Help with BUF or PIT to HNL using OnePass miles, 2 first class tickets
 

I'm booking a vacation for 2 of my relatives using my OnePass miles, and I want to get them 1st class tickets. I have enough miles (150K), and they are flexible about the travel dates. It could be any time from July onward through next year (i.e., I'm looking from July 2007 to February 2008). Given that flexibility, there's a reasonable amount of availability. That's the good part.

However, I've noticed something. No matter what I choose, there is never availability for first class tickets on a Continental flight. It's always on NW as a partner. That's fine, I don't really mind much. But the thing that's more disturbing to me is that when I proceed through and look at the actual flights, I get an itinerary that looks like this (for example):

BUF-DTW (First Class)
DTW-PDX (Economy)
PDX-HNL (First Class)

Is that typical, that they'll send you on economy for a large portion of the trip? It seems outrageous. On the return trip, it might be that the PDX-DTW trip is First Class, but the HNL-PDX is Economy. It seems to switch depending on what date combination I choose. I fully expect the little short 1 hour flights from BUF or PIT to a larger hub might be economy and would accept that. But having a 5 hour flight at economy when I'm putting up the miles for 1st class seems unacceptable.

(1) Is this typical?
(2) Any suggestions on how to get around this?

Thanks for the help.

I just booked reward tix from BWi-HNL and it seemed like they have plenty of inventory in F class when we were looking.

Our rouiting is BWI-IAH-HNL.

DTW-PDX (Economy)
 

What plane is the DTW-PDX (Economy) leg using?

There may not *be* a first class.

~Steve

1) Call up the CO reward desk.
2) Book them on CO, through EWR, or NW, through MSP, the flights are BF (WBC) seats with better food service.

If you can get them to EWR you should be able to snag the non-stop flights in BF, most likely at standard levels too.

If you're having trouble, call in and ask them to check for DL space.

DL space does not show up online at co.com, but I see a lot of it available at DL's site, which should be available to you.

Not sure what length of a trip you want, but as an example, late August is relatively available on DL.

btw, I'm not sure if you're aware, but you're allowed a stopover or open jaw on your award tickets to Hawaii.

So, you could possibly fly the into HNL and return them out of a different island, paying cash for the flight in between. Just a thought if you want to get the most out of your Hawaii reward...

Say what?

Ever seen FC on an ERJ?

I had some issues the last eight or so months with availability showing, they seem to be holding out inventory far in advance. If you look in the next few months you can get an RJ over to IAH or EWR and over to HNL on a reward seat in BF from Pit or such. It seems from my experience the last half year or so, inventory opens up on CO seats not at the 330 day mark but more like the three month mark. Sometimes it's six months out etc... HNL on CO for reward ticket is one of the most sought after ticket on CO from what I hear.

With that long of a time frame you might want to watch when it is high season and low season in HNL also. Not only due to the air travel but due to the costs in HNL fo rooms and such.

But overall I agree it's best to call and work things out over the phone. But if they have not released the seats yet then there is nothing to do if you want CO BF seats specifically except to wait till the date you want to go gets closer.

Personally, I think the EWR or IAH service to HNL on CO in BF is better then NW or DL or such.

Yes, I have.

But more importantly, I've never seen an RJ between PDX and DTW.

It was a 757 I believe. But whether I'm right or not, I know there was a first class on that type of plane because the return flight on the same type of plane was first class, so I was sure it was possible.

Thanks to everyone for all the replies. To summarize, it seems these are the suggestions:

(1) Call the CO reward desk
(2) Ask them to look into DL space, which may not show up at CO.com
(3) Consider non-stop CO from EWR-HNL, or NW from MSP-HNL, and there's better seats and service
(4) 3 months or 6 months in advance may be the best time to reserve, not 330 days
(5) Think about open-jaw in HNL, return from another island

Thanks to everyone - it's helpful to have a little feedback on what I should expect and what's desirable, that way I know what to aim for. It just seemed a little odd to me to get what I was getting from their online system. I'll give them a call in a little bit, and post again once I reserve.

Now, several months later, I'm returning to this task. I've got 150K miles in my account now, and I am looking for a ticket anytime from the last week of June 2008 through the first half of August 2008. The trip should be about 8 days, but that's flexible. I checked online and basically there's nothing available in those months in first class (or almost anything). But, following the advice in this forum, I called up the OnePass number.

I spoke to someone who told me this: they can get me a first class on Northwest from LAX to HNL round trip, but no first class to LAX (this is from PIT I was looking, I didn't try BUF yet). They said they can book the whole itinerary now, with coach to LAX and then the first class to HNL. Then, if I want to cancel and redeposit the miles in my account, it's a $50 fee (for both tickets, $50 total, not $50 per ticket). And, if I find a better routing, with first class to LAX, or basically any change whatsoever, it's the same $50. So, I could basically hold the first class LAX-HNL leg and then get either a better routing (through MSP/EWR) or upgrade my PIT-?-LAX routing to first class when it becomes available.

So my questions are:
(1) Just wanted to check here, but this $50 fee is correct? I don't mind that fee, it's pretty reasonable to me.
(2) The flight appears to be on a Boeing 757-300. Those first class seats seem fine, but not great - standard domestic first class. They don't seem as good as the EWR-HNL or MSP-HNL flights, which have BF/WBC service. Is that assessment correct?
(3) Is it worth booking something like this now and holding it? Or should I just wait at this point for something better? As suggested before, I would really like to get a PIT/BUF to EWR/MSP, and then to HNL. Given that I have a fair amount of flexibility about departure/return (2 months span) and a long time in advance, is it reasonable to expect I can get that?

Thanks in advance.

Looking at EWR-HNL, I see availability in first all over in May 2008. Is it that summer travel plans make June/July/August availability low, or if I wait a month or two should I expect to see some things open up in July/August?

OK, a little more info. I started searching MSP-HNL and EWR-HNL directly and found some availability. I thought the rep would be better at finding it, but maybe not. Anyway, I can find MSP-HNL (NW) with WBC/BF availability on dates I would like. If I search PIT-HNL on those same dates, it comes up with nothing for me. So, would a good strategy be to look MSP-HNL and EWR-HNL, find dates that have a flight I want, and then call up onepass and tell them I want to go PIT-HNL on those dates, and give them the MSP/EWR-HNL flight I found that has availability? Will that kind of strategy work well? I don't care if the PIT-MSP/EWR flight is first class or not, just want the first class on the long flight.