50% EQM on CO
 

I am flying BUF-EWR-BOS and then BOS-CLE-BUF next week.... on CO 50% EQM.

Any strategy to make this 100% that I should try out? I guess maybe the only thing wuold be to try and standby on a later flight?

(Might not be worth it to just gain 1000 extra EQM)

I don't suppose you're contemplating buying up to a higher fare class that earns 100% or 150% EQM?

Nine times out of ten when they book you on a later flight they'll book you in the same fare class.

Unfortunately in this case, you might have to sack up and take the 50% EQM.

Or you could try to get NW to take your CO ticket. There's a whole BUMP thread on the NW forum about it.

In the past there was a glitch in the codes CO sent to NW so that, if you got upgraded, CO sent NW the class paid and flown as R (the upgrade code back then). You'd then get 100% EQMs. But that was fixed long ago. CO does a pretty good job of preserving the class paid in your record through upgrades and re-routes.

Your only real chances of avoiding the 50% EQM are (1) buy a higher fare class on CO, (2) book via NW as a NW code share and with a NW fare class higher than V (some of the CO 50% fare classes translate into Q or better on NW), or (3) hope for an irrop and get rebooked on NW or DL. If the latter, you usually get rebooked in full Y and get 150% EQM.

BUMP: Interesting, I had thought about that. I tried BUMP once and it didn't work, the next time it would have worked but I didn't want the later flight

Would it have to be codeshared to work. I don't think NW codeshares those CO flights -- when you search BUF to BOS on nwa.com you get the 'no such flights' error.

But I guess the flights would not need to be codeshared to get the BUMP

If you're lucky enough to get bumped to FC on CO that is. But indeed this did work (2 years ago). No experience from me lately though. The 50% deal has kept me away like the plague.

nwa.com is pretty stingy about showing codeshares. You need to check the schedule (http://www.nwa.com/travel/timetable/...ive_081908.pdf) and book either over the phone or something like Orbitz. They show a lot of NW codeshares.

A few of the legs show up but not all, looks like the EWR-BOS is not there.

Does this mean, if they WERE there, that I could have avoided the 50% EQM by having the travel agent book using the NW code share??? I would assume it is too late now though...

No. 50% on CO metal in lowest fare classes whether NW-coded or CO-coded. See http://www.nwa.com/worldperks/earn/a...ml#continental

Correct. However, my point was that there are some NW fare classes like Q that yield 100% EQM on a NW coded but CO operated flight, but often equate to 50% EQM fare classes on the CO side. You can verify this by looking at the reservation on continental.com. So you can theoretically book a CO flight via NW and get 100% EQM for less than you would have had to pay CO to get the 100% EQM. Whether there are many actual opportunities to do this I have no idea.

It works the other way too. I booked a trip on CO that had a NW segment. It was booked as a CO codeshare with an H fare (150% EQM). But NW showed it as an M fare (only 100% EQM). In the end it was treated as a CO H fare and I got the 150% EQM.

I think I just screwed up, I will be 300 miles short of retaining gold if this is the case. Please confirm my thinking, I just purchased through our corporate travel site a 3 segment flight on CO, the first day the two flights are on NW metal, CO coded, fare class S, which earns only 50% on CO.

I assume I will only earn 50% on NW correct? I looked online and NW is showing fare class K which would earn 100% but I assume they will only credit me 50%. Please confirm. Thanks in advance.

NW metal=NW 100% EQM. CO metal will probably be 50%, unless it's a higher fare class.

Thanks for the quick response, that is great news. My other segments on the other days are higher fare classes on CO earning 100% EQM. This will push me over for gold without having to add a segment to my last trip that I haven't booked yet.

Current rule of thumb between CO and NW (and to a certain extent all of SkyTeam although a bit less simplistic I grant), the metal governs the mileage accrual and not the ticket issuer for the "discount economy classes". Stated differently, CO issued "L" fare on NW metal, 100% EQMs for WP. NW issued "L" fare on CO metal, 50% EQMs for WP. Safe Travels.