So I comp'ed over to CO a month ago, and have started to fly their metal a little bit more. I agree with the sentiments of most here about the F experience on CO metal being superior to NW F...But I have had a couple of missed U/G's already, DTW-IAH and LAX-IAH (on a 752, so not really likely anyhow)....and just got to experience the joy that is CO's co-pay program when trying to U/G a flight to HNL:

They wanted 500 bucks and 7500 miles to U/G my fare IAH-HNL last week.

Huh? TO Hawaii? I guess I didn't do enough homework. I didn't realize that their co-pay fees were required for HNL flights.


The really ironic thing is, I paid for F (Z, actually) for $325.00 cash the day before the flight...with no miles.



All this garbage has been making me thing whether I may just be able to stomach DL more than CO. I feel my U/G % will be better (out of AUS/IAH) with DLNW than with CO...and being that I fly 100% domestic, that is the #1 priority, for me.

I kinda hate that I wasted my comp, being that CO will only do it 1 time per member. I'd imagine that there is probably a workaround using a middle name and alternate address sometime in the future...who knows.

I just have such a distaste in my mouth for DL. I have rarely had a good, or even marginal, experience with them. In fact , the day of the official announcement of the merger they charged me a $50 extra bag fee...even though NW had not charged DL elites for the same. I wrote to them, they said, essentially, "sorry".


I gotta decide soon.

Yeah, co-pay to Hawaii was recently bumped up from $250 IIRC (or maybe $300?) to $500. Is it really worth it? Probably not; save the $, buy yourself a very nice meal for the fight before take-off and enjoy...

Is that $500 one way or roundtrip? How do you buy up to F day before departure? I have a HNL-IAH award trip in Y coming up, is there anyway to buy an upgrade?

Frankly, the CO service to HNL in Y is good enough that I would never bother to mess with the F unless it was completely free.

All these copays and fees is what gets me so pissed off that I don't even bother with it....I've long me advocating for buying the cheapest fare for friends, but my NW experience has been pretty good so if it stays, I do...if not then I just do the best financial decision for myself....

Great article in WSJ this past week about devaluation of frequent flier programs. If the airlines continue to be short sighted, their cash cow will become a dying star and then they'll be SOL....

I just discovered a new CO benefit. With an EU address, I can get free president's club at Gold and qualify for elite with TATL segments!

It seems like every dual-Elite on the CO board (i.e. NW or DL Plat & CO Plat) reports much lower upgrade percentages on CO than on either NW or DL. Particularly out of EWR, I know that upgrades on many routes are very hard to find. Out of IAH, things improve, but I know my wife batted less than 50% when she was doing the BOS-IAH run every week as a Plat. On some routes, particularly transcons, upgrades are portrayed as basically impossible. So, if you primary concern is upgrades, then I would say one should think twice about switching to CO.

As for the rest of the program, there are a few plusses and minuses. On the bright side is that the product is pretty good, as is the service. On the minus side is that most would tell you that CO employees are not empowered to help you if things go wrong - status or no status. The joke is that everything is blamed on weather and, therefore, you are on your own.

With regards to redemptions, it is again a double-edged sword. I find availability on CO metal to be absolutely dismal. Particularly if you are trying to book more than a few weeks out, you will see very poor availability for most in-demand routes. In my experience, we are talking as little as 25% of the availability on most other carriers, including NW and DL. On the bright side, though, they have several good partners, including VS and EK. I burned over 500k miles in the past 18 months with CO, all on long-haul saver J, but only one ticket was on CO metal (booked maybe a week out). At the end of the day, as long as you don't have your heart set on a CO metal redemption, then sufficient legwork should keep you happy enough, but I would think it will be a definite step down from what you are used to with either NW or DL.

The 50% EQM thing is widely known, so no need to repeat it, but one should consider the limits of CO's relatively small network when assessing this. Currently, you are dinged on codeshares, regardless of where you buy your ticket. Also, if you purchase through a corporate TA and are expected to purchase lowest fares, then you are left choosing between unethical gaming to get your EQMs or traveling twice as much as you would now. And don't forget that it can seriously cut into your options and/or force you to pay a premium when flying partners.

As a CO elite you could have paid $325 cash and no miles for a one-way upgrade. The CO FAQ explains the process.

You can call at the 24-hour mark and confirm a seat in the front cabin. If connecting, you can confirm the seat at the 24-hour mark of the first flight.

His very next sentence reads to me like he did exactly that.

Yeah, I missed that (the F/Z reference threw me off).

With the degradation of the BF product to HNL, I am not sure I would use miles on the route. If one is on the 767-400 Mike out of IAH, seats 10KL in Y are great, as are 14AB (I store my stuff in the little cubby behind the seat).

That has not been my experience. Whether it's PC reps, continental.com support, customer care, the service centers at airports, the normal reservations call center, or even many GAs, I have found CO employees to be very helpful and flexible. My experience with DL has been quite the opposite. Their GAs are automatons and phone support is usually a joke. This, plus my location in Texas, is what will push me to CO in 2009.

I haven't done my status match yet. If I knew exactly when the upgrade reciprocity would end then I would know the optimal to time the switch.

Overall, though, I think pbarnette's review of CO's plusses and minuses is pretty accurate.

And of course you know where CO's 50% EQM policy came from. They copied DL's policy imposed for several years during the Rob Borden reign of terror (see www.saveskymiles.com ). Eventually, the DL customers fight against that policy succeeded, but the fact remains that DL and US over the last few years have consistently been the airlines leading the race to the bottom in ff programs, finding new ways to hose customers. And now, lets hear your usual management defense.

The fact of the matter is that, at this point, CO has it and DL doesn't. Period. End of story. Where it came from is beside the point. CO will never abandon the policy, so you are stuck with it. Personally, I think all of the carriers will trend toward partial credit for most coach fares within the next few years, but at least with NW/DL, you are probably safe for another year, and have some slim hope that they won't adopt it in the future.

Besides, despite your rhetoric, you have actually managed to uncover a prime example where DL listened to negative feedback and actually changed the policy as a result. Contrast this with CO, where management readily acknowledges the negative feedback on this, yet has repeatedly stated that they have no intention of changing it. I respect their honesty, but it is disingenuous, even for you, to try and obfuscate this very real negative of the CO program and somehow try and blame it on DL.

With regards to partner earnings, I would also add the following once CO joins *A:

- Completely opaque earning rates on codeshares. The standard practice in *A is that earning follows the operating carrier, not the ticketing carrier. I have found no *A program that provides the mapping of such fares so that you know what you will earn prior to looking at your statement.
- Almost complete loss of partner elite bonuses. I believe that only BMI offers them for most/all partners. UA, for example, offers them only on UA and LH TATL. My guess is that CO will follow suit.