I currently have 17,464 EQMs and am planning a trip to Europe that will push my balance over 25,000 thus qualifying me for Silver Elite status. Has anyone been successful in calling Continental and asking for advancement of Elite status so I can enjoy the perks (even if they are small) on the trip that will qualify me for Silver status? Or do I need to wait until I cross that 25,000 EQM marker?

You'll have to wait. Unless you were within a hundred miles or so, CO is not going to give you the satisfaction of early elite status.

There are too many factors against it - the #1 being you haven't earned it and the #2 being you could easily change or cancel your ticket and never get the EQM's to make you silver elite this year.

-RM

It can't hurt to call or email the OPSC and ask. Nothing lost if they say, "no." But they might say, "yes."

agreed, but about 17K is waay off from a silver status. I hope it works out for
OP.

As said above, I've always been in mid trip and waiting for miles to post or within a couple hundred miles and had a trip that week when I got bumped. Even then I pretty much had to beg. You might be able to get it but you'll have to hit a new low for groveling, even for this board.

I sent CO an email about this and was told it was not possible. I knew it was a long shot, but thought I'd give it a try anyway! Thanks everyone for the help.

The privelige of walking on the Elite Access carpet is too sacred to bestow on you! Only those who have rightfully earned their place are allowed on the carpet! Allowing you to walk on the carpet at this time would wreak such havoc that the very foundations of Elite Access would be compromised!

No carpet for you!

I guess I will need to wait a few more weeks...

hey
had same situation. my status changed during my trip.

i did: FCO-LAX through EWR. Had to stop at EWR for a few days. When I did the EWR-LAX I was already Silver.

its a big difference: you dont wait in line if you have Elite. that to me is a major plus. also, more pounds allowed in luggage (70 x 2!!) . I did not get any upgrades, but just those two already made me VERY happy. Did I mention that extra better seats open up? and on way back to Rome I was in 16F??

Silver is great

I was successful in doing this. Just call up the OPSC and tell them that you plan on flying more due to XXXXXX, and you'd like Elite status early (not that it would help you much as you can't get EUA'ed on int'l BF flights). The only bennies you get now are the mileage bonus, being able to board first, and (maybe) getting the bulkhead, at least on your TATL flight. Domestically, EUAs are possible, as my record indicates, but I tend to fly off-peak. But I suppose for the security/boarding privileges and the bonus, it'd be worth asking for.

I have gotten bulkhead on international travels without any status. I think the only benefit is the miles unless you are able to land an EUA. But, if you are like me, I get a lot of E135/45 so EUAs are not an issue. However, you can get preferred seating (meaning that you can sit closer to the front of the bus).

I've had it issued in advance for my wife (~24K and going EWR-SFO). I did it over the phone rather than email, as you can actually explain to the person what is happening rather than getting a canned email response. Also, you should make sure that you will actually qualify on your next trip (ie the outbound of a R/T ticket), that you are within a week or two of the trip, and that the ticket is non-refundable so you can play the "I'm definitely going" routine.

They can grant you the status bump for a 10-day window or whatever it would take to cover your travels and the miles posting so it will go away if you miss the trip.

They can do it, and they have done it -- you just have to get the right agent.

S

I was 1000 miles short of Silver last week and they would not bump me up until I took the flight segment (EWR-FLL) that actually got me there by 67 miles. I had to call them and make sure that they changed the status for the return which they did after being on hold for 15 minutes. I am back on the Blue Carpet again.....

Cheers

I am 169 short of Gold, with one 500+2500 miles trip coming up.

I would like to have them advance me gold before the trip.

Which place is best to call, Elite Line, One Pass or WECARE2?

I don't know what these people who claim to be successful said to the reps on the phone, but my experience is that it won't happen. I had actually FLOWN the segment that would advance me to Gold, a r/t JFK-CDG on Air France, but due to some fluke, the outbound never posted. Not only wouldn't CO advance my Gold Status, they wouldn't even accept my proof of travel to manually post the miles until a 30-day period elapsed. I called several times and got the same answer.
Fortunately, I didn't need the higher upgrade priority or companion upgrade priveliges on any of my flights during that 30-day wait period, and the extra gold elite bonus miles were in fact retroactively credited to flights taken subsequent to the true qualifying flight that had posted before the qualifying flight.