Official Onepass Mile expiration statement:

According to the Continental Onepass Member Advisory page the following official conditions exist as of 12/2007: Miles currently have no expiry date; however, Continental Airlines reserves the right to impose expiry limits or terminate the OnePass program, thus terminating your ability to claim rewards.

Official caveat aka Inactive Membership:

Immediately below the "no expiry" date statement you can find the Inactive Membership section which states:

If no mileage is deposited in your account for 18 consecutive months, your membership may be cancelled, and your miles may be forfeited. To keep your account active, you can earn mileage with a variety of airline, non-travel and shopping partners. Please visit the Earn Miles section of this site for a full list of earnings partners.

How to keep your account active:

Any activity will reset your account's activity date. This does not just include flying and accumulating miles, but performing any of the partner activities as well. This includes but is not limited to hotel stays, car rentals, online purchases, and miles credited via a linked credit card. Third party mileage offers and incentive programs such as E-rewards/E-miles and other activities that deposit miles will also reset your activity date.

NOTE: The official statement lists deposits not withdrawals. Using miles does not count as activity officially.

NOTE: Mileage expiration is currently not enforced. However this may change at ANY time and you should plan accordingly.

Buying OnePass miles:

You can buy miles to top off your account to get you a travel or upgrade award. The link is found under the Travel Rewards page:

Purchase up to 25% of the miles needed for any OnePass reward on Continental Airlines requiring at least 20,000 miles. Please keep in mind that:

• Miles are purchased in 1,000-mile increments at $32 (plus tax) per increment and are non-refundable.
• You need to purchase miles at the time your travel reward is ticketed.
• Use your credit card for convenient mileage purchase payment when redeeming online or requesting a reward over the phone. (This option does not apply to International Airline Partner rewards or promotional rewards.)
• You also may be required to pay taxes assessed on such purchases.

Note that the pre-tax cost of purchased miles is approximately 3.2 cents per mile. You should factor this into your calculations whether it is worth purchasing the miles or acquiring them through other channels (partner offers, etc.).

The Continental.com Club

The Continental.com Club is offered through the Continental website. For the $25 annual fee you will receive a $5 credit for every flight booked on the Continental website. This credit may then be applied to future flights.

If you book more than 5 flights with Continental during a 12 month period you will earn enough credits to off-set the fee plus give you a discount on further trips. Membership is on a rolling 12 month basis depending on your joining date.

Missing credits

Note that you must be signed into your account when booking the flight on the website in order to receive the credit. If your credit has not posted after the flight is completed you will need to contact the Continental.com electronic support desk at 1-800-300-1547 to have the credit retroactively applied to your account.

Note that if they are unable to access your reservation they will be unable to apply a credit immediately and will need to submit it for processing which may take up to 7-10 days.

The short answer is that it depends. Currently only one partner officially offers upgrades on all fares for OnePass members, Copa (CM).
Star Alliance Upgrades

As part of the Star Alliance Upgrade program OnePass members can redeem miles for a single cabin upgrade on select *A partners. Such upgrades can only be redeemed from C, D, Y or B fares.

• Upgrades are valid only on participating Star Alliance carriers.
• Upgrades are valid for the next higher class of service; double upgrades are not permitted.
  • On three cabin aircraft, you may upgrade from paid Economy to Business or from paid Business to First.
  • On two cabin aircraft, you may upgrade from paid Economy to Business or First, depending on the service offered by the operating carrier.
• Star Alliance Upgrade Awards are available on all participating Star Alliance carriers.
• These upgrades are charged per segment, not per direction
• Upgrades are only available on tickets booked in C, D, Y, and B fare buckets.
• You must be booked on the code of the carrier operating the flight. Codeshare flights cannot be upgraded under the *A program.
• Waitlisting and airport standby for awards is not permitted.
• Cancellation of an upgrade will cancel the entire flight segment.
• The maximum number of customers who can be upgraded on a single itinerary for a Star Alliance Upgrade Award is four.

