Does the # of OnePass miles required for a flight ever change?
 

Hey everyone,

I was looking into booking a flight to Europe and it's going to cost me 90,000 OnePass miles to pay for the direct CO flight. My buddy who flies all the time was telling me I should wait a bit before booking to see if the # of miles required decreases. I called Continental and they said that the miles required for a given flight never changes.

Does anyone have any experience with this?

Any advice is greatly appreciated!

Thanks,

Valmont

Hi valmont.

Welcome to FT.

There are basically two types of reward tickets. SaverPass Rewards (Limited availability. Subject to capacity controls. Some partners may have restricted travel dates) which use fewer miles than

"EasyPass" Rewards with Expanded availability but more miles costs.



Check out the Co.com info on reward tickets.


https://www.continental.com/web/en-U...1A9958751D5CFB


Where are you originating? Dates?



Edit: You *may* find EasyPass awards being offerred closer to the flying date so as a general rule the "wait a bit" advice *might* be appropriate (depending or your specifics)

Edit edit: Do you have elite status with CO? If so, what level?

Welcome to FlyerTalk, valmont999!!

There is a notable risk to waiting it out for an EasyPass reward these days for non-elites as they are still capacity controlled, albeit more available tan SaverPass.

There is always a chance that more SaverPass inventory will be released. There is also a chance that there are partner flights that can get you where you're going at the lower rates. If you share dates and cities folks here can probably help out.

Thanks for the advice!

Are SaverPass passengers more likely to get bumped than EasyPass passengers? I've heard some horror stories about people getting shuffled around when they use miles to fly. Is that what they mean by "Subject to capacity controls" in the SaverPass description?

Also - I just checked again - it's 100,000 miles to Europe with EasyPass, not 90,000 as I originally though.

I'd be flying out of Newark and I am not elite.

No, that's not what it means. If you've got a ticket issued you're a passenger just like everyone else. They will not bump you off the plane just because you are on a reward. You may have some issues getting rebooked on another carrier's metal if there is a mechanical problem or something, but that is such a small issue that it isn't really worth consideration, IMO.

Where are you trying to get to and when? We really can help. ;)

Hi valmont999 welcome to FT ^

FWIW
I am not sure the route you wish to fly or the price that co.com is showing to you. But I would caution against using 100,000 miles for a Y ticket. A saverpass BF ticket to he EU is 100,000 miles. It may be better to purchase the ticket out right and save the miles for a more desirable route.

and you wont get kicked off of a plane because you are traveling on a reward ticket, your "purchasing" the ticket just with miles not cash.

There was a thread awhile back about a hurricane in Central America where flights were canceled. The traveler was on a reward ticket using their miles and would only be put on the next CO flight, which was a week later since CO only flies to the country once weekly (Honduras I believe).

I can't verify the authenticity of this, but it is something to keep in mind if you're going to a destination that involves less frequent service.

I believe that was this post: http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showt...ghlight=roatan, and it was Roatan, Honduras.

As with any other flight, always know all of your options. In the cited example, yes, CO only flies/flew to Roatan on Saturday. However, there are/were DAILY flights between Houston and San Pedro Sula (on the mainland) and DAILY flights between Houston and Teguchigulpa. For $100+, the poster could get to these airports and be headed home.

(Mind you that they would have needed CO to cooperate, and would have had to pay their own $$ to get to the mainland.)