Combine and Transfer Continental and United Miles

An announcement was made by Continental/United today that they will combine 2010 and 2011 elite qualifying miles and allow transfer of miles between OnePass and Mileage Plus accounts under the same name.

Transfering miles can be done at http://www.united.com/transfermymiles or http://www.continental.com/transfermymiles.

Combining qualifying miles can be done at http://www.united.com/combinemyactivity or http://www.continental.com/combinemyactivity.

Since I flew over 75,000 miles last year but under 100,000 miles, this will be a great benefit to me as I can now earn Continental Platinum status (top tier) which will give me a lot more benefits even though I failed to qualify for United 1K. I’m still choosing to receive my upgrade on United, however, as I am a SFO-based flier. I have a bunch of Continental flights coming up, so as soon as the status match posts, I’ll be switching my frequent flier number on these reservations to my OnePass account to get a better chance at upgrades.

Some Weird Upgrades on United

As a mere Premier Executive on United, my upgrade window is supposed to be at 72 hours before departure. I have a flight scheduled for this Friday that I booked over a month ago, before my 1K status expired. I was obsessively checking my reservations again today when I noticed that my SFO-LAX had already switched from “Pending” to “Waitlisted,” meaning that they had processed my upgrade at the 1K window, which is 100 hours before departure. My connecting flight, LAX-DEN cleared at the 100 hour window a couple hours later. It switched from F9 NF9 (meaning United is selling at least 9 first class seats and willing to upgrade at least 9 seats) to F3 NF0 (3 first class seats available and no upgrade seats available). Given that this flight is on an A320 with only 12 first class seats, I would say my odds of clearing later are fairly slim, so I got lucky!

When I was moving up the ranks to 1K, I would cancel my upgrade requests and re-request them after I had reached a new status level to make sure my new status was reflected. Seems to me like this may still be a good idea!

Continental Airlines 50,000 Miles from Chase

Chase now has a credit card with 50,000 bonus miles in Continental’s OnePass program. As United and Continental’s frequent flier programs will be merging at the end of the year, this is a good way to pick up an easy 50,000 miles in United Mileage Plus if you are a United flier. I just signed up for another card from Chase so I’ll sit this one out and hope it’s still there a few months from now, but I would jump on this offer as Continental branded cards will be going away soon.

Now Available: One Way Awards on United Mileage Plus

This has been available for a few months if you flew only on United metal, but as of today, you can book one way award tickets on Star Alliance partners for half the mileage of a round trip award. And, unlike American Airlines, which eliminated stopovers on round trip awards, you can still book a stopover on a round trip.

For now, you must call to book a Star Alliance one way award (most partners don’t show up on the United website anyway).

This is a huge enhancement. One of the reasons I tried to keep some miles in American Aadvantage was to be able to book one way awards. Now I can do that on Star Alliance with Mileage Plus!

Singapore and My First Mileage Run

I was officially offered a two-week teaching gig in Singapore for November 5-18. I will be teaching 10-15 teenagers an introductory math course on logic and problem solving. Travel to Singapore is paid for, and I will also get a nice salary. Depending on the routing, I will end up at around 88-90k EQM with United, leaving me just short of 1K status, especially with double EQM. So I’ve been looking at several options for mileage runs to put me over the hump and give me top tier status.

I settled on SFO-IAD-JAX-IAD-SFO for 12200 EQM at $245. I was able to find cheaper runs earlier in the week, but I don’t have very many weekends available this year, so it’ll have to do. For 1K status and the six SWU that come with it, I think it’ll be worth it.

United Changes to Unlimited Domestic Upgrades

United Airlines announced yesterday that they will be switching their Mileage Plus program to Unlimited Domestic Upgrades in 2010 Q2. While this sounds good, I think it will hurt most flyers in their ability to score upgrades.

In the current system, elite members get a limited number of certificates to use to upgrade their flights. While top tier members on expensive fares are given priority in clearing these upgrades, the limited number of available upgrade certificates means that even 1Ks and GS members will choose not to upgrade some flights, either because they don’t have the instruments or because they want to save them for other flights. This allows lower tier members on cheaper fares a chance to score the occasional upgrade. Now, they will have to compete with all of the GS and 1Ks on every single flight. Especially on elite-heavy routes out of airports like SFO, even 1Ks will have problems upgrading if they have to compete against every other 1K for their upgrades. The old pick-and-choose system meant that on the flights you really wanted to upgrade, you have a much better chance of clearing.

And on top of all that, United will get rid of the Confirmed Regional Upgrade, which allowed one to confirm an upgrade upon booking if NC/NF space was available.

Overall, I do not like this change even though I am looking at hitting 1K this year (more on that later). Unlimited Domestic Upgrades is not really unlimited at all, and it devalues the Mileage Plus program for a large percentage  of United flyers.

And Heres Comes United…

… matching American Airlines’ Double EQM offer. Premier Executive, here I come!