Maneuvering the upgrade with Continental Airlines
Continental Airlines is leaving the SkyTeam Alliance on October 24, 2009, to join the Star Alliance next day. While the switch is expected, I feel sad about it. For me, maneuvering through Continental’s business-first class upgrade system has long been a dazzling but rewarding experience. Now the fun will be gone after October.
Between Asia and North America, Continental requires 12,500 miles for full fare and 25,000 miles for selected economy discounted fares with an additional fee.
However, if I want to use miles from Northwest to upgrade for a Continental flight to Asia, I have to pay the Northwest’s way; i.e., if Northwest charges 30,000 miles for a one-way upgrade from a discounted economy fare, I lose 30,000 miles instead the 25,000 miles that Continental would charge.
The fun part is to figure out the optimal combination of fee + economy fare + miles. Remember, roughly 10,000 miles are worth $100. So the bottom line is what fee and fare class work best. I once ended up with an H fare ticket (at that time, there was no service fee for H-fare), because the fee plus other fare class in economy were higher than the H-fare itself.
The following is the current service fee schedule (apparently they kept raising the fees).
Fare Class One Way Service Fee
Y $0
B $100
M $250
H/K $350
Q/U $400
V/G $450
All other fares $500
The good news is that at continental.com you can restrict your search to certain classes of economy fares only.
The most important thing, however, is to make sure the upgradeable seats in the Business First class are available (preferably wide open) at the time of booking. If these seats are gone, you are stuck with a more expensive fare without an upgrade.
In my case, there is an additional layer of complication: I have to call Northwest to get them upgrade my seat at Continental flights. Boy, even with a special Elite service line, that is not an easy routine. My record was a 4-hour straight back and forth between Northwest and Continental, including Northwest’s domestic and international offices. Dizzy!
However, the business first class is totally worth it, especially if you fly their non-stop, cross-Pacific flights; for example, Newark to Hong Kong, which lasts nearly 15 hours in the air, would be such a drag if you are in an economy class seat. Plus, I love their amendities kit because I am a big fan of the products from Escents.
May I add that their menu selection is also much better than those from Northwest and Delta.
I am going to miss you, Continental.
I take it you’re a Northwest elite… I’m a Continental elite (based at Seattle/Tacoma), and I’m not enthusiastic about the switch either, because I like Delta and Northwest much better than United and US Airways. At least Continental’s partnership with Alaska remains intact for now.
You could, of course, just status match to Continental and switch to them (and Star Alliance) in October, if you like BusinessFirst that much.
I’ve only flown EWR-PEK once in BusinessFirst, and it was indeed excellent. I’ve also done it once in Economy, and PEK-EWR twice in Economy… not as excellent, but tolerable, especially if you can get a bulkhead or exit. Admittedly, that’s a significantly shorter flight than EWR-HKG.
Yes, I am based in MSP so all my miles are banked with Northwest.
I prefer also that Continental stay. Nowadays the menu selection in the business class of Northwest and Delta is getting really cheap–which makes me miss the service of Continental’s Business First more. In fact when I tried to book my summery trip to PEK, I did think about flying Continental and upgrading to the Business First using my miles.
I guess a lot of people were upset about Northwest’s merger with Delta and Continental’s departure from the SkyTeam. And Delta knew that. It sent out six system-wide upgrade vouches this year to certain Northwest’s elite members. In the end, I booked the trip with Northwest with two vouches, to save 60,000 miles for the upgrade.
I have been giving serious thoughts about switching to Continental. Sadly, I do a lot of domestic travels too and would rather fly direct. Continental’s flights, especially their westbound routes, are rather limited in MSP.
On top of that, I hate United. I flew their international and domestic a couple of times in the past few years, and every time it was a disaster. ORD is totally a nightmare.
If I remember correctly, Continental still flies Boeing 777s from Newark to Asia. They are better aircraft than 747s in general, but there is not a lot of improvement in the economy class.
The first time I flew economy EWK-HKG (in their 777), I almost collapsed when I stepped out of the aircraft at Hong Kong. After that if I ever fly to HKG again I either fly their Business First, or fly with connections.
In this case I would prefer a better aircraft than a direct flight. Now Northwest/Delta flies A330s from LAX and SFO to PEK, with a stopover in Tokyo. In my view these A330s are way much more pleasant to travel with in the economy class than 777s.
Plus, the WorldClub lounge in Tokyo is awesome. They now serve this buffet of hot and cold dishes, provide Apple computers and more (they used to be very bad but just went through some serious remodeling in recent years).
Of course, if you do not fly Asia (or Australia) often, there is not much a difference…