Hello All,

So, I am executive platinum on Continental with 150k miles. I have not used any thus far. For the first time, tonight, I just tried to book a simple one-way flight from Newark to Cleveland, in April, to run a personal errand. Guess what? The Continental rep tells me that points cannot be used on one-way tickets. Then, she tells me that there are no tickets for "lower points fare" of only 25k miles. So, I would have to use 50K miles(!!!!!!) just to be able to go from Newark to darn Cleveland! By that logic, the advertising Continental keeps sending me saying "I have enough miles to book a trip to Europe or Japan" seems mathematically impossible. I'm really ticked, because these loyalty programs seem to be such a scam. Unless it is just a game that has to be payed - they're inviting people to try to be devious to beat their system. What do you guys think? Sounds like I need to learn a lot about this. Even worse, I have a lot of Hilton points, I can already imagine the type of tricks they will try when I try to book places like Waldorf in NYC. Very frustrating. Hope you guys can provide some feedback.

You just need to learn the tricks of the game. And I will be first (but definitely not the last) to tell you that redeeming for domestic flights is not a good use of miles.
As for the Hilton and generally hotels, it is usually much better than airline redemptions. If the standard rooms are available for revenue booking, you should be able to book with points.

Not all airlines allow redemption of one-way awards, although more are starting to.

Right now American and United do, but as you've found out Continental doesn't. That may change as the United/Continental merger continues.

The advice that domestic awards are generally not a good use of miles is a good general rule, but it is based on the comparative cost of purchasing the ticket instead of using miles for it. For example, it is generally accepted that you get more "cents per mile" by redeeming for International First or Business Class tickets than for domestic coach tickets. Others argue that you would never pay the $10,000 or more for an International First Class ticket if it came out of your pocket, so the comparison is not completely valid.

Leaving that aside, if you have to fly domestic on short notice, and the "cheap" booking classes are sold out so you'd have to pay full fare, redeeming miles for a domestic ticket could be a good bargain. It's based on your personal situation, so as they say, "YMMV" (your mileage may vary).

One other tip: If you can't get a "saver" award in domestic coach, before you pay the double price for an "anytime" coach award check out availability in First or Business class on the routing. You may be able to get the upgraded seat at the same number of miles as the "anytime" coach award, and in some cases you can pay even fewer miles to sit in the pointy end of the plane than back in cattle class.

CO OP Program is known as a joke...(and what UA MP GM/2P/1P/1K/GS are scare of the changes...)

By the way, only the dAArkside has EXP, your level is CO OP Platinum...

The availability is better depending on your status. Do you see under your profile that you are Platinum? I have a hard time believing that you could be a PL member and only have 150k miles to use when you have never used them before. I would think you would have a lot more than that considering the bonuses that elites get. I could be wrong. If that is the case that you don't have Plat, rest assured the availability of awards will be better the higher you get.
Course I could be off base here...

Really? Why?

I read that as the OP *flew* 150k, but I could be wrong... just how I read it. Also, the OP could have gotten Plat in 2009 with Double EQM promos, which would mean that they got Plat in 37.5k BIS miles (or even less if they flew on expensive tix).

Personally, I like how CO does it. I can get a stopover reward for many less miles than some airlines charge for 3 "one-ways."


To the OP:

I'm sure you could find a date somewhere in the future that CLE-EWR is available for "saver-pass" and throw away this ticket. So it'd "only" be 37.5k (25k to CLE, 12.5k to EWR. Also, you have to be somewhat flexible to get Saverpass in most cases... either move your dates a day or two, or have alternate nearby options. What are your dates, maybe one of us can help you with a "cheaper" itin?