Newbie to Continental & OnePass
 

:) My husband and I have collected a few Onepass miles on trips from Calgary onto Houston. ( We are AE regulars). We would like to travel from Calgary-Houston-Aruba return in March 08. We would like to book 4 Biz or 1st class seats. How far out can one make bookings at 60000 points and gulp, 120,000 points? Generally how many 60000 seat awards do they alot per plane? Can you book one way on the first available date ( and how far out is that?) and book the return for a change fee? I am a total newbie for booking award travel on Continental, so any help, tips, tricks, etc. would be very mcuh appreciated. Thank you from Canada.

You should be able to find "most" of the answers here:

http://www.continental.com/web/en-US...l/default.aspx

Well, I don't think the above link provides "all" answers. :p
Especially the one below, which I think is most important.

However, neither I can provide much help...:( Sorry.
I don't think CO disclose the number. (Please correct me if I'm wrong.)

Sorry.. I've corrected my post to say "most" :p

Thank you for your help. I did check the website, and I did phone a Continental OnePass agent. This did not answer my questions that are perhaps outside the box. For example, AE allows its customers to book 355 days before departure date. There are generally 2 Biz class seats and 4-8Economy class seats (depending on the size of the plane) that are offered at standard level of points. One can then use double or more the points when these seats have been filled. The agent at OnePass basically told me that if I wanted seats that I should use double the regular points! He was also not helpful in clarifying when the regular award seats are loaded into the system. I was hoping that someone could help me out with this. Thanks

Your best bet would be to use the online reservation (for reward) to see how
far you can see. I believe its 331 days in advance, but you'll get the
idea from the online-booking system.

Again, the number of saver awards available on the flight is anybody's guess,
but I'd recommend you keep checking since things may chance.

I've seen saver award seats available only a few days prior to the flight.

But its ones guess.

Thank you CPX!

Also, try checking Delta. Yeah, it'll be a hassle going YYC-SLC-ATL-AUA (with SLC-ATL having to be red-eye), but I managed to snag 4 First Class award tickets at the lower levels on them for this summer. You might be able to have some success taking DL one way, CO the other.

CO doesn't traditionally release all their seats at 330 days and then let their PAX scoop them up at midnight. They hold them and release them in batches closer to 9 and 6 months out, with more around 6 weeks. There is no solid rule for knowing when they will be available or how many will be available.