Is it just me, or is this excessive?

I paid $1,000 for a round trip coach ticket Newark to Rome in October, the most I've paid for this trip in the seven years I've been going at least a couple of times each year.

I found out this morning from my airline (Continental) that I can upgrade to first class on the way over only, which is fine because that's when I'd want it, to improve my chances of getting some sleep.

What stopped me was the cost. It's 20,000 miles to upgrade one way. Okay, that's reasonable. However, there's also a $400 fee for the "service" of making the change. Huh?

Yeah, totally excessive. I think the fee goes away though when you're an elite member.

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to improve my chances of getting some sleep.

Ambien is a lot cheaper that a $400 change fee. I think this change fee is designed to keep non-elite members out of first class.

Bill

Sounds excessive to me. Airlines have been charging "change" fees for a long time but I have never heard of a "change fee" for an upgrade when you are also paying 20,000 miles. When I was traveling on business I frequently was on standby for the upgrade but only paid in miles.

Delta raised their fee to $100 per ticket for flight changes. So, when I spotted an earlier flight from Atlanta to Tallahassee that was available on the return from Milan and would save us 3 hr. of waiting in the termnal, Delta said it would cost us $200. It's just another way for the airlines to increase revenue, like the bag charge fees. I elected to keep the $200 and sit around the terminal for a few more hours.

If it's also $400 if your return was also upgraded you might be able to argue that since you're only changing 1/2 of the flight, it should only be $200. But, that first class flight over is awfully inviting.

I am an Elite member, at the Silver level and quickly approaching Gold! If this is "Elite" treatment I'd hate to be a casual user.

It was just on the news this morning that airlines are instituting all kinds of new fees for upgrades and everything else you can think of.

We upgraded one class to Business when we made our flight arrangements in January, Dulles to Florence via Frankfurt. At that time, it was 30,000 miles each way for the upgrade and we had to buy more expensive tickets. Plus pay a fee because this had to be done on the phone, not online.

And we only got the upgrades at all because one of us is a Premier member.

I just flew round-trip Boston-Dulles. The return flight had a smaller plane than they originally scheduled. They had to bump sixteen people, tho they did give them free round-trip tickets in the lower 48. The catch is, just try to use those tickets.

I'm in the process of looking for tickets for our May '09 trip for three of us on Delta. My husband is a Flying Col., Million Miler and Platinum member. The really lousy flights for coach would be 50,000 miles per person. The flights we really wanted were 375,000 miles per person....what? Then I asked how much three coach upgradeable tickets would cost and they said $8,000. This is nuts. I'm going to check every week until they start releasing some of their seats on the better routes, but I'm not holding my breath. We're flying Houston to Milan and back from Venice.

Sharon

As I said to my friend and travel buddy in a private message, the more I think about this the more it annoys me.

I've been looking all over Rome for a nice, but inexpensive room for my last night and I'm overjoyed that Casa San Francesco has one now. For roughly $120 (80 Euro) I'll have my own clean, quiet room with an en suite private bathroom. Continental, on the other hand, wants $400 more so I can sleep en mass with a bunch of strangers in a slightly bigger seat, in a room that may or may not be very clean, using slightly suspect, thin blankets and a tiny pillow, a shared rest room (no shower) that most assuredly won't be clean thirty minutes after takeoff, and a lot of noise.

Okay, I know it's not a fair comparison since Continental will be getting me to Italy at the same time, but really. The plane will get me there just as fast with $400 more in my pocket to enjoy in Italy if I suck it up and sleep in coach.

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Originally posted by Fibonacci:
Ambien is a lot cheaper that a $400 change fee.

Oh, how I wish that I could do that, but over the counter drugs like Benedryl leave me dopey (or dopier than usual) for 12 - 18 hours. I don't want to think about how a prescription strength drug would hit me ... my poor travel buddy would be dragging me all over Rome along with the luggage!

Sharon J--I haven't seen any 375,000 miles tickets, but I haven't looked for a few days. The highest I've seen are the 265,000 mile tickets--woe is me! I can't begin to imagine what they will be in a few months when I begin shopping for next year! Rome in January is beginning to look inviting.

For the last 2 or 3 years American has been charging and additional $500 on top of the coach fare to use miles to upgrade to business class. Just recently they've raised it to $600! If you use miles to pay for the whole thing then there is no charge besides taxes you'd have to pay anyway. It's so annoying we've decided to travel less frequently so that we can do the whole thing on miles. I feel you pain!

The Continental upgrade "service fee," like the American fee, isn't really a change fee. It's more like an upgrade "copay" that you have to pay in addition to miles, regardless of whether you get the upgrade with miles when you originally get the ticket or do it later.

Continental's mileage upgrade fees are on a sliding scale depending on fare class. If you buy a full-fare, non-restricted economy ticket (Y fare) there's no fee. Otherwise the most deeply discounted tickets incur the highest fee to upgrade. I'm pretty sure that there's no fee to upgrade if you get one of those complimentary upgrades that Elites sometimes get (depending on availability and Elite level), but even Elites have to pay the fee if upgrading with miles--though I could be wrong about that.

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Rome in January is beginning to look inviting.

Rome in Dec and Feb has been great, so Jan will probably be jsut as good!

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I don't want to think about how a prescription strength drug would hit me ... my poor travel buddy would be dragging me all over Rome along with the luggage

You should try it at home before you go. Pick an evening when nothing critical is scheduled and go to bed several hours earlier than you normally do. You can probably get a sample to try from your doctor.

I haven't tried the newer controlled release Ambien, because the original has well for me. Apparently the original is now available as a generic.

Bill

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Ambien is a lot cheaper that a $400 change fee.

Yeah, it was Ambien that caused Congressman Patrick Kennedy to smash his car at the US Capitol a few years ago.

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Congressman Patrick Kennedy to smash his car at the US Capitol

I didn't know that he had used that excuse. It's incredible that someone would take a sleep medication and try to drive. The literature on Ambien says it works fast and it has worked well for me with no after effects. But I certainly do not, and would not, take it until I plan to do nothing but sleep.

I can normally get to sleep pretty easily and the only times I've used it are on overseas travel for the trip over and the first night there.

Bill

Yeah, it's a good thing that so many people just have a few drinks while flying instead of taking Ambien, because we know that drinking alcohol has never caused car crashes.

I'm with Bill--I use Ambien only as directed, only while on long flights, and have never had the slightest problem with it.

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It's incredible that someone would take a sleep medication and try to drive.

Surely anybody in their right mind would agree that you shouldn't take sleeping pills then drive. The problem comes after you take the medication and, for some people, apparently, are no longer IN your right mind.

I'm thinking Ambien and air flights may not mix so well for some people. Personally, I'll continue to ignore the advice to avoid alcohol on plane flights. Dehydration has never been a problem for me, and the wine sure helps me get to sleep!

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Yeah, it's a good thing that so many people just have a few drinks while flying instead of taking Ambien, because we know that drinking alcohol has never caused car crashes.

I think some people can afford to upgrade and do, some people can afford to upgrade and don't, some people are fine in coach, some find alcohol helpful, some take pills.

Let's not be judgmental here, pretty please. The topic is the cost of upgrading.

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Let's not be judgmental here, pretty please.

I apologize for my bad phrasing in the quoted material that sounded judgmental, but I also point out that if you look back you will see that I was not the one who initiated sounding the alarm about taking substances. I was merely trying to point out (not very clearly, I guess) that either substance can be seen as having risks, though only one of them seems to be fair game.

My apologies too, KT. I skimmed the thread too quickly.