JetSetBen

Here's an interesting offer I just noticed posted on CO.com

Can someone please help me understand this one? I didn't think that it would be possible to earn any CO miles (base or bonus) on *A flights before CO officially joins *A. The requirement is that the connecting *A flight is on the CO itinerary with the CO flight, so I am assuming that your OnePass number is then fed to the *A carrier. Are they already set up to accept that? For CO to give Bonus Miles, doesn't that imply that Base Miles are going to be given too? Maybe I am not understanding this offer correctly.

Earn Bonus Miles for Connecting Flights

Valid Wed., Jul. 29, 2009 - Sat., Oct. 24, 2009 (Time Remaining: 87 days)
Posted Wed., Jul. 1, 2009


We’re expanding our reach by offering bonus miles* for connecting flights on select airlines worldwide. You’ll earn bonus miles for one flight in each direction that directly connects to a Continental operated flight that transits the 48 contiguous United States.

Fly on select connecting flights between July 1 and Oct. 24, 2009 and you’ll earn:

Actual miles flown on one segment in each direction that connects to a Continental operated flight.
150% Elite Qualifying Miles for F, C, A, J, D, Z, Y or B class purchases.
100% Elite Qualifying Miles for all other classes.
50% fare class bonus for F, C, J, D or Z classes.

Adria Airways
Air Canada
Air China
Air New Zealand
ANA
Asiana Airlines
Austrian
Blue1
bmi
Croatian Airlines
EGYPTAIR
LOT
Polish Airlines
Lufthansa
SAS Scandinavian Airlines
Shanghai Airlines
Singapore Airlines
South African Airways
Spanair
Swiss International Airlines
TAP Portugal
Thai Airways International
Turkish Airlines
United
US Airways

Terms and Conditions
*Latin America, transpacific or transatlantic segment must be flown on Continental operated flights and transit the 48 contiguous United States. Travel on Continental to/from Latin America, transpacific or transatlantic gateway cities (Amsterdam, Athens, Barcelona, Beijing, Belfast, Berlin, Birmingham, Bristol, Brussels, Buenos Aires, Copenhagen, Delhi, Dublin, Edinburgh, Frankfurt, Geneva, Glasgow Guam, Hamburg, Hong Kong, Honolulu, Lisbon, London, Madrid, Manchester, Mexico City, Milan, Mumbai, Oslo, Paris, Rio de Janeiro, Rome, Sao Paulo, Shanghai, Shannon, Stockholm, Tel Aviv, Tokyo, Zurich) to/from the next destination must be flown and operated on these select carriers: Adria Airways Air Canada Air China Air New Zealand ANA Asiana Airlines Austrian Blue1 bmi Croatian Airlines EGYPTAIR LOT Polish Airlines Lufthansa SAS Scandinavian Airlines Shanghai Airlines Singapore Airlines South African Airways Spanair Swiss International Airlines TAP Portugal Thai Airways International Turkish Airlines United US Airways. Effective travel dates are July 1 – Oct. 24, 2009. Continental flight segment to/from the gateway city must post to the OnePass account before the connection bonus is awarded. Ticketed Itinerary must contain both the Continental flight segment(s) and the select carriers’ flight segment(s) to be valid for bonus miles . Maximum of one bonus flight segment per Continental flight segment. No bonuses awarded for connecting carriers segments flown to/from Newark, Cleveland or Houston. Mileage awarded: Actual base miles of connecting flown segment. Fare class bonus awarded for purchased F, C, J, D or Z classes will receive a 50% fare class bonus. Elite Qualifying Miles awarded for purchased F, C, A, J, D, Z, Y or B class will receive 150% Elite Qualifying Miles bonus. All other purchased fare classes will receive 100% Elite Qualifying Miles bonus. Elite level bonus mileage on connecting flights is not allowed. 500 minimum mile rule will not apply, actual flown miles for all calculations on connecting carriers. Allow 6 to 8 weeks for other carrier’s bonus miles to post to your OnePass account. All Terms and Conditions of the OnePass program apply. GG ONE TB7711

sbm12

It looks like EQMs, too. That's pretty impressive.

