HI.

Long time lurker posting for the first time.

I've just about had it with Alaska Airlines and am considering dumping MileagePlan for OnePass as my secondary frequent flyer program. Continental tells me they'll comp me Platinum, and I can put 75,000 miles onto Continental in 2008 without much hassle.

Are there any flaws in my doing this? Are there any Alaskans on this particular series of tubes that could enlighten me. Any ex-Alaska Air fliers that made the switch?

THANKS IN ADVANCE FOR ALL YOUR HELP.

Welcome to the CO Forum and to FlyerTalk, for that matter!

What's your goal in switching? If you're interested in upgrades, CO probably isn't the airline for you. If you normally fly full fare, like a full Y, then certainly consider CO. If you plan ahead, it can be easier to get an upgrade. Of course, if you tend to fly FC, I think that CO has the best domestic FC. (Though AA has an excellent business product on its B762's)

What routes do you normally fly? Aside from partner carriers (like Alaska!) CO doesn't offer much in the way of flights up and down the west coast.

If you still intend to fly Alaska occasionally, you might want to look at NW instead of CO if NW will comp you. For each elite tier on NW, you'd get the same benefits flying on CO metal as if you had that elite status on CO (and vice versa). There are some EQM penalties for certain discounted fare bases though. In addition, if you're Gold of Platinum on NW, NW will give you (you have to ask) 8 space available upgrade certs for Alaska flights. I have see a lot of NW elites complain about not being able to use these, but I've been able to use them on all but 1 segment of my last 5 Alaska round trips. This is also on $100 r.t. fares! This beats the pants off the upgrade success ratio I've ever seen on CO.

Quick question, and sorry for the ignorance, but how did you get Continental to "comp" you Platinum? Is this something that is easy to do? Is it an incentive to lure you away from your current airline of choice?

Thanks

Traditionally airlines will do a one in a lifetime comp of status to lure their competitors' customers over. That said the rules seem to be changing from just a straight comp to more of a challenge (i.e. we'll give you the status now but you have to fly at least x,xxx miles over the next xx weeks to keep it).

CO historically has comped status from competitors but not partners unless some unique situation exists. In the case of AS my guess is that they would offer a comp but the level of the comp would depend (or at least I assume) on the amount of miles/tickets flown with AS.

You can find more information on the status match master thread or in the CO FAQ.

Continental would give me platinum based on my status with United...I don't know about Alaska.

The plan I'm looking at would have me keep my United status by flying them internationally year-round as well as transcons from Feb-Sept. I'd then fly CO on transcons (ANC-WAS, ANC/BOS) from Sept-Feb, to get to SEA, and deposit any AS miles earned going to Frisco or LA into my CO FF account.

Questions:

-Are upgrades truly that difficult to get as a Plat on CO? The routes I think I'd be using would be ANC-SEA, ANC-HOU SEA-EWR, SEA-HOU, and HOU-WAS. Anyone care to share their best guess on the percentage chance of an upgrade clearing on any of these routes?

-Can you see on continental.com that an upgrade will clear? Can a CO agent tell if you call before booking?

-Are OnePass miles really that difficult to use? I'd be looking to redeem miles for pairs of 1st Class domestic tickets booked 1-3 months-out as well as pairs of business seats to South America, Europe, and Israel.

-How easily can Plats get that last minute redemption seat(s) in any class, at the saver rate, to somewhere because of a death in the family?

-Does CO try to put elite luggage out on the conveyor belt first?

Upgrades depend on the cost of the fare you purchase (the more expensive the better your odds), when you fly (flights in high demand are very hard to upgrade on). And any flights with a connection to on of the hubs (IAH [Houston] and EWR) will generally be harder to upgrade on. Instead of upgrades, CO sells relatively inexpensive FC fares and Y-UPS (full fare coach that allow for automatic upgrade to FC at the time of booking) and these two methods are very prevalent.

