jacklee

i'd assume that continental can think outside the box-- or maybe i'm asking too much?

10k is the price of business class roundtrip from ny-hkg.

i'm currently a silver elite at 42k miles...after the FIRST leg, i'll be around 54k points...enough for gold. while this is great, i'm not sure that the bf cabin vs. cathay pacifics really is worth it. (price is about the same for either).

so i called, and asked if it were possible to do an early upgrade in status- at the end of the day, it means nothing to continental- revenue wise, they'd still get their money, basically there is NOTHING on their part detrimental to upgrading me early to gold since i'd be paying full fare business class, and at the end of my first trip i'd be gold anyway.

the lady i spoke to was very nice, and asked a supervisor, but came back and essentially said, "if you were closer to 50k we could do it, but as it stands...no"


am i missing something here? i understand rules are put in place for a reason- to aco.... for the masses...but shouldn't there be any leeway?

here's the bottom line as i see it (and she agreed with me, but could do nothing).

they get 10k for roundtrip business class.
I become gold after first leg anyway.
I won't be asking for/requiring any special upgrades or anything.
this doesn't eat into bottom line other than extra energy to put "gold status" in the system 2 weeks early....then again, if there was a time value of "energy" then sure, they may lose out on that marginally....

so...looks like i'll skip on gold status this year (since i'll be in asia anyway), and start building my cathay pacific miles (and using their very nice biz seats!!)

/rant off

silverthief2

IMO there should not be any leeway. If there were, what's to stop people with 10,000 miles from asking this, or 0? Additionally, there would be folks trying to take advantage of this by getting the perks of gold and never actually flying the miles. CO did exactly what they should have.

KD5MDK

Apparently there is, and apparently you're a bit outside the leeway they've authorized.

fozz

I guess my big question is why does it matter? If you're already up front, what does Gold buy you other than Silver? The only thing I can think of is the 50% mileage bonus, but it seems silly that would be the hang-up.

blue47

My first thought was what difference does it make - silver vs gold when no upgrades are involved. Then it came to me - 100% miles bonus vs 50%. There is a cost to Continental and a benefit to the OP, both measurable in dollars. Sounds like ticket price negotiation. Nothing inherently wrong with that, but could get unwieldy.

dlen111

i respect your choice, whatever reasoning may be behind it, but unless 4,000 miles means that much to you, i dont see the big deal in needing, wanting or even requesting a gold upgrade?

that' the only difference i can see in the levels.

but if you dont really mind, and you're going to be in asia, id fly cathy and start bulding with them. only if, however, you plan on doing a decent amount of travel on them while in asia. otherwise, the small amount of miles you earn wont do much for ya.

jacklee

1. i told them i'd book on the spot with them a non ref. ticket if they'd do it... ppl with 0 or 10k miles= needs to book more than one leg- my one leg would've done it..period. (not to mention my past 2 trips in the past 2 months are hkg-ewr flights)

2. obviously i would've flown the miles- i even suggested they make it temporary or contingent...

as far as why i want it- in all honesty, it's a mental thing of me saying hah. i'm gold! without that perk, i'd def. just take the nicer CP seats and live with my silver status for the next year...(i'd make silver anyway if i take an 09 econ. class fare with upgrades)...which looking at it from business standpoint even more 'smart' to 'hook me up'...

sithjedi333

Wow, a $10k fare. Throw your weight around, big boy! Bet CO hasn't seen one of those before.

You're right, they should break their rules for you, to satisfy your mental thing.

SuperG1955

CO gave both my wife and I status earlier this year while we were further below the point than you are. The apparent difference - we had ALREADY purchased the non-refundable tickets that would put us well over the threshold. The gave us a time frame to hit an intermediate mark, which we did. We have now surpassed the Silver threshold, will both hit Gold in September and both make Plat in December. This, BTW, is all domestic and on our own dime.

We're very pleased with the way we were treated.

PhillyPhlyer40

Or they should have a program like UA GS. The CO* (which I have been for a while now) is NOTHING!

UA GS could be achieved without even making silver...buy purchasing FULL FARE tix. Why CO never capitalized on this...I have no idea.


I have been giving my $60k-$85K yearly spend to UA, where GS MEANS something. CO needs to have CO* with some 'teeth'.

Bonehead

If I were the CO supervisor, I would have said "$10K nonrefundable ticket, eh? Ok, let's do it. Buy it right now; in 24 hours I'll personally see to it that you're upped to Gold..."

These are tough times. $10k is $10k, plus, you would have a happy customer.

belynch

Am I missing something? What's with the big kerfuffle?

If the OP really wants some "luggage tags" I'm happy to send mine.

jacklee

lol. i'd really like to see how many full fare bf's they get on ewr-hkg routes...i highly doubt it's really that much.

hmm...let's fill this seat up with someone who flies once a year but has racked up enough for an upgrade, or fil lit with someone who's paying full fare and is going to get the status anyway...

bspencerco

^

Not to mention, he gets zero benefit whatsoever over having gold status on a BF fare over being silver. (besides epeenage)

jacklee

end of the day...which is more ridiculous, or has more to lose?

someone who misses gold status (but from his perspective can get nicer seat with another carrier), vs. them losing 10k cause they don't want to give gold status to someone 2 weeks early... (and 4k extra miles)...

while you guys are calling me stupid for wanting to do this...i think it's more 'stupid' that co is willing to skip out on some revenue...(and continued lemming status from me) ...without any downside for them. (seriously, is there any downside to them? there is for me- i pay the same price for a crappier seat vs. cp)