I agree that it's not worth sticking with CO post 75k: there's no incremental benefit--and there's an opportunity cost in losing what you could get with another carrier. I have also discovered that Continental's competitors offer more.

American: I have flown 52 segments with American this year. Eight have been on RJ's or Props. I have secured the exit row each time, even buying a ticket on the day of departure. Of the 44 segments I have flown on the rest of the fleet, I have been upgraded to first or business on 43 segments. I have been upgrade on all international flights: two using miles, one using eVIP's (SWU's). American gives eight per year to EXP's. It also offers Platinum (not Executive Platinum) for life after two million miles--miles from all sources: bonus, credit card, etc.

Delta: This company offers six SWU's a year to Platinum Elite flyers. It also has a bigger network that CO. The other thing Delta does is allow passengers to earn the equivalent of EQM's from other sources. On the DL thread, someone calculated that a person could generate 65k MQM (their EQM's) without flying. There are offers to get elite miles by staying at Hilton's, renting from Avis or Budget. You can also get them from an Amex card! Delta also has elite-for-life, including Platinum elite.

What I have come to realize is that American and Delta have a reward/loyalty program. ^ Continental just has a reward program.

Year to Date Elite Miles: 28,621
Year to Date Elite Points: 17

Larry Kellner obviously believes that creating incentives to foster loyalty does not have value to Continental.

While CAL is certainly doing well currently, it remains to be seen what the long-term consequences of this policy will be.

Year to Date Elite Miles: 63,733
Year to Date Elite Points: 68

2007 Elite Mileage:
53,826
2007 Elite Points:
41

29/32 on Upgrade eligible flilghts, and got a companion u/g on 4 of those, so I guess that makes me 33/32 in upgrades. One of the missed upgrades was a last minute standby where I had the EUA and gave it up to go earlier, one was ATL-EWR and one was SEA-EWR, both on cheap fares. Of the ineligible, only one was the ER4, and I got 12 on that flight. Another was the $260 EWR-CGN deal from the spring, where I had 7C/A. The rest were on DL. One US and two AA flights, based on schedules also.

S.

Year to Date Elite Miles: 27,824
Year to Date Elite Points: 19

Most of that from some ole trip from YVR-OTP

YTD Elite Mileage 44,841
YTD Elite Points 52

At the halfway point, guess I'm "on track" to repeat Platinum.

CO
Year to Date Elite Miles: 42,053 (43,061 flown)
Year to Date Elite Points: 32 (34 flown)

15 / 31 Gold Elite Upgrades
+ 3 15k Mileage Upgrades

18 / 34 Total Upgrades = ~53%

Continental Airlines

2007 Elite Mileage: 34,780
2007 Elite Points: 29
I might be making it to Gold this year.

CO Current
EQMs 27,263
Points 14

Some misc credited to UA

Waiting for NW to post to CO (Many screwups, BPs sent to CO, impatiently waiting)
EQMs 10,745
Points 5

Already booked:
EQMs 18,174
Points 4

EQMs: 83,349
Points: 84

ContinentalFan, I've thought of switching away from CO in favor of AA for the second half of the year to get additional status. Could easily hit PLAt, maybe EXP (depending on what I buy), but admittedly am a little intimidated by the AAdvantage program. I've got a trip to NRT coming up and am thinking of JAL, but don't think I can PLAT Challenge on non-AA flights. I could always snag an AA flight, but people ..... about the J-class. Definately not flying CO, as flying to NRT with the "state-of-the-art" IFE on the 777 is not a good way to fly.

Any tips on how to figure out the AA program or is UA the way to go?

CO:

2007 BIS miles: 39,821
2007 EQM: 52,680
2007 Segments: 49
2007 EQP: 82

EQM cost: $0.367/EQM
BIS miles/segment: 812.67

I can't comment on AAdvantage but IIRC AA does fly into NRT should you wish to take them.

2007 Eqm: 46,364
2007 Eqp: 87

I agree with a previous poster that these posts are Penalty Box Thread worthy....add me to the list of those who are guilty.

As of July 3, 2007
2007 EQMs = 96,914
2007 EQPs = 97