Currently the *A partners participating in the Upgrade program are:

• Air China
• Air New Zealand
• ANA
• Asiana Airlines
• Austrian
• Continental Airlines
• LOT
• Lufthansa
• Scandinavian Airlines
• Shanghai Airlines
• Singapore Airlines
• SWISS
• TAP Portugal
• THAI
• Turkish Airlines
• United

Free ServicesPaid Services

There are a few things that you need to be aware of when it comes to getting credit from non-refundable tickets. Among them:

• You pay the change fee as an additional payment; it is not deducted from the value of the ticket.
• The change fee is paid when you book the new flight, but you have to call to cancel the old one prior to the old departure.
• You must book a new ticket under the same name as the original ticket. This new ticket can be for any price.
• Should the new ticket value be lower than the original ticket value the residual credit will be issued as a TCV.
• The residual TCV value can be used to book as many tickets as you want for any passengers (not just the original name).

Assuming you've paid for a $1000 ticket that comes with a $150 change fee, you would pay an additional $150 to rebook the initial ticket. After accounting for the cost of a new ticket in your name(e.g. $200) a TCV would be issued for the remaining credit ($800, in this case). That remaining credit can be used over the one year life of the TCV for as many purchases as you can draw it out over, and those purchases can be for tickets in any name.

Up until late 2007 TCVs were one-shot deals. The current policy took effect on November 12, 2007.

If you have a non-refundable ticket in someone else's name that you want to use, the most cost-effective way to do so is to find the cheapest intra-Texas flight you can. Book one of those as a one-way, paying the change fee and using ~$50-80 of the credit value. That will leave you the balance to use for booking in your name (or a 3rd party's). Check for city pairs where CO competes with WN for the cheapest options. IAH-AUS/SAT are often pretty low.

There are several different categories of fees that Continental assesses for checked luggage. Most notably, Continental has recently instituted charges for checking one or two bags on most flights that they operate. In addition there are fees for additional bags beyond the first two and for oversize or overweight bags.

First Bag Fee - $25
This fee applies to travel ticketed in the economy cabin for trips within the 50 U.S., Puerto Rico, U.S. Virgin Islands and Canada.

Second Bag Fee - $35
This fee applies for customers checking a second bag when traveling on Economy fare tickets for travel within the 50 U.S., Puerto Rico, U.S. Virgin Islands and Canada. It also applies when traveling on Economy fare tickets purchased for travel between Mexico, Caribbean, Central and South America (excluding Brazil) and the 50 U.S., Puerto Rico, U.S. Virgin Islands and Canada.

As of some point in 2009 a $50 fee for checked bags went into effect for most TATL travel.

Note that a discount of $3-5 can be realized by paying the charge for the bag during the OLCI process in many cases.

Excess Baggage Fees - $100-$150
For each bag after the first two the fees are rather more significant. For most destinations in the Americas the fee is $100 for each of the next three bags checked (so a max of 5 bags). For Transatlantic travel the fee is $150 per extra bag.

Oversize/Overweight Baggage Fees - $50-$300

• Checked baggage over 50 lbs (23 kg) and not exceeding 70 lbs (32 kg) will be charged at the rate of $50 per piece. This applies to every bag checked, including the first two.
• For travel within the Americas, checked baggage exceeding 62 linear inches (157 cm) (total length + width + height) will be charged at the rate of $100 per piece.
• For Transatlantic travel checked baggage between 62 and 80 linear inches (157 cm) (total length + width + height) will be charged at the rate of $150 per piece.
• For Transatlantic travel checked baggage exceeding 80 linear inches (157 cm) (total length + width + height) will be charged at the rate of $300 per piece.
• In all cases, baggage larger than 115 linear inches (292 cm) or heavier than 70 pounds (32 kg) will be refused for carriage.

Note: While the co.com site does not explicitly state it this way, it appears that the overage fees or travel to Micronesia, the Middle East and Asia is the same as Transatlantic travel as described above.

Continental charges money for some gear and not for others. Check out their sporting good checked baggage details page for more information on this.

There are a number of resources available, including the co.com site and a couple threads (#1, #2) on FlyerTalk about these fees.

Baggage Embargo Dates/Destinations
Continental has a number of destinations where excess or oversize baggage is not permitted, even if you're willing to pay extra. Most of these destinations are in the Caribbean, Mexico and Latin America and Micronesia. Pay very close attention to the dates and defined limits on this list if you are planning on checking luggage to one of these destinations, as these embargo rules are rarely waived.
Continental.com Baggage Embargo Details

CoEx Itineraries
In addition to the Baggage Embargo, itineraries including travel on Continental Express may have different limits. Contact Continental if there are concerns about such an itinerary.

