can someone please tell me 1) Is the 500 mile bonus for booking online is that 500 for roundtrip or 500 each way? 2) Are the bonus miles counted twards the 25,000 miles to become an elite member?

Can't answer part 1, but the 500 bonus miles are not elite qualifying, thus they do not count toward status.

The booking bonus is per intinerary, one way or round trip.

The 500 bonus miles are for the entire journey, no matter how many planes you ride on. And that benefit is going away as of Dec 1, 2007, so basically: fughedaboudit!

The only way you get Elite Qualifying Miles on CO is to fly your butt in a seat for that number of miles. The one caveat here is that you get 150% of the EQMs for buying one of the most expensive economy fare classes, or the 1st/BizFirst class fares (H and Y in economy, and most first-class/bizfirst fares).

As an example, I will make Platinum this year (which requires 70,000 EQMs) by flying my butt in seat about 55,000 actual flight miles, but I purchased several H-fare and R-fare tickets that gave me the 150% EQM earning rate which will net me over 75K EQMs.

And just a tip for you: don't bother trying to earn Silver on CO. Its almost totally worthless. You've gotta be Gold to get any of the Elite benefits CO touts. Silver Elite on CO is analagous to the advertised 25,000 mile domestic free ticket: yes, that award is offered in theory, but NO, you'll never actually get one in the real world. Silver can be attained, for sure; but no - you'll never get an upgrade.

Deleted - too late to the game.

thank you everyone for your helpful answers

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I disagree. In fact, there are quite a few people who would disagree with you. Silvers are regularly upgraded on many flights. Flights to the Caribbean, for example. It all depends on what route you're on and how many F seats are actually sold. Some routes are better than others. EWR-SFO, for example, I've not been upgraded on in quite some time -- as a Platinum.

I would have to disagree. Elite access lines for check-in and security, preferred seating so you can almost always get an aisle or window near the front, pre-boarding to guarantee overhead space (key), 25% mileage bonus and upgrades on leisure / vacation routes such as florida and the caribbean are all pretty good reasons for me. I was even upgraded on EWR-IAH once!

Silver is worth it. But shoot for Gold. I have had luck with upgrades on a few routes deemed "difficult" as a Silver.

The 25% bonus is nice and elite baggage claim is great! I'm going for Gold for companion upgrades and grabbing exit rows at reservation time. ^

As a silver I got upgraded a few times this year on CO and NW.

Silver gets 50% mileage bonus, not 25% like on most other airlines.

Ya know this is the second time in as many days I have read someone saying the FL routes have upgrade potentials. I fly to TPA every stinkin week and I am batting about 50% on my IAH-TPA runs on Sundays, and I cannot even BUY an upgrade out of TPA on a TH evening.

Now if you are saying "fly to FL on a Sunday morning at 7:00am and then fly back out on a Tuesday night at midnight and you can get upgrades" then say it.

In my experience it is difficult to get upgrades on the FL routes (at reasonable times) - started Silver and will reach Plat next week. Hopefully I will find that as a Plat things get a little more generous.

My wife and I (each Platinum) fly a lot of EWR-TPA and some IAH-TPA (doing this next Thursday morning) and we are batting about 60%.

Thankfully I will hit Silver as of my last trip in December RT from SFO/ATL; My most common flight is SFO-IAH-BOS (Logan). What are the odds Silver will yeild me any upgrades on that route when I fly it? Or how about upgrades between SFO-Chicago?

I am for sure going to shoot for Gold next year too!
Eric