Yes. You will also receive notification via a mechanism you can chose (e.g. email)

Again, YMMV. Some here report pretty good luck with using miles, although even the most fanatical CO partisan admits one has to be "flexible." In my experience, international business is exceedingly hard to book. If, on the other hand, you're willing to use the "EasyPass" award level (where you're spending twice the miles) then domestic FC should be attainable. In my experience, booking a family of four at the standard level on any kind of reasonable itinerary in domestic coach was about as close to impossible as you can imagine.

Don't know, sorry


Technically yes, but in actuality it is very hit or miss.

It depends on fare class, but the following are estimates of the average Platinum upgrade rates on the routes in question: ANC-SEA - 75%; ANC-IAH - 60%; SEA-EWR - 5%; SEA-IAH - 50%; IAH-DCA - 5%-10%, depending on day and time.

It is easy to get Standard business class reward tickets to Europe if you are willing to use other Skyteam partners. South America is more difficult because the only choices are CO, DL, and CM, and all carriers sell many business class seats on the Southern South America routes. Northern South America is easier. US-TLV is the most difficult.

There is no priority given to people with family emergencies when searching for standard reward seats.

Yes, you're right on the money with that. In my last 30 one-way trips, it was HIT=29, MISS=1. I think that's pretty good, don't you?

I had good luck with my priority luggage as well in the past. I haven't had to check any in over a year now though.

Upgrades on EWR-SEA are rough. I've flown that leg as a silver and gold for 4 years now and been upgraded a grand total of 4 times. 3 of them were in the last month, but I was traveling on: Thanksgiving Day, X-mas Day, New Years Eve. So even though I was only silver at the time, I made sure to stack the odds in my favor. Otherwise my ratio for "real" flying was attrocious.

I had better luck with my various SEA-IAH legs, probably getting around 50% as a Gold, and maybe 25% as a Silver. (Far fewer legs as a sample though, I am EWR-heavy.)

As a SEA-based traveler though, I can't recommend the President's Club enough. The SEA Club is fantastic, the ladies who work there are professional and friendly, they recognize all their regulars...they just love their jobs it seems. I use the PClub even when I am flying AS/NW/DL from far away gates, if time allows.

Yes they are. I don't know about those routes, but upgrades are processed by elite status, then fare, and then time of purchase. A Y-UP fare allows you to upgrade upon purchasing a ticket.


No. The CO agent can tell you five days before departure if you're platinum. However, it could mean you're buying an expensive, last-minute fare--a Y, which could allow you to upgrade immediately in any event.


I haven't had a problem. If you're platinum, flexible and plan ahead, you should be fine. One to three months out to Israel could be tough--in fact, all routes aren't that easy for last minute, BF standard reward tickets.


I don't know if a death in the family will make it easier to get a "cheap" reward ticket.


Yes. It doesn't always work--maybe half the time--but the really do try.

In my 250+ trips as a CO elite, I had my elite bags come out in the first third of the baggage no more than once or twice.

I guess that evens out the averages...

Good timing for this thread. I am another UA 1K looking to move some of my flying to CO. My only reservations about CO are how horrible the Y seat pitch is (I am 6'1" with long legs,) and how tough it is to get NonePass awards. I have heard good things about CO domestic F and about the CO employees as well.
How do I go about getting a status match? Do I just call CO and fax over some UA statements?

One more issue: Yes, CO Y pitch is the pits (same as UA E-) but it can also be virtually impossible to upgrade to FC, so many plats on very expensive fares are constantly sitting in CO's E-; do you really want to subject yourself to that misery?

Let me get this straight: CO economy seats are terrible and you never get upgraded nor can you ever get award space, yet you people over here on this board are fanatically loyal to CO while actively dissuading new people from flying CO as top tier elites.

If there are no upgrades, no award seats, and no leg room, most rational humans would conclude that Continental sucked as an airline one chose to fly. So...why do you fly them? And why do you like them? Are your $cientology or Mormon handlers forcing you to fly this airline?

I swear, it seems almost as if you don't want new top tier elites to fly "your" airline because of competition or something. Come on, Pod People, help a man out here with a little more information!