Baggage check-in times
Baggage can be checked no earlier than 4 hours prior to initial departure. In most cases baggage must be checked no later than 30 minutes from departure for domestic flights and no later than 60 minutes from departure for international flights. A limited number of cities (LAS, TPA, MCO, PHL, DEN, ATL, LAX and PSE) require bags to be checked no later than 45 minutes prior to departure.

Short-checking or checking bags mid-itinerary
Like most other airlines Continental will not allow you to tag a bag to a connection point short of your destination. The exception to this is itineraries that are trips where the connection is greater than 12 hours. In these cases it may be possible or required for the bags to be checked to the intermediate destination.

Assuming you have not exceeded your checked baggage limits it is generally possible to check additional bags during a layover. For an AUS-IAH-GRU itinerary this could allow one bag to be checked at AUS and another to be added in IAH if that was desired.

Any easy way to see all this data in a grid or something?
You betcha! Just click here and you'll see most the fees as defined by Continental.

This notice contains important information about your rights established by European Union regulation in the event that you have a confirmed reservation on a flight of greater than 3,500 kilometers/2175 miles distance and you are involuntarily denied boarding, or your flight is delayed beyond its scheduled departure time as described below or your flight is canceled.

Denied Boarding
If we reasonably expect to deny boarding on a flight, we are required to seek volunteers to surrender their reservation in exchange for benefits that the volunteer and we agree upon before we can involuntarily deny boarding to passengers. If there are insufficient volunteers, we can then involuntarily deny boarding to passengers. A passenger who is involuntarily denied boarding is entitled to the rights described below.

Flight Delay
When we reasonably expect that a flight will be delayed more than four hours, you are entitled to the rights described below.

Flight Cancellation
When a flight is canceled, you are entitled to the rights described below. We will also inform you of possible alternative transportation. We, however, are not obliged to provide you the flight cancellation compensation described below if:

1. you are informed of the cancellation at least two weeks before the scheduled time of departure;
2. you are informed of the cancellation between two weeks and seven days before the scheduled time of departure and you are offered re-routing,
   allowing you to depart no more than two hours before the scheduled time of departure and to reach your final destination less than four hours after
   the scheduled time of arrival;
3. you are informed of the cancellation less than seven days before the scheduled time of departure and you are offered re-routing, allowing you to
   depart no more than one hour before the scheduled time of departure and to reach your final destination less than two hours after the scheduled
   time of arrival.

In addition, we are not obliged to provide you the flight cancellation compensation described below if the cancellation is caused by extraordinary circumstances, which could not have been avoided, if all reasonable measures had been taken.

DESCRIPTION OF YOUR RIGHTS

Right to Compensation
If you are involuntarily denied boarding or your flight is canceled, you are entitled to receive 600 in compensation from us. If, however, we offer you re-routing on an alternative flight that will arrive within four hours of the arrival time of the flight on which you were originally booked, your compensation can be reduced to 300. We will offer you with written agreement compensation via a travel voucher and/or other service, or other wise pay you compensation in cash, by electronic bank transfer, bank order or bank cheque.

Right to Reimbursement or Re-Routing

1. If you are denied boarding (whether voluntarily or involuntarily) or your flight is canceled, you are entitled to choose between:
   1. reimbursement within seven days, by the means described above in the “Right to Compensation” section, of the full cost of the ticket at the price at which it was bought, for the part or parts of the journey not made, and for the part or parts already made if the flight no longer serves any purpose in relation to your original travel plan, together with, when relevant, a return flight to the first point of departure at the earliest opportunity;
   2. re-routing under comparable transport conditions to your final destination at the earliest opportunity;
   3. re-routing under comparable transport conditions to your final destination at a later date at your convenience, subject to seat availability. If we offer you a flight to an airport alternative to that for which the booking was made where the town, city or region is served by several airports, we will pay the cost of transferring you from that alternative airport either to that for which the booking was made or to another close-by destination agreed with you.
2. If your flight is delayed for at least five hours, you are entitled to a choice between re-route or reimbursement within seven days, by the means described above in the “Right to Compensation” section, of the full cost of the ticket at the price at which it was bought, for the part or parts of the journey not made, and for the part or parts already made if the flight no longer ser ves any purpose in relation to your original travel plan, together with, when relevant, a return flight to the first point of departure at the earliest opportunity.

Right to Care

1. [*]
2. [*]

Other Rights Not Prejudiced
The foregoing rights apply without prejudice to any additional rights that you may have to further compensation. Compensation described in the notice may be deducted from such additional compensation.