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2010 OnePass Program Changes

Hi Everyone, here's a sneak preview of our 2010 OnePass changes, which we'll be broadcasting later today. Hopefully you'll agree that a good many of these changes are actually, dare I say, enhancements!

While most of our 2010 changes actually take effect in 2009, please note their individual effective dates. Here they are:

OnePass Platinum and Gold = Star Alliance Gold. This is old news for many of you, but nonetheless, it’s an important Elite benefit improvement. Effective Oct. 27, OnePass Platinum and Gold Elite members will be entitled to Star Alliance Gold privileges with Continental and our 24 Star Alliance member carriers. This includes access to over 800 lounges worldwide when traveling on an international Star Alliance itinerary (regardless of your class of service), up to three complimentary checked bags, and priority airport services including check-in, baggage handling and early boarding with all Star Alliance member airlines. If you are an Elite member, you will receive a new membership card by late Oct., which will reflect your Star Alliance elite level
Same-Day Change fees will be waived for Platinum Elite members. Yes, that’s right, free. Platinum Elite members will be eligible to confirm and stand by for same-day flight changes for no charge. This will apply to tickets purchased on or after Oct. 1
No more Elite upgrades on Northwest Airlines. This is probably not a surprise for many of you. Effective Oct. 1, our reciprocal Elite upgrade privileges will end with Northwest. Also, on a related note, Northwest has already terminated their Elite companion upgrade program for Continental Elite members
Full Elite Qualification is back. Effective Oct. 27, you’ll earn 100% Elite Qualification Miles and full Elite Qualification Points on discounted fares, regardless of where they’re purchased. To all of our loyal corporate travelers: message received
Partner earning changes. Effective Oct. 27, Elite mileage bonuses, Elite Qualification Miles, and Elite Qualification Points will no longer be offered on flights operated by Emirates, Eva Air, Kingfisher, Hawaiian Airlines, Island Air, Amtrak and US Helicopter
Better Elite bonuses on short-haul flights. Effective Oct. 27, Elite bonuses will be based on the 500 minimum mileage earned instead of the actual miles flown. This falls into the “every little bit counts” category
Front cabin earning changes. Effective Jan. 1, 2010, members will earn 125% base miles on F, C, J and D fares (instead of 150%). Also on this date the Elite Qualification for F, C, J, D, Z, Y and B will be 1.5 Elite Qualification Points (instead of 2) and the Elite Qualification Miles earned will be 150%. These changes will apply to all OnePass members worldwide for travel on Continental
BusinessFirst upgrade reward co-pays eliminated for B class fares. Effective Oct. 27, 2009, the $100 BusinessFirst upgrade co-pay for B fares will be eliminated
New reward charts. Effective Oct. 27, we’ve made several changes to our reward charts. Some reward amounts have increased, but just as many have decreased. But there’s much more than that. There are new region definitions, we’ve added our Star Alliance partners (including three-cabin First Class rewards), and just as important, we have reward charts that are easy to understand. We hope these changes will help you put your hard-earned miles to good use. Our new online reward charts won’t go live until late Oct., but in the mean time, take a look at our new OnePass Travel and Upgrade Reward Quick Reference. Enjoy!
Saturday night stay eliminated for all OnePass rewards. The Saturday night stay requirement, which previously applied to our domestic SaverPass rewards, will be eliminated Oct. 27
New and mostly-improved reward fees. Starting in Dec., our fees for reward redeposits, reward changes and close-in reward bookings will be made consistent, and they will be charged per person instead of per reservation. The good news is the amounts themselves are the same or lower than we have today, and they get even lower as your Elite level elevates. All three fees will be $75 for general members, $50 for Silver Elite members, $25 for Gold Elite members and free for Platinum Elite members. And yes, OnePass travel reward changes outside of 21 days of travel will remain free of charge if there is no change to the origin or destination. These new fees will apply to rewards ticketed (or reissued) on or after Dec. 15.

That’s it for now. I’m sure you have plenty of questions, so let ‘em rip! There’s more goodness to come, but this is all we can talk about for now. Thanks as always for your feedback and tough love. It really does make a difference.

Thanks for the Update

Glad to see that someone else is up early working in Houston.

On first glance I would have to agree that the changes are a plus for the program going into 2010.

Thanks for all your efforts CO Insider.

Thanks for sharing! Much appreciated.

Sorry to see that EQ points will drop to 1.5 for Y fares. This will certainly make it harder to requalify plat on points. What will happen to the B fares?

