CO & Onepass, circa 1992
 

While researching for my flight records for my page on http://www.flightmemory.com, I came upon the 1991-92 Onepass member's guide sent to me after I signed on in 1992, plus tickets and boarding passes to my IAH-LGA flights that year. [That wasn't my 1st time on CO, though. I flew IAH-SFO in 1983.]

Some stuff that I find more interesting:

- Airline partners were EI, AF, AZ, KX, IB, KL, LH, SN, SK, TB. Only three remain partners today. (TB was Trump Shuttle).

- The wording about 18-month inactive membership was already in place then.

- Elite program was already in place then. Three levels were Bronze (20K), Silver (40K) and Gold (60K). For every 10K flown (5K for Gold), one gets an upgrade certificate. There's also complimentary upgrade done at the 2-hr mark. EQM can only be earned on CO/COEX flights, plus the last month (1/91) of Eastern's existence for 1992 status.

- PC at ORD, DEN, HNL, IAH, LAX, LGA, EWR (2), PHX, SFO, SEA & LGW. None at CLE, but there was one at Phoenix!

- Executive Pack cost $49.95 and Prestige Pack $99.95. Not too different from what's offered till last year. EP has 4 upgrade certs, PP has 6.

- 2,500 bonus points after first flight. (4,000 from an AMEX student card offer).

- CO sells upgrades at the gate. $25 for 1-750 miles, $40 for 751-1400, and $55 for 1401+ miles.

- Phone number for the OPSC was the same one. But only 7am to 7pm then.

- I believe the BP holder is the actual boarding pass, at least from IAH, with hand written seat and gate number. [I did get a real BP flying out of LGA.]

- Inside the holder are terminal maps at the hubs:

-- EWR Terminal C. Only C-1 and C-2 piers then. There's a PC near gate C100 at C-2 in addition to the upstairs one at C-1. COEX uses gate 100 and 102, while Washington shuttles use 101, 103, 105 & 107.

-- DEN (Stapleton) Concourse C and D. PC upstairs between C17 and C19. COEX D6-D20. Shuttle bus between C16 and D16.

-- IAH Terminal C. The gate numbers were different then. Current D1-3 were I1-3, C14-27 were C4-17, C38 was C37A, and so on. COEX uses C17 (now C27). Only PC in the north concourse.

-- CLE Concourse C. COEX uses C42. No PC.

Anyways, let me know if you have specific questions. I can check if the OP member's guide has the info.

Thanks for sharing!

I only flew Continental once around 1989 when they had the gold golfball livery, and didn't fly them again until the late 90's. I remember being put off by that whole Texas Air, Frank Lorenzo era, so most of my memories are flying UA,DL & NW in that period.

Wow, what a find! I love perusing old stuff like that. The "good old days"!

I remember as a student flying EWK to LAX on CO in FC. I flew about eight flights using AMEX coupons at $199 RT and bumped into FC. Loved those days!

F Class
 

How did the F cabin experience differ from that program year to today?

I'd think those upgrades back then were more easy to come by / more "luxurious" than they are today.

Neat stuff rkkwan. I remembered reaching top-tier gold for the first time. That first gold card was a gleaming "I've arrived" card :p.

I wonder if CO has copies of all the OnePass materials they've handed out over the years - makes for a good mini-museum.

Much more back then. The top tier (gold) had capacity free rewards for domestic/latin america at around 10K miles over the standard levels.

Also two person rewards levels at less miles than x2.

Example:
Two person reward to Australia: 150K for BC, 170K for FC
Back then CO had three class cabin for International. BC was like Economy Plus is today (domestic F). International F had 60" pitch - better than today's BF - but manual seats. CO had fresh flowers in the International F cabin and in the lavatory. Service was better than today.

Go back several years before - the min. aircraft for transcons was a DC10 or 747. Although CO did not do transcon's as their hubs were IAH, DEN, and HNL. Not big at EWR at that time - still People's Express out of the old north terminal.

The standard aircraft for transcons were 747's with piano lounges and chef on board.

great plug in for your website. what is that all about?

You mean Flight Memory?

It's a German website that's been recently ported to English. You can go there and check out the demo. It's basically a database for you to record all the flights you've taken, or think you've taken, or dreamed you've taken; and it'll calculate the distance, sort out what airline, what plane type, what route, what airport is your most frequent, etc.

I am trying to dig up the info for my first CO flight, which IIRC was CLE-DEN in the early 80s on the way to ski A Basin and Keystone.

Don't just assume. Do a little research first.

Back in those days a lot of CO's 727's were from People Express and weren't equiped for serving warm meals, so if you were on one of those birds it was a cold plate regardless of where or when you were traveling.

Let me get some of you "old timers" confirm this. So, EA and CO share one FF program back then, right? Is that why it's called "Onepass", as in "one FF for two airlines"?

And since Trump bought EA's shuttle, they continued to use Onepass instead of starting up their own FF program. Anyone knows how the relationship between TB and EA/CO was?

The CO program was originally called "Travel Bank".

When CO and EA hooked up - they combined the programs and called it OnePass - the name being obvious.

The Shuttles to NY from DCA/BOS used to be PanAm and Eastern. DL and US have them now. Trump took over the Eastern shuttle before US got it.

I joined OnePass when CO took over from PE 1984 (?). I was gold (top tier) for most of the next decade. Those were the good old days! I sued to get $199/RT coupons on a regular basis and UG's on almost all flights. Service was definately better and you could also catch widebodies (a-300's after EA closed) on transcons and shorter flights. I do remember the certs for UG's I think they pre-dated the unlimited UG's but as far as I can remember UG's were easy to come by. The biggest pain was calling at midnight to get on the list. Actually used EA a lot during that time as well because of the partnership. Used to fly the 727's up adn down the east coast lie ewr/PWM and BGR.

Do remember getting an annual letter saying something like thanks for your business you are one of the top 5% of all CO flyers out of EWR.