lstoner,

Whichever airline you go to for a comp request, in addition to a copy of the latest statement from your current frequent flyer program, include a copy of last December's as well, which will give a picture of your total activity from the year before. Between last year's summary statement and the this-year-current statement, the comp agent can better guage which level to assign.

I was in a hurry to get comped on UA since I had lots of itineraries to book (the whole rest of this year's, or at least what was known at the time), and I was just as much in a hurry to stop flying CO as an objective in and of itself.

I called the UA Mileage Plus general number and got hooked up with an agent covering Premier Matches to whom I explained my situation and then directly and immediately faxed the aforementioned documents. A half-hour or so later I jump on UAL.com to look up my Mileage Plus account, and walla!

As of a month ago, I'm now flying business class on 747's (even domestically - try that on CO), not looking back at all at peering through the class divider at empty seats in the business cabin on Continental 777's while sitting in coach and on a OnePass account with 7-digits of mileage with which I can do nothing meaningful, namely, upgrade on international flights. I'm happy, UA's happy, and Continental can go stroke its 7th Freddie.

[This message has been edited by Beef or Chicken? (edited 05-10-2002).]

[QUOTE]Originally posted by Beef or Chicken?:
[B]lstoner,


"This is exactly why I gave CO (and effectively NW, since as partners their FF programs are nearly identical) the boot, enjoying my comped 1K status on UA..."

How did you manage to get comped all the way to 1K? I thought the highest UA would comp is Prem Exec.

[This message has been edited by sea-md (edited 05-12-2002).]

Just to check the water, I e-mailed Beth Shultis at NWA with my concerns about International upgrades from ALL fares. Her answer, to my question about any program changes coming in this area in 2003..."In regards to upgrades on all international fares, that's a tough one. We, like many airlines, do limit what type of international fares are eligible for mileage upgrades. We do this to manage demand for these seats as then are a limited commodity and to avoid fare dilution risk. At this point we do not plan to change this aspect of the program."

Do any of you NWA "insiders" put any hope into the "at this point" qualifier, or should I get back on my white horse and head for AA? ...and what the heck is "fare dilution risk!?!"

The first argument is much more convincing than the second. What she says is that, above all, they limit the fare classes available for upgrade because they can. They obviously feel people are buying the more expensive seats to upgrade so they aren't upgrading the cheap seats.

Second, what she means by fare dilution is that that if they let people upgrade cheap seats, all they'd buy are cheap seats, diluting the revenue that they make.

Buy allowing a premium seat to go to an upgrade, your cost is the "opportunity cost" of that seat. Obviously they'd much rather sell the seat and not have it available for upgrade. Because they will go out not sold, they can either let them go out empty or give them to frequent flyers. Given that one can become a VFF by flying on low yield travel, the airline has to find some way of bebeffiting from allowing you to upgrade. They do this by having a middle ground. If you think about this from reverse logic, it makes sense -- everybody is allowed to "upgrade" the most expensive fares (that is, buy a revenue seat in premium inventory) and that the incentive to fly the airline is that the more you fly, the more "discounted" premium fares (i.e. you can get a premium seat at a cheaper rate) you can have. From the airline's health, it makes much more sense to do it that way than to allow the cheapest seats to always be upgraded.

My DH was an AA flyer. Since he takes so many CVG flights he switched to Delta, since they had direct flights. They upgraded him to Silver Medallion, since he was Gold at AA. Well Tues. well trying to get early seating, he was stopped and told his Silver Medallion is no longer good. He called me & I emailed Delta that even though his company pays top dollar to send him to Kentucky, SLC and today to Raleigh, he will probably never receive the 25,000 base points, since after 7 flights with them he has only 5700. He sends many consultants to these same cities, also at top dollar tickets. Asked them to review the amount of money spent on his tickets this year, which were the last minute, astronomical ones. Also pointed out that he just flew 2500 base miles with AA this year and they have extended his Gold until 2004. Just got their reply which was sort of: we value the big bucks your company spends on you and adore your business, but tough luck. Look online and someday you might find a special going on. My husband emailed me and said he will find a way to fly everywhere with AA. Even if it takes 1/2 a day for a trip to Kentucky. AA is just nicer than Delta.

Istoner,

I am biased I'll tell you up front when it comes to UA vs AA. I left UA in the summer of 2000 for the shear insanity that went on.

AA is the airline for you and I'll tell you the perks first, and the "how to" afterwards.

Gold Member - You get upgrades for every 10K flown. I usually don't use them though, because it is best to turn the 4 upgrades in exchange for 10K miles. Here's why, as a Gold member you can purchase (8 or more quantity) upgrades good for 500 miles at $31.25 apiece. Try finding an airfare for $125 that yields you 10,000 miles. You also get confirmed seats in F 24 hours prior to departure, and a 25% mileage bonus (doesn't count towards status, but it will help later in international upgrades)

Platinum Member - same as the above, but you get 100% mileage bonus (again, doesn't count towards status, but the miles are available for upgrade.) Confirmed F upgrades 72 hours in advance.

Executive Platinum - creme de la creme - I couldn't even possibly do that right now but you can check out all the info at:

http://members.shaw.ca/fewmiles/AA/index2.html

Click on "Elite" at the left to read further.

Now, how to get Gold or Platinum. Join the AA FF plan and then take the Gold Challenge. This is also detailed on the site I provided. Basically, if you fly 10K on a discounted economy fare, you will get 5K, which will get you Gold status with the challenge provided you do it within 90 days. Then, if you're so inclined, sign up for the Platinum challenge. You'll need 10K miles on full Y fares, or 20K on discounted economy, again within a 90 day period.

Best advice is to start the Gold now. Then wait and begin the Plat after July 16 as this will give you Plat status until Feb of 2004. Not too shabby?

Furthermore, once you're Gold you can enjoy the benefits of doing your runs for PLAT in F. Try that on any other airline.

International: AA is real clear on this. You can buy any discounted fare and upgrade with miles only. To Europe and South America it is 25K each way. You can upgrade one class only...buy a coach fare, upgrade to J, buy a business fare, upgrade to F.

They don't pull any of this junk that NW, CO, and DL do about the particular fare class.

There are always some fares, priceline.com and consolidators that don't qualify, but any fare purchased on aa.com or orbitz.com, expedia.com, etc should qualify. Always look at the fare before you buy, call AA and give them the code...they'll be more than happy to tell you. I have been purchasing tickets online for 4 years now and never had a problem with a fare code that didn't allow for upgrading.

Happy traveling. Hope you find this helpful and rewarding as you enjoy the golden years!

If you are diligent and do this correctly you can enjoy all the above for anywhere between $800-1500 at the most. A small price to pay for virtually unlimited F access. Plus you still have the 500K on NW!


[This message has been edited by LLZ (edited 05-17-2002).]