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USAirways Offers Buyup to Trial Elite Status

by Gary Leff on July 18, 2007

Jul 18 2007

USAirways and most other airlines have offered status matches — a way to pilfer the best customers of other airlines. Elite status with an airline usually locks a customer into flying that airline. They get upgrades, bonus miles, and other perks. How can they give that up, even to change to another airline? Airlines make it easier for customers to switch by advancing status to customers who already have it with a competitor — if I were an American Platinum member I could get Continental to give me Gold status right away so I’d still have elite benefits when I switched. (The definitive discussion of the subject is a Flyertalk thread I started in October, 2003 that’s still going strong.) Most US domestic airlines offer status matches of one kind or another. American has long…

500 Free Miles with United, Continental, or Delta

by Gary Leff on April 14, 2007

Apr 14 2007

“Thanks Again” is a program that offers miles for shopping with small merchants that don’t have their own rewards programs, so far mostly dry cleaners. You register a credit card and when you spend with participating companies you get miles for the transaction, a la iDine (aka Rewards Network). There aren’t a whole lot of companies working with them, at least so far, so it’s not that attractive. Plenty of folks may be skeptical of giving them credit card numbres, although they do appear quite legitimate. Personally I used a Visa gift card with about $7 left on it, although some might prefer to use one-time use credit card numbers. Why? Signup bonuses. You can earn your choice of 500 United, Continental, or Delta miles just for signing up. The program is also available with…

1000 Continental Miles for Creating Dining Login

by Gary Leff on September 21, 2006

Sep 21 2006

From Free Frequent Flyer Miles: Continental Airlines OnePass members who have not created a OnePass Dining Login ID can earn 1,000 bonus miles for doing so here October 1 – December 31, 2006. It appears that you don’t actually have to dine to get the miles

Continental Credit Card Offer: 15,000 miles and double points on spend through December ’06

by Gary Leff on September 14, 2006

Sep 14 2006

Regular readers of this blog know that I’m not a fan of Continental Onepass. The only thing it has going for it is airline partners where you occasionally have a chance to redeem miles. Alaska Airlines has generally good award availability. They’re in Skyteam, which opens up plenty of airlines, but almost across-the-board Skyteam members offer poor award chances. Continental is in my experience terrible at making seats available at the ‘normal’ mileage requirements on most routes and best flight times, and this is especially true in premium classes of service. So when collecting Continental miles, realize that they aren’t worth as much as American miles, for instance. (Though you can transfer Onepass miles to Amtrak, and from Amtrak to Hilton, and eventually get something for your points — though Amtrak places a limit for…

Combining USAirways and America West Miles: Redux

by Gary Leff on January 30, 2006

Jan 30 2006

The February issue of Inside Flyer predicts (subscription required) that the combination of USAirways and America West will allow you to combine your miles in the two programs in “late March or early April.” Readers of this blog know better. As I mentioned last month, you can combine the miles in your accounts now on a self-service basis using Points.com. Points transfer between USAirways and America West on a 1:1 basis at no cost. Transfers from America West to USAirways appear to complete in real-time. Having tested it the other way as well, it looks like transfers from USAirways to America West take somewhat longer.This method will let you combine points to top off for an award, or even move all your miles from one account to the other to take advantage of current partnerships…

Another Reason Why Continental OnePass is a Joke

by Gary Leff on January 28, 2006

Jan 28 2006

Continental is hosting a gathering for its frequent flyers this weekend and one Flyertalker has posted some news. international rewad and upgrade travel will see significant mileage increases for the 2006 program year. It sounds like Y upgrades to BF to Hawaii will jump to 15,000 miles while discount economy upgrades will cost 35,000 miles in addition to any required fees. Upgrades to Asia will jump to 50,000 miles for discount economy tickets (plus fees) and 25,000 for full Y. Europe will jump to 40,000 and 20,000 respectively. Unfortunately, it doesn’t sound like offered inventory will change much …nor will the fee for the mileage option on discount economy tickets. Mark Bergsrud mentioned at a Q&A at the ‘Do today that they don’t expect any changes with the system and inventories. An upgrade award to…

500 Continental Miles for Creating a OnePass Dining Profile

by Gary Leff on January 24, 2006

Jan 24 2006

Through March 31, when you sign up for Continental Airlines OnePass Dining (the free Rewards Network a.k.a. iDine program that awards miles for eating at participating restaurants) and create an online profile, you’ll get 500 Continental miles. Details can be found via Continental OnePass News and Offers using the link “Join OnePass Dining For Free By March 31, 2006 and Earn 500 Bonus Miles.” However registration is not required, so all you need to do is go to the OnePass dining site and register (if you haven’t already) and create an online profile.Members who created profiles prior to January 15 aren’t eligible for the bonus.

Continental Increases Pricing for Unrestricted Awards

by Gary Leff on January 16, 2006

Jan 16 2006

Continental posted several changes to their frequent flyer program today: You can now receive your BusinessFirst upgrade rewards until 24 hours prior to your scheduled departure. Previously, 72 hours were required. Effective February 1, 2006, you may redeem reward travel within the 48 contiguous U.S., Alaska and Canada on round-trip flights of 1,500 miles or less for only 20,000 miles. Effective April 1, 2006, some Easy Pass BusinessFirst reward mileage requirements will change: Routes between: Miles requiredbefore 4/1/06 Miles required4/1/06 and after N. America and Asia 240,000 250,000 N. America and Europe 200,000 250,000 N.Amer & India/Africa/Mideast 240,000 250,000 N. America and Tel Aviv 200,000 250,000 Hawaii and Europe 220,000 270,000 Hawaii and Tel Aviv 220,000 270,000 Asia or Europe & S. Amer. 240,000 280,000 The introduction of 20,000 miles for flights under 1500…

A Too Good to Be True Credit Card Offer? Free Platinum Status!

by Gary Leff on December 27, 2005

Dec 27 2005

Continental is giving away elite status to people signing up for their co-branded Mastercard. Register on the Continental website with offer code 58038 (for Platinum status) then go to the ‘Apply Now’ page and enter your OnePass account number and PIN code and complete the application by December 31, 2005 (so hurry – just 5 days left). You need to make your first purchase by March 1, 2006. Other offer cards are 58039 for Gold status and 58040 for Silver status. The offer is intended to be targeted. The terms and conditions say This offer is non-transferable and is intended only for the person to whom it was sent. However, the website lets anyone register for the promo. So this one is a big ‘Your Mileage May Vary’. Print out the registration confirmation and all…