CONTINENTAL UPGRADE MIRACLE
 

I've just had some amazing good luck with Continental Airlines. I preface what I will tell you by saying straight away that I am not a frequent flyer. Most of my miles are as a result of credit card purchases. I am flying EWR-VIE-EWR in late September. I had about 49,000 miles in my Continental account. On a hunch I called to see if I could book a round trip in BusinessFirst using 40,000 miles to upgrade off of an Economy fare. They cleared the upgrade, in both directions, on the spot. For approx. 1500.00 USD + 40,000 miles, I'm getting across the Atlantic in BusinessFirst. Two short connecting flight in Europe are in Economy but I can live with that. Lesson Learned: It never hurts to try!!! Even my travel agent was amazed.

I hate to be a party-pooper, but I'm not sure about the miracle. As listed on the Continental site, the one-way class upgrade to from US to Europe from Full Economy Fare is 10K, and the upgrade from Select Economy Fare is 20K. So the 40K you paid for a RT seems about right for a restricted fare.

Also, when I checked with Expedia, I could get a RT EWR-VIE for about $820.

Has anyone else had experience with this? Am I right?

Enjoy your BF flight, the service is excellent. Not sure what you find miraculous - as Jed points out, this seems to have happened just as is posted on the OnePass site (economy fares can upgrade by paying a fee of 300 or 400 USD plus 20K miles each direction.) Perhaps what is so uncommon is that you were able to immediately confirm the upgrade. It is true that often one must request the upgrade and wait for it to clear, but my experience with CO is that they do a good job with this, and for the airline the chance to take in the extra revenue you'll pay is surely most welcome in these tricky fiscal times.

It's just that upgrade seats are not often available on the exact date you want to travel, and one must therefore be put on a wait list and hope it comes through. But if one's very flexible with their travel, then upgrades are indeed available.

For example, my cousin wants to buy a economy ticket IAH-HKG and upgrade using miles. He wants to go mid-September and return before Thanksgiving. The dates he can get confirmed seats and upgrades are early September (about a week before he wants to go), and return just after Thanskgiving. My cousin decides not to do it, but if one's more flexible with their travel dates, then IAH-HKG in BF can be confirmed immediately for about $1700 ($1100 fare + $600 r/t upgrade fees) + 50K miles.

Flyer: It is a MIRACLE! Enjoy! CO is the worst with upgrade confirmations. I am amazed you were so lucky. You must have a pleasant voice and a sweet attitude to have charmed them so. Safe travels.

We're flying CO BusinessFirst VIE-EWR in March, 2005. What can we expect? We're flying Air France first class into CDG and changing to Air France Business from CDG-FCO. Anyone have any info/tips about these flights? Is it going to be a nightmare changing in CDG?

You can expect one of the best Business Class products in the airline business, with wide almost lay-flat seats and excellent food.

With a BF ticket, you can use an airline lounge at CDG (I believe the Air France one in Terminal 2A). Whether it's a nightmare or not depends on when you're travelling and how much time you have between flights. March should be easy. Pretty sure you have to change terminals there.