I have a simple MHT-EWR itinerary.

It looks like 15.00 for 500 miles is the base fee.

I could get 1000 for 30.00.

The "Elite" addin was:

$23.00 more for 500 EQM
or
$45.00 more for 1000 EQM

Is this a reward itinerary?

OK, work with me here. Are you saying this is a bad deal that you were offered?

30K EQMs for $2000? Yes it's a bad deal unless you're willing to trade a price premium in order to fly less.

99% of my flying is FLL-IAH-SEA, which is about 5,800 EQMs round trip. It would take about 5 trips to give me 30K EQMs - at an average cost of $340 all in, I am paying $1,700. I could do a mileage run or buy some of the sale fares to HNL to do it faster and for less money, but I'm just looking at what I've already committed to fly and spend.

Nope. Booked in B class. Confirmed the upgrades instantly on all segments except NRT-IAH, that one is waitlisted.

Yes, considering it practically doubles the cost of the existing ticket.

This may well appeal to someone who has no time/deisre to do mileage runs OR someone who is short at the end of December and wants to retain a certain status.

Edited to add:
I can't get this to come up. When I try to book EWR-HKG in B, I get all the way to the purchase screen with no offer. What am I doint wrong? (I am in the preview site).

Can someone tell me how many EQMS I would accumulate on a RT B fare to HKG from EWR and how much the additional EQMS would cost? Thanks.

I got exactly the same offer with IAH-NRT-GUM RT with B fare. (IAH-NRT on waitlist, NRT-GUM confirmed on 764)


I agree -my original EQM is 6.6c/eqm, and purchase option is $2010/30K = 6.7c/eqm.
So it is basically twice you pay, twice mile you get - it's not great deal except in case you don't have time to do MR.

Double EQMs for double price actually isn't a horrible deal if the underlying price is MR worthy. Were I on another $128 BWI-SEA r/t ticket and I got an offer to double my EQMs for less than $150 I'd almost certainly take it. If I'm on a $400 transcon then the double/double value isn't quite so nice.

Does it explicitly state anywhere that the "Elite Maximizer" is double? I don't see that in the screen shots.

And is there something special y'all are doing to make it show up? I don't see it in the booking process on the few tests I've done this morning.

This only shows up in preview.continental.com, not in public continental.com.
If you check your existing reservation in preview, "Get Extra Miles" shows up instead of "LUFCD".

LUFCD doesn't show up in my itineraries, cause, well, EUA is broken. :D

I was on the preview site but was booking new flights, not looking at existing. I'll check some existing now.

ETA: I see it now. The EQM price changes depending on the RDM price so I'm guessing it is 2x or 3x there, too, depending on which is chosen. Not particularly clear that you'll get RDMs & EQMs if you choose the Elite Maximizer, IMO. On my pending trip I'm being offered 10,582 EQMs for $480 (on top of the $318 for RDMs) so the price scale is definitely variable. But for folks who figured that the $460 EWR-HNL run was a decent MR value, the $480 for slightly more miles is not a horrible deal. If I didn't have to spend the $320 on RDMs to get the EQMs I might consider it, though I don't really need the EQMs this year.

Right now, it only shows up for existing bookings. The option will also be added to OLCI in the next few days.

If you click through to the payment screen, it itemizes the purchase. The double redeemable miles, with the Elite Maximizer option added, results in a doubling of both RDMs and EQMs. The triple miles offer works the same way.

OK. I figured it out by going to a reservation I have booked.

I am on the every-other-year plan with 3 trips to China booked for Jan-Feb 2011.
On trip # 1, TPA-EWR-HKG-EWR-TPA, I paid $1608 all in for a B fare. Based on this fare, the EQMs I will receive are 9078 (TPA-HKG),X2, X1.5(B fare) or 27,200. So I needed 3 trips to get myself and wife (I am a MM) back to Plat status thru 2/2013. This assumes that Plat stays at 75K, not guaranteed.

I was offered an additional 30,000 RDM ($810) and 30,000 EQM for $1,200. I don't need the RDM, but it does not appear you can get the EQM alone. I would like to be able to buy only the EQM and I would

So for $2010 additional (only $400 more than the airfare), I don't have to make the backbreaking trip twice, along with the associated expenses (hotels, misc, etc.) and I don't lose the 5 days of travel. I also don't have to pay 60,000 miles for upgrades I don't need and I don't need to use SPG points for hotels on a trip I now would not need to make. While I am semi-retired, not having to take vacation time for someone who has limited amout available and/or family obligations may be a big deal.

Bottom line, I would take advantage of this as a quick, though not cheap (but reasonable) way to get back to Plat relatively painlessly.

I seem to be in the minority here, but I think this is actually a fairly attractive option. I understand that in terms of price per EQM it may not always be the most economical, but not having to do the mileage run adds some value. In 4Q09 I debated doing a mileage run to retain Plat status, but decided against it because of scheduling commitments to work and the family (holiday season). Paying a few hundred to push me over the line without having to ride it out would have been a nice option to have. As it was I suffered through Gold status for 6 months until making Plat again in July.

The cost could also be well worth it to push over 100k EQMs and get the 4 SWUs. For international routes each SWU could be worth thousands.