CO Platinum
 

Hello All,

I joined the Continental OnePass program in April after the changes made on Air France Flying Blue... my move from Europe to the Tristate Area helped as well...

Anyhow, I just reached Plat Level with CO i wonder if there are any noticable differences compared to Gold. Looks like seat selcection is the same, luggage and more...

Would appreciate some inside of what might be of advantage here...

Many thanks

Upgrades could clear five days out instead of three. Reward availability might be better too. I can't think of anything else that jumps out at me.

PS What took you so long to hit Platinum? ;)

The major difference, IMO, is the ability to change/redeposit awards with no fee. There's also lounge access for Platinums on int'l itineraries (though with the *A move, it's believed that benefit will extend to Golds as well).

Other than that, the levels are much the same. There are a couple threads out there on Gold vs. Plat, and the general concensus is that it's about the same, and it's not worth going out of your way for Plat. That said, if you're going to fly it anyway, there is some incremental benefit.

WOW. Congrats. How about some tips on how you reached Platinum so quickly! I just reached Gold, and I fly all the time.

Quick one... I assume the fee for a upgrade ticket stays same same (depending on booked fare)

I made through the following roundtrips:

EWR ORD, EWR LAS, EWR HKG, EWR HNL, EWR MIA, EWR SFO

All above during Double EQM period...

Have coming up

EWR NRT, EWR HAM (2x)

What is considered "International" for this benefit? Canada? Mexico? Caribbean excluding San Juan and St Thomas?

I bet it's double EQM B or higher fares.

This is a very significant benefit.

It has been stated several times by CO officials that CO Gold will be *G.

From the FAQ:

Not to mention the mega-million lottery chance of an op-up. Only plats are entitled to even be considered.

What are you basing this on? CO doesn't have a carrier-wide policy specific to how op-ups are processed. And I recently was on a flight where there were 9 op-ups and I'm pretty certain that not all of them were platinum elite, mostly since I was still only gold at the time. ;)

Wouldn't you qualify an overbooking of eight as a little unique? Yes there is no official policy, but it is most probable the concierge would look to the plats first for op-ups.

A single EWR-HKG B fare r/t, for about $1,600 (before upgrade co-pay) gets approximately 48,000 EQMs under the double EQM promotion. Then maybe a transcon or few.

While we've lost the 125% vs. 100% RDM bonus, the most material aspect of Platinum vs. Gold has stayed consistent ... upgrade priority. This matters much on routes such as EWR-IAH, EWR-SFO, EWR-SEA, etc. On those routes, not even all Platinums get upgraded, and Gold is generally useless.

There are of course some softer benefits as well, and I think CO goes out of its way to appreciate its Platinums, particularly when things go bad. And I've had my share of TPAC and TATL OpUps as a Platinum.

Heck, the difference between Plat and Gold is a mere 25K EQMs, so if you have a chance to go Platinum, by all means, do it.

I continue to believe there are too many Platinums and would welcome a tier above that level for the truly frequent flyers.

I don't know just how uncommon it is for them to have 9 op-ups on a flight; what I do know is that the statement "Only plats are entitled to even be considered" is not accurate. That is all I was addressing.

I do believe that platinum elites are generally prioritized but because there is no set rule claiming that there is one is misleading and ill-informed.