Well, there's something definitely Abbott and Costello-ish about trying to book frequent flyer seats with Continental.

If I fly Continental all the time, for me to book a coach ticket on Contintal round-trip to Israel is 100K miles (standard pass) and 140K (easy pass). If I fly on Delta all the time, for me to book a coach ticket on Continental round trip to Israel is 80,000 (only option). So, a Delta frequent flyer can book seats cheaper on Continental than a Continental frequent flyer. Nice way to reward your frequent flyers.

When I pointed this out to the agent who was helping me book four tickets to Israel, she commented, well the Delta flyers are not guaranteed seats at that mileage. To which I replied, "Yes, well apparently, neither am I." You see, after searching through the entire month of November, the only standard pass frequent flyer option on Continental was for November 14, with absolutely no corresponding standard pass return option, which meant, I’d have to fork over 140K per ticket for the easy pass option.

So then I pressed a little further. “Do you ever offer standard pass options?” To which she replied, “Yes.”

“Well, when do we need to call in order to get those tickets?”

“We release seats starting 11 months out then it’s first come, first serve.”

“I see. So you released the standard pass tickets in January for November and they’re all gone?”

“Yes, but we may release more depending upon the flight”

“Oh, well how many seats on these flights do you have already taken by Standard pass people?”

“Oh, we don’t have that information. I can tell you how full the flight is though.”

“It really doesn’t matter to me if the flight is full or not. I’m just curious if you ever actually offer standard pass tickets for any of your flights.”

“Oh, well that’s all decided by Frequent Flyer Management Services.”

Basically, I’m beginning to wonder if Continental ever offers standard pass options for both legs of any trip. And if they don’t, isn’t that misleading? Dare I say, fraud with regards to their offers of frequent flyer rewards? Or at the very least a bit of bait and switch? What I’d like to see is a good bit of investigative journalism, to find out if these standard passes really do exist and who are the lucky souls to get them.

Anyway, I ended up doing what I have had to do every single time we’ve flown Continental overseas with frequent flyer miles, book on a partner airline.

So for 90,000 miles each I now have reserved round trip tickets to Israel on Air France, with a 6-hour layover in Paris going and an overnight layover in Paris on the return. We have until March 18 to decide if we’re going to use them but I’m thinking, I’ll just keep calling to see if I can get something better.

Kim, FYI I got a ticket on Continental "None Pass" for Italy for next fall. This is the first time in years that I have been able to do this at the 50K mile rate. Are you an Elite member? I am not, and I think it makes a big difference. Ellen was able to get a ticket for May, a while after I was told none were available.

M

Shalom, Kim! Sorry to hear you had such a hard time.

It could be worse. You could be flying Israir. Trust me, you do not want to fly Israir.

I have close to 300,000 Delta Skymiles and friends always ask me why I don't use them. This is exactly why. It's such a hassle to try and redeem them (and I'm Silver Medallion, so I don't think your FF status makes a difference, at least not with Delta).

Are you kidding, an elite member? Chris is so elite, it's a wonder he doesn't know all the flight attendants by name. He's platinum and earns about 3 - 500K every 18 months or so. Yet it seems we can never get the elusive standard pass. Once, we got them one way but had to use easy pass the other way. Usually though, we end up flying a partner airline (e.g., delta or alitalia).

The pigs we are, we were really hoping to fly business class this trip but I guess that's just a pipe dream. I may keep trying though, afterall, I don't need to make a decision for ten days.

So what do y'all think about our Paris layovers? Now I'm wishing we arrived in Paris earlier in the day on Saturday so I could see it even if for only a little while.

Shop, I remember your warning about Israir, lucky for us, they're not a Continental partner . Oh and funny, we were able to use our Continental miles to fly first class to Italy out of JFK last may on ... Delta!

quote:

Originally posted by Kim:
So what do y'all think about our Paris layovers? Now I'm wishing we arrived in Paris earlier in the day on Saturday so I could see it even if for only a little while.

Regarding Paris, all I can say is J'aime Paris! It's one of my favorite cities and I usually get there once a year.

As for the layover, that's a separate issue. I have to admit, I am a spoiled brat when it comes to flights and admit that the trip I made to Israel last month was the first time I had to fly that long in coach and it was tough. If I'm going to Europe - which isn't really that far comparably - I want to fly direct. But after 12+ hours in coach, if I do it again (and I will) I'll break the trip up into two shorter segments.

Of course, many of my friends would disagree. They'd rather settle in, pop an Ambien and wake up when they get there. But if you're traveling with your family, that's not an option, anyway, right?

BTW, after complaining about FF reward tickets, I just booked flights for two of us to New Orleans the weekend of Jazz Fest at the SkySaver level. I guess there's a first time for everything!

Woohoo! Called Continental back for the third time and it's definitely the charm! Delta (please say a prayer for their solvency), is starting new non-stop service from Atlanta to Tel Aviv. We're in coach from Newark to Atlanta but first class to and from Altanta-Tel Aviv! Yipee! Oh and I had to extend our trip by a day, bummer....not!