FlyerTalk Forums - OnePass Changes Effective Aug. 17, 2008

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Damn that H fee is gonna hurt :(

Shoot the messenger! j/k

thanks for the heads up

Quote:

Originally Posted by Peninsula (Post 10048492)

I'm not happy about these at all. There's a permanence to this that bothers me. Impose a fuel surcharge on reward travel if you like, but don't mask it elsewhere or call it by a different name. These are the types of changes CO will "forget" to relax once economic conditions reverse.

What makes you think that fuel surcharges would be rolled back?

They are actually not masking it - they are calling it what it is. It is a fee to upgrade/redeem inside a time window/redeposit a reward. The redeposit one will hurt a lot; the others don't affect me personally all that much.

I'm intrigued by the instant ticketing and how that is supposed to be a benefit for us as passengers. Online we've always had that option. I guess this way we also get the 24-hour change/cancel/refund on phone bookings, too. One thing this might do is formalize the forgiveness of the change fee to buy up to a higher class of service for folks who have to buy through a TA or lowest available fare for business purposes and then paying up to eiter a 100% EQM fare or a Y-up or something like that. That's the only real up-side I can see from this announcement, but it is a stretch.

Unless a "fuel surcharge" is added to reward travel, then it's definitely a mask. Make no mistake, these are policy changes.

I will give CO credit for not imposing fuel surcharges on award tickets.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Peninsula (Post 10048646)

Unless a "fuel surcharge" is added to reward travel, then it's definitely a mask. Make no mistake, these are policy changes.

I'm no fan of any of the changes, but honestly, I expected virtually all of them (except the copay increases) in light of the inevitable "mirroring" efforts that will progressively take place between United and Continental, regardless of the price of fuel.

That H fare BF upgrade fee is really going to hurt.

Quote:

Originally Posted by OPFlyer (Post 10048794)

That H fare BF upgrade fee is really going to hurt.

I agree...one of the drivers to booking H fares was the combination of higher EQM AND no copay. The benefit of booking an H fare just dropped a couple of notches...

New fees were inevitable... but I'm glad that Continental, unlike most of its competition, is protecting its most loyal Platinum Elite travelers with the least fees. ^^^

Quote:

Originally Posted by CO Insider (Post 10047356)

Hi Everyone,

I wanted to give you a heads-up about some upcoming changes to our OnePass program. As I’m sure you know, the record-high price of fuel is having a direct impact on our fares and fees, and the OnePass program is no exception. While I can’t guarantee there won’t be more announcements this year, these are the changes that’ll be taking effect in the next 30 days:

New instant ticketing requirement for continental.com and phone bookings. Effective Aug. 17, 2008, all customers booking travel at continental.com or over the phone with Continental Reservations will be required to purchase tickets at the time they make their reservations. In these cases, we will allow the flexibility to make changes to reservations within 24 hours without incurring change fees. This includes canceling your reservation and requesting a refund to the original form of payment. For the majority of you who are already accustomed to instant ticketing, our new 24-hour window for fee-waived changes and refunds will be an improvement. This policy will also include OnePass Reward Travel. Customers redeeming OnePass rewards will be given a three-day ticketing time limit if there are not enough miles in their OnePass account, allowing time for mileage transfer requests or to purchase miles through the Mileage Purchase Option. Here are the additional terms and conditions:
- The 24-hour timeframe is defined as the 24-hour period starting at the time the reservation is completed.
- There are no exceptions to this policy for OnePass Elite members.
- Tickets exempt from this policy include group tickets and tickets purchased using Western Union, cash or eCertificates. These reservations will be placed on a courtesy hold to allow the required ticketing arrangements to be made.
Reward change fee and redeposit fee increases. Effective August 17, 2008, our fee for OnePass reward changes and reward redeposit fees will increase to $150, bringing them more in line with the change fees we have for most restricted fares. Currently, these fees are $35-$50. Our Platinum Elite members will continue to be exempt from all reward change and redeposit fees.
Close-in ticket fee increases. Effective August 17, 2008, our fees for close-in reward bookings will increase to $75 for all reward ticketing within 21 days of departure. Currently, these fees are $35-$75 for travel within 14 days. For our Platinum Elite members, the fees will remain unchanged ($0 for ticketing 15 days or more or in advance, $35 for travel within 4 to 14 days, and $50 for travel within 3 days).
BusinessFirst upgrade reward copay increases. Effective August 17, 2008, we will be raising the upgrade service fees for our BusinessFirst mileage upgrade rewards. Most increases are $50, some are $100, and some are unchanged. Below are the new BusinessFirst upgrade service fees by fare class:
- Y:$0
- H: $100 ($200 for Hawaii)
- K/M: $250
- N/B: $350
- O/V: $400
- U/Q: $450
- All other fares: $500

More information about these changes will be posted on continental.com shortly.

A huge :td: to these increases, although it is good that Platinums are exempted from most.

The redeposit/change fee is going to hurt me the most.

In order to even get a BF award ticket, we have to book months in advance and sometimes as a Y ticket. There are always changes involved in these types of tickets, at least for me, because I can never book it as I need it when the seats are available.

Now my "free" tickets are going to cost me $150 because I don't think I've ever issued a ticket that I didn't need to change.

A fee is understandable, $150 is obscene. Particularly since the change could result in seats available for sale if the awards aren't released back as award seats.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mary2e (Post 10048875)

In order to even get a BF award ticket, we have to book months in advance and sometimes as a Y ticket. There are always changes involved in these types of tickets, at least for me, because I can never book it as I need it when the seats are available.

Now my "free" tickets are going to cost me $150 because I don't think I've ever issued a ticket that I didn't need to change.

That's exactly why there is money to be made from such a change fee.

Well, I think it's just about time to stop collecting airline miles, pay for the ticket I want, and switch to a hotel loyalty or cash back card.

Ditto for shopping on COs portal. Hilton just started one.

Most often, I either spend money for hotels or money for airline tickets, or a combo of both.

I guess I'll start buying my air and getting the hotel as a reward.

Quote:

Originally Posted by sdm1130 (Post 10047437)

This one will probably hurt me the most. :td:

I must agree with the other posters - overall these do not look all that bad. It could be much worse (let's not hope it does get any worse)!

<rant>
The airline industry as a whole is (obviously) in trouble and I don't think that pushing all sorts of fees on to customers is going to produce a positive end result. Many of these additional fees will impact CO's most frequent flyers which really is a shame - some of the Plat discounts are obvious exceptions to this.

I would love to see CO explore alternative (and more innovative) revenue streams rather then just follow all other major carriers by adding a bunch of fees. Finding these alternative revenue streams could really set CO apart from the other carriers! It's time to really start thinking outside the box.
</rant>

Out of all the changes, I care the least about the copay increases - they were a bad deal to begin with, often costing as much as a roundtrip mid-level coach fare for upgrades in both directions (except for Y and H's, of course). Even the H copay is only $100 ($200 for Hawaii), which is not totally abusive.

Now that airlines have wised up (for them) and moved from making reward seats available at 330 days and instead utilizing yield management, often times seats that are clearly going to be unsold (say a flight is only 35% full a week out) become available as rewards close in to the flight date. Those are great opportunities for airlines to clear mileage off the books without chancing losing a revenue opportunity. The close-in fee discourages travelers from helping the airline out in that regard.

Quote:

Originally Posted by PSU Mudder (Post 10048950)

I disagree, to some extent. When airlines do not make rewardseats available until withing 21 days of departure, they force passengers who need to or are willing to redeem rewards to wait until a few weeks before departure to book. That forces them to pay the close-in booking fees (and feel lucky that they found reward space to begin with).