Hey guys, I just joined Flyertalk and I'm thrilled to be here!

I'm french and live in New York, so I fly back home about 3 times a year.
For the last 2 years, I've been booking the cheapest flight I could find on the web - a total of maybe 5 airlines, but I finally saw the light, and decided to stick with one: Continental. I started onepass recently, I have 3.5k miles, soon 7k. I don't fly enough to ever get elite status - I don't think - unless I get the chase cc.

So if you have any tip for NSFT (that's not so frequent travelers) like me, I'd love them!
Especially, any advice on how to get bumped (to business): which days of the week are best, time, etc. I've been in coach all my life and getting quite tired of it (up to 9 hours in the air, folks). Or get the best seats.

I know I'm asking a lot, just point me to old threads if they exist.

For info, there's 2 flight/day from Newark to Paris and back.
CO 56: 6:45pm -> 8:55am +1 day (usually a B777-200)
CO 54: 10:0pm -> 12:10pm +1 (B757-200)

Back:
C0 57: 9:55am -> 11:55am (that's the 777 coming back)
CO 55: 1:50pm - > 4:30pm (757)

That's it, thanks so much!

Three RT's EWR-CDG will yield you close to 22,000 miles. Maybe a domestic RT ticket to get the other 3,000 or so and you will have Silver Elite, which gives you a 50% mileage bonus, access to the forward section of coach, and priority boarding and priority baggage tags.

Upgrade to Business will not happen for a Silver. Too many CO*'s and CO Plats who would get an OP upgrade before a Silver, and OP ups only occur when coach is full.

You will never get bumped to business, so forget about it.

If the stars lined up correct, it may happen say if there's empty room in business but coach oversold; still CO will upgrade all the elites before you. You have zero chance.

And if they ask for volunteers to give up their seats for voluntary bump, they'll give you hotel room for next day or put you on another airline. They will not give you BF seats.

3 roundtrips is about 22,000 miles a year. You're very close to qualifying for silver. Just do another US domestic flight to the west coast or something to cross the 25K mark.

thx for your answers.

I'm stupid, so the two RT I've booked so far this year have been 50% miles (through a travel ag I had credit with) so I have 7K instead of the 14K I could have. But now I see I can get 25K/year.

Any more tips are still welcome!

Just keep in mind, Chase CC bonus miles don't qualify toward elite status.

DANG!!! Good to know! Any other good cc? AmEx?

Wait, do you mean the 15K you get for applying, or the one you get using the card?

Welcome to Flyertalk.

Remember that there are two kinds of miles:

• "Banked miles" are a currency you earn based on flying, using credit cards, renting cars, staying in hotels, etc. Banked miles accumulate in your account indefinitely until you "spend" them on award flights.
• "Elite qualifying miles" (EQMs) are a system that keeps track of your flying each year to determine your elite status. You start with 0 EQMs on January 1, and earn EQMs based solely on how many miles you fly in which fare classes during the course of the calendar year. You cannot earn EQMs from credit card usage or other non-airline partners (except Amtrak), and you cannot "spend" EQMs.

For a given flight, you earn both banked miles and EQMs. For example, a single flight EWR-CDG will earn about 3,650 banked miles and 3,650 EQMs if booked in coach and purchased through continental.com (as you've learned, you earn only 50% EQMs on cheap fares purchased elsewhere, and you can earn 150% EQMs for expensive fares and business class). You may also earn bonus banked miles for certain promos, or if you're elite (CO silver elites earn a 50% banked mile bonus on all CO and most partner flights).

One other thing to note: Several CO partners (AF, AZ, DL, KL, NW, etc.) also fly to CDG, and you can boost your mileage earning by taking routings that are less direct. For example, EWR-CDG is only 3,650 miles nonstop, but NYC-DTW-AMS-CDG on NW/KL earns over 4,900 miles (and will earn 100% EQMs if booked in NW "Q" class, which is often similarly priced to CO's transatlantics). Flying AZ NYC-FCO-CDG earns almost 5,000 miles each way, and you may be able to find competitive 100% EQM fares from AZ, too.

Miles earned from credit cards do not count as EQMs. Period.

Here's a wild idea for you: Figure out how many miles short of 25,000 you are and then fly that number of miles more this year. That's how the rest of us do it.

Sometimes, H class on continental can be reasonably priced (150% EQMs) so keep in mind when checking.
Make sure you purchase your discount economy tickets online (for 100% EQM)
Also whatever you book online on continental.com you get a 500 mile bonus banked miles.
Always beware of what booking class you're in!

Thanks for all those answers guys.
It's awesome to find a forum with both knowledgeable and helpful ppl, who don't mind helping rookies like me.