I'm trying to do that now. Just haven't figured out where to go for the last 38,000 miles.

I think all customer loyality programs are in for a bumpy ride in the comeing year. As previously mentioned, hotel programs have already raised the points needed for a reward stay. Hilton did that last year on their less than top tier properties. Repaint and re-carpet the lobby and they raise the reward category for the property. Yesterday's numbers from Amex were a shock and if Amex's credit card revenue is off that much and the defaults are increasing then customer spending across the board, both business and leisure have a good chance to be way off estimates for the next two quarters. I wouldn't be too shocked if even Amex changed their progams by the year's end.

Overall I'm not fussed about any of these EXCEPT for the $100 for the "H" fare UG co-pay.

For many people who work in companies who have a "fly coach" policy, booking "H" may be OK, and using own miles to upgrade is OK, but a company will not reimburse the UG co-pay amount, so this comes out of one's own pocket. I'd be more OK with adding another 5000 miles to the mileage amount ...

I don't like this change either, but I really don't see much difference between $ and miles. They already charged 20,000 miles -- which is roughly $300 or so to me. So they've upped it to $400 now. sucks, but it's not like you weren't giving something up out of pocket (your miles) beforehand either.

I just burned the last of my onepass miles, closed my continental CC and moved out of a continental hub so I'm getting a kick out of these responses.


While all the above is true it is a shame that with such a good product that Continental is neglecting their silver and gold customers

Its still a sellers market, so they can continue to hose the public. But as the market turns, hopefully the flyers will hose back

If you look at this more carefully...it is the Gold/Silvers who are getting the biggest shaft.

Think about it...prior to the changes:
Platinum $0
Gold/Silvers $35
Non-Elite $50

After the change:
Platinum - No Change
Gold/Silvers +$115 increase
Non-Elite +$100 increase

And on top of it all Continental is not giving any leeway in the fees for booking close to the departure date for Gold/Silvers as opposed to non-elites.

Come on Continental...throw the Silvers and Golds a bone here!

For now give it 6 months :eek:

Non-elite AA mileage ticket date change: $0.
CO Sliver/Gold mileage ticket date change: $150.

Classy.

Oh yeah, AA also doesnt require a Sat night stay on domestic mileage tickets.

There was a period of a year or 2 in the early 2000s when AA charged a $100 fee for any change on a Y PlanAAhead award, but then AA learned its lesson & restored no-fee time/date changes to the same cities.
F/J & AAnytime were always exempt. IDK about AA elites.

I agree that the $150 fee on CO (although I won't be subject to it) is uncompetitive with one of its primary competitors.

But I've always viewed the Sat night stay requirement as a tradeoff for being able to mix and match Saver/Anytime and Coach/First awards on CO, paying half the mileage requirement for each on a round-trip. You can't do this on AA.

DL has the same half-RT pricing of all awards praised by Ijgordon. Plus, DL doesn't require SNS on all-DL itin.s. But DL does charge a $100 fee for any change.
US has half-RT pricing only on all-US awards--not *A partners. Fee-free changes before first flight on all awards. But if a *A partner is involved, no changes allowed--period to return after flying outbound :td: ! Use it or lose it.

I missed this when it was originally posted, but just discovered today the $150 change/redeposit fee for Gold Elite reward tickets. Very hard to swallow.

I no longer have a preferred airline.

150 change fee for elites is ridiculous. Especially since CO is so stingy on award seats far out. If there were a mechanism to designate preferred flights that you could waitlist for without the fee, I wouldn't find it so egregious.

I had assumed the change fee was $150, but when I changed an international flight it was $200. I didn't see anywhere where it was explicitly mentioned that it was $150 for domestic and $200 international. So it goes.