FREE Continental upgrades??!!!
 

Has anyone signed up for Continental's "One Pass"? It claims to possibly upgrade your seating if you check-in online(up to 30 hrs prior to flight).

We leave for Oahu/Kauai in 10 days!! I love reading the trip reports & everything!! I will attempt to do a trip report when we return home>

I've been a Continental One-Pass member for years. Unless they have recently changed their rules, the Upgrades were typically reserved for Elite members.

As it stands, they've recently changed their rules to enable their full paying business customers to accumulate more miles - thus increasing the chance of getting upgrades.

Just signing up for OnePass won't get you an upgrade, esp. to Hawaii. Sorry! You will get miles (and a lot of them!) for the trip, however. Once you earn 25,000 miles you get a free domestic US ticket. You can also choose to build mileage even more as I do. I fly to Europe once a year in business class for free!

If you go to the little blue box on the upper left of the screen, and click on "change forums", and go to "Airlines", that is the best place to post your question if it is about frequent flying programs.

Like others have said, you'll get upgraded for domestic trips based on your "elite" level. Being a non-elite, you have basically no chance of getting an upgrade. International upgrade also doesn't happen; but I'm not so sure about CO's Hawaii product. [They do have the superior international "BusinessFirst" product on their Hawaii route.]

What you CAN do by checking-in early online is to grab the bulkhead and exit row seats. Those are usually blocked until check-in time.

As far as I know, the only free thing Continental's giving is a free headset voucher ($5 value) to encourage people to check in and print their boarding passes online up to 30 hours prior to departure. A free upgrade to business or first class would be quite a bit more value than $5!!

My husband is Platinum Elite & only gets upgrades on domestic flights. Even then it is no guarantee. He has had times when upgrades were given to others with less elite status & he sat in the back. Just depends sometimes.

Thanks for being so friendly & kind. This was my 1st post & wasn't sure if I had even posted correctly.

I live in Hawaii and just talking to a CO Agent about this. She basically told me that CO upgrades its elite members according to Platinum, Gold then Silver. On their Hawaii routes its to Business, not First.

In case someone's not clear about CO's nomenclature:

Continental airlines only have two classes on its mainline operation (and all coach with RJs or turboprop).

The planes that fly mostly international routes - 777, 767, certain 757 - have "BusinessFirst" in the front cabin. These are 160-degree or 170-degree flat seats. All Hawaii service use these planes. And with international flights, these are sold as "C"-class business fares. But they are better than most other airlines' business seats.

The 737s, MD-80 and some 757s that fly domestic routes have "First Class" seats. These are smaller seats with much less recline and limited pitch, compare to "BusinessFirst".

So, in contrast to what you may think, "BusinessFirst" is way better than "First". And while CO won't give people free upgrade on most of its international routes with BusinessFirst product, they WILL upgrade on domestic flights that use planes that BusinessFirst seats. For example, my parents (Gold and Silver elites) almost always get free upgrade between IAH and EWR, and some flights use 767-400 and 777 with BF seats. Very very nice.