently have 24,657 miles in my CO account, which I would like to cash in for an intra-Europe award (I live in Switzerland). I was initially looking for a "Buy a Few Missing Miles" program like most other carriers have, but it was nowhere to be found on the CO homepage. Did I just miss it, or does CO really not have such a program?

I'm a student on a somewhat tight budget, so I'm looking to top up my account as cheaply as possible. Since I live in Europe, online shopping and all those options are out. I don't have an AMEX or a Diners, so no points to be transferred either. How would you go about acquiring the missing 343 miles?

Many thanks for your help!

Cheers,

Alex

chrissxb

cheap flight on AZ? ZRH-MXP or similar

amislove

Continental does have a "purchase miles" program which allows you to purchase up to 25% of any award of at least 20,000 miles. The miles can be purchased in 1,000 mile increments for $32. More information is available at http://www.continental.com/onepass/r...l/buymiles.asp. Good luck!

alex0683de

Thanks amislove, I knew I'd seen it before somewhere. That's a pretty stupid place to put it in terms of site navigation though!

However, looking closely at the rules, you'll find this:

Since I "want" to fly KLM, this is not going to be an option for me after all.

Back to Square One...

alex0683de

That's the last resort, because even the cheap flights aren't that cheap. Especially for same-day returns...

raybolt

Might be a few more miles than you really need, but have you looked into the Privilege Packs? The Executive Pack ($99) has 5000 miles that post almost imediately as well as a couple of PC passes and a $99 companion coupon.

Privilege Packs

dan

alex0683de

Thanks Dan, that's not a bad idea, though those are indeed a lot more miles than I need. And spending $99 to top up an account for an intra-Europe award (granted, the one I have in mind costs $500) is not really that attractive.

Is there a way to transfer miles between accounts at CO?

amislove

D'oh - good point. I didn't see that one.

CO does occasionally run a promotion where you can transfer miles between accounts for something like $10 per 1,000 miles (an example promotion that has expired can be seen at here. This is likely the cheapest option, but I don't think that they are currently running such a promotion.

Another option would be Shop OnePass, where they give you miles for shopping at certain retailers. You should be able to get 343 miles for $35 or so, if you use one of the retailers which give 10 miles/dollar (or for $18 if you use the magazine subscription option). I'm not sure how long the miles take to post, though.

Hope this helps!

coeur 05

Hi Dan

Do you have the promotion code by any chance, can you post it or
send it via pm.

thanks

raybolt

Hey, no promo code for this one...If the link doesnt work, just go to "Frequent Flyer" -> "News&Offers" -> "Airline" and scroll down (it's one of the last ones). These packs have been discussed a few times on this site. IMO they are one of the best values out there (especially last spring before the prices went up).

dan

alex0683de

The magazines don't ship to Europe (I checked) and buying anything online and having it shipped to Europe is prohibitively expensive.

Too bad, this would have been perfect. Is anyone interested in the PC certs if I buy the Privilege Pack? I'm not going to be in the States anytime soon (mostly because I refuse to participate in that US-Visit fingerprinting horsesh!t) and would have no use for them.

craz

2 ideas off the top of my noggin,

1) Get a Mag subscription, I would PM the FTer who came up with the idea and see if theres a mag they want and use their address here in the US as your address and you got it. Id use your real name on the order Only the FTers Address, hopefully no cross checking is done to match addresses.

or 2) rent the cheapest car by a Rental Car Partner in order to get the needed miles. If it was here in the US I would Only rent on weekends when its the cheapest. Dont know if theres anything cheap in ZRH

Thought of a 3rd stay at a Hilton with CO as where you want the miles to go to, if not a member of Hilton Honors join up, you get 500 miles per stay. Best western is 250 per stay so at a BW you'll need 2 nights not in a row at the same Hotel or 2 different Hotels 2 nights in a row.

Remember if you go the hotel route to Join that Hotels program and get a # before you actually stya in order for it to count.