There is nothing in the SkyTeam rules preventing CO from offering credit for flights on non-SkyTeam airlines. Most of the SkyTeam carriers have partnerships with non-ST airlines and offer points for those flights. The interesting bit is that it is limited to a single additional segment (perhaps because they will assume that you take the flight if you are delivered to the connecting destination??).

This actually isn't a terrible way to soft launch the IT integration testing. The number of flights that would need to be loaded from the OALs to CO will be relatively low but sufficient for them to get some real data into their test processes.

The other good news is that it looks like 100% credit in all fare classes, though no elite bonuses, which could be bad. And, at least for now, it is only on the connecting flights.

aacharya

Your post answers your question:

Essentially, 100% base miles for any flight that qualifies, with a 50% fare class bonus. CO is calling the promotion a "bonus" - not the best choice of words.

sbm12

They are calling it a "bonus" because they aren't officially mileage earning partners yet. The extra miles from the Do were bonus miles, too, even though some were EQMs and some were RDMs.

And there are two different bonuses running here. One is the RDM bonus miles (100% on all fares; 150% for First/Biz) and the other is EQMs (100% for most coach fares; 150% for First/Biz/Y/B).

I'm guessing that this is a bit of foreshadowing for what the actual earning plans will look like. No elite bonuses on partners but 100% or greater EQMs across the board. Love it or hate it??

COmciUA

Looks like it was pulled. I cannot access it through any of the links here or Co.com

sbm12

The link in the OP still works for me from multiple systems/browsers.

HeathrowGuy

Absolutely LOVE it. I will miss earning Elite RDM bonuses on partner flights (I can't see CO offering Elite bonus miles on Star partners except on CO/UA/US/Star JV flights -- Mileage Plus and Dividend Miles don't do this and there's no real competitive upside for OnePass to do so), but the abolition of the 100/50% EQM mumbo-jumbo on most partner airline discount tickets would be a HUGE plus for flyers like me who actually run through multiple alliance partners throughout the course of an Elite year.

COmciUA

When I click that I get a page that says I need the 5 digit promo code. I go to my CO.com "onepass news and offers" page and I do not see that offer anywhere. I am signed into Co.com.

sbm12

I was actually somewhat curious what your take would be as you previously stated you'd be annoyed at the loss of elite bonus miles. If there are elite bonuses on the JV carriers that would likely cover a pretty significant chunk of the flights OnePass earners take on partner metal.

And I agree that the base level of 100% EQMs across the board would be great. Of course, will they do that but still only offer 50% EQMs for 3rd party bookings of CO flights? The plot thickens...

sbm12

Try going here (http://www.continental.com/web/en-US...s/airline.aspx) and then clicking on the 3rd entry down - Earn Bonus Miles for Connecting Flights.

I see it both signed in and out.

COmciUA

Thanks SMB ^. That worked.

HeathrowGuy

Some thoughts:

1. CO won't be directly competing with its Star partners to the same extent it had to directly compete with Delta.

2. Now is not the time to be penalizing incoming business from any point of sale -- "briefcases v. backpacks" choosiness was sexy in an up economy, but the disincentivies make no sense in a down market where every dollar counts...and the dollars are concentrated on lower fare tickets for the time being.

3. Harmonization with UA and the JV partners will increasingly limit CO's ability to "go its own way" with respect to sales/marketing (and many other things).

ual744777sta

If only United had this......

COmciUA

Seems like this is a great offer for 1) those who are already CO Hub based and can connect through one of *A's hub from a CO flight and 2) those based remotely that are flying to one of CO's Hubs via a UA Hub, ex SEA-ORD on UA > ORD-IAH on CO.

Other than that, I don't see much value for now. Am I missing something?

sbm12

Well, it seems to only be valid for international flights, so the above example would get you precisely nothing.

This is great for folks who would normally book onto NW codeshares to Asia or connections in CDG/AMS going to Europe/Africa. Those customers can now book on NH, SQ, LH, LX, etc. for the connecting segment and still get credits. Since co.com is now selling those flights it is particularly nice.