Continental Gotcha - help
 

I've been saving my miles on Continental, but just got slammed with the requirement for a 50K tkt because of no Saturday night stay.

Despite assurances that other airlines do the same, UA doesn't for sure. How about others?

What do you think about CO's program. I want to consolidate about 75K a year in travel on one airline. Should it be CO?

Continental has made lots of flyers angry of late, especially by increasing the mileage requirement from 20k to 25k for their saver awards.

United certainly doesn't whack you for a Sat. night stay. A few years ago they tried to impost a 14-day advance purchase, but that didn't last long.

The question about what airline you should fly can only be answered with more information about your needs and preferences.

Your profile doesn't list your home city. You'll want a decent amount of service out of your home airport.

Where do you fly? Do you care about nonstops versus connecting? An airline's route network and/or alliances will come into play.

What do you want to do with your miles? An airline's redemption options matter.

How important are domestic vs. international upgrades?

These and other questions matter...

CO has unlimited free domestic upgrades, but international upgrades are difficult. United has a great international route network, and upgrades aren't too hard to come by domestically, but they aren't all free... and you can't upgrade all fares internationally.

American has a much more liberal international upgrade policy. Their domestic upgrades aren't all free, either...

I'd peruse each of the boards of the respective airlines you're interested in to get a flavor for the preferences of their elites and the airlines' policies.

You can also post more about yourself and your travel habits and preferences in order to get better advice.

DO REQUIRE SNS for 20/25K: CO, NW, US
DON'T REQUIRE SNS for 25K: DL, AA, UA(?), AC(HAS 15k 'short-hauls.')

DO ALLOW A 'STOPOVER': AA (anywhere in 48USA http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif, only airline to allow 1 stopover AND 1 open-jaw for 25K http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif), DL & AC (on a generous list of alternate 'routings'), US (natural connecting cities only.)

NO STOPOVER ALLOWED: NW, UA. CO has a domestic award with stopover for 35K. I wonder if the SNS may be in the stopover city instead of the final destination.

[This message has been edited by Brendan (edited 01-31-2002).]