Waiving same day change fees is very nice indeed -thanks- but CO Gold/Plat = Star Gold does reduce the incentive to go for plat again next year....

thanks for the update...

I love #s 2, 4, and 6. Also I like the reward chart, much easier to read that then having to click through all the series on the website in my opinion.

I am curious as to #7, the change from 2 points to 1.5. Earlier in the year I had only 45k EQM with 90ish points until my international travel kicked in, but it was nice making platinum by buying full fare tickets to short destinations on ERJs. One of the biggest benefits of status is EUA but that option isn't even available if you are on an ERJ. If you are on flights often with first class cabins then you are already gaining plenty of EQM and the points don't even matter much. I just don't see the reasoning as to lowering it to 1.5 points when it really only hurts the regional hoppers who receive almost no benefits already if all they fly are ERJs.

If the threshold remains at 90 points, I would see myself buying fewer full fare tickets on regional jets since the main advantage for me would be gone. It would now take 60 full fare flights versus the previous 45. Overall though, I really like the changes.

Thanks for the update! It is appreciated!

Good Morning and thanks for some news to start the day!

Quote:

Originally Posted by CO Insider (Post 12358401)

[*]Full Elite Qualification is back. Effective Oct. 27, you’ll earn 100% Elite Qualification Miles and full Elite Qualification Points on discounted fares, regardless of where they’re purchased. To all of our loyal corporate travelers: message received

Will this also apply to Copa Airlines?

Quote:

Originally Posted by CO Insider (Post 12358401)

[*]Front cabin earning changes. Effective Jan. 1, 2010, members will earn 125% base miles on F, C, J and D fares (instead of 150%). Also on this date the Elite Qualification Points earned for F, C, J, D, Z and Y will be 1.5 (instead of 2). These changes will apply to all OnePass members worldwide

To be clear, Elite Qualification Miles will still earn be earned at 150%?

Am I reading this correctly that being a Platinum is going to be completely fee-free as of October 27? No SDC, no close-in reward and no other fees?

The big down-side is the cut in F/C/D/J earnings. Will Y/B fares also drop to 125% (or 100% :eek:) EQMs? You do not Y will be 1.5 EQPs so it seems that is possible.

And I'm still going through the new reward chart - HI rewards are higher - but I haven't done a full comparison yet. It is wonderfully nice that it is now a single chart for all carriers. ^^ And I'm also quite happy to see that the RTW rewards have stayed close to the same (only Y went up, to 160K) and that the forward cabin on 2-cabin planes (including CO BF and VS UC) is considered a J reward, not an F reward. It is about time.

Thanks for sharing the details!

Quote:

Originally Posted by mnbv (Post 12358472)

Waiving same day change fees is very nice indeed -thanks- but CO Gold/Plat = Star Gold does reduce the incentive to go for plat again next year....

I get way more value from the waived fees as a Platinum (and will even more since they are dropping even more) than I do out of lounge access on international itineraries. Getting both is quite nice. :cool:

Quote:

Originally Posted by CO Insider (Post 12358401)

Do this apply to EQMs ?

Forgive me if I've missed a thread, but has anything leaked about the likely perks for CO Elites on UA and US?

This looks positive. Looks like CO has been converging Onepass and UA Mileage Plus benefits and listening to FTers.

Of course, the tiers, mileage levels, and upgrade features are still TBD.

I did hear yesterday (unofficial) that there would be seemless ticketing with Star Alliance and reciprocal upgrades.

No details on what reciprocal upgrades means - domestic? international co-pay + miles compatibility? if domestic - with who UA / US? And what about UA E+?

So some of the big stuff is yet to come. But thanks Scott for getting this info to us.

The upgrade chart is for only CO/CM/CS flights. Does this mean that CO will not be participating in the *A upgrade program? Or even upgrades with their new BFF UA?

Also, there is a typo on the EasyPass page. In the ** details for the routing note via the USA you have the word "included" where you probably mean to have "include." And, if I may, I'd suggest/request that you change that to read "via" rather than "include." I spent a few minutes just now trying to figure out if USAir was more expensive for any particular reason. :o

Quote:

Originally Posted by sbm12 (Post 12358543)

The upgrade chart is for only CO/CM/CS flights. Does this mean that CO will not be participating in the *A upgrade program? Or even upgrades with their new BFF UA?

. :o

Maybe that is one of the things that he was not allowed to talk about.

On the net I think these are positive changes for CO (especially the 100% EQM through all channels). The remaining critical question in my mind is what will reciprocity/benefits look like with UA and US?