DansDeals.com

Note: Continental has posted via their twitter account that they are giving away free flights through “Go Cards” being given away at Columbus Circle during the marathon today…not sure what that means but if you’re in the city anyway it may be worth checking out!

Interactive BusinessFirst Flat Bed Linky

The first Flat Bed 777 flies today (11/01) from Hong Kong-Newark (CO98) and then Newark-Tel Aviv (CO84).  Tomorrow it will run from Tel Aviv-Newark (CO85) and then Newark-London (CO28).  On the 3rd it will run from London-Houston (CO35) and on the 4th from Houston-Tokyo (CO07).

If you’re on one of these flights in BusinessFirst it looks like you’re in for a real treat!

Continental doesn’t maintain specific planes on routes, so for the foreseeable future it will just be luck of the draw if you get the new BusinessFirst 180 degree flat beds or the old BusinessFirst seats.

Update 3: DEAD!

Update 2: The Washington DC-Denver flights are bookable on continental.com as a Continental codeshare on nonstop United flights for just $75 before tax or $96 Round-Trip with all taxes.  The same flights are hundreds more on the same exact nonstop United flights at united.com…Price mistake?

Update: Washington DC-Albuquerque is also available at the $75+ rate.

Now this is an interesting fare…Continental just partners up with United and then launches a ridiculously low fare between 3 of United’s hubs.

It’s bookable now on continental.com

Valid for travel between 12/02/09-02/10/10.

The base fare is just $75 Round Trip before taxes and $115 with taxes!

Sample valid dates: 12/08-12/15

Starwood AMEX Linky (Free for first year, Earn 10,000 Starpoints With First Purchase, and 30,000 more Starpoints with your first $15,000 in purchases)

AMEX Platinum Charge Card-”The Grandaddy of credit cards” (Earn 25,000 AMEX MR Bonus Points after you spend $1,000.)

Just minutes ago Continental became the largest airline ever to change airline alliances.  In doing so it’s changing a number of its policies.

A Saturday night stay is no longer required for domestic rewards, but domestic rewards are rarely a worthwhile redemption so that’s not a huge deal.

There is a new award chart and it charges the same rate no matter what airline you fly on.  The chart has rates that are very similar to United’s chart.  However Continental has promised not to block partner availability like United has been doing of late which will make Onepass miles that much more valuable.

Continental Star Alliance Mileage Chart Linky

Interactive Travel Rewards Finder Linky

Continental Star Alliance Partners Page Linky

Continental Star Alliance Reward Rules Linky

Continental has a hidden bargain with their Round-The-World rewards which are valid on all 25 Star Alliance carriers as well as Continental’s other partners.  Coach costs 160K miles,  Business/BusinessFirst is 220K, and First Class on 3 class airplanes is 280K.

As Continental’s twice daily nonstop service from Newark to Tel Aviv has always been a popular award choice for Dansdeals.com readers I’m sure everyone will be happy to know that the cost of redemption on that route has gone down.  It used to cost 90K miles in Economy and 120K miles in BusinessFirst.  Now it will cost 75K in Economy and 115K in BusinessFirst.  In addition you can now redeem at the same rates for travel on Star Alliance partners Air Canada and USAirways which fly nonstop to Tel Aviv from Toronto and Philadelphia respectively.  Even more intriguing for some may be the new true first class service possibilities to Tel Aviv like Lufthansa offers for 145K miles on a ticket that normally sells for north of $10,000.

You can transfer AMEX MR points to Continental at a 1:1 ratio but unfortunately the Starwood transfer ratio is a lousy 20,000:12,500.  If you are desperate for Continental miles from Starwood you could always sign up to have all your Starpoints automatically go directly into Continental miles at a 1:1 ratio.

The other aspect of the alliance swap means learning about redeeming alliance partner miles for travel on Continental.  Below is a short listing of what some other Star airlines would charge to fly from Newark to Tel Aviv on Continental.  The only issue is that most international airlines charge a fuel surcharge on award tickets…

Continental EWR-TLV Round trip award prices on Star partners:

ANA (Starwood transfer partner @ 20,000:25,000, AMEX MR @ 1:1): Coach-60K, BusinessFirst-90K

Asiana (Starwood transfer partner @ 20,000:25,000): Coach-78K, BusinessFirst-115K

Lufthansa (Starwood transfer partner @ 20,000:25,000): From US: Coach-80K, BusinessFirst-120K

Lufthansa: From Israel with Israeli address: Coach-60K, BusinessFirst-90K

Singapore (AMEX MR transfer partner @ 1:1): Coach-60K, BusinessFirst-100K

USAirways (Starwood transfer partner @ 20,000:25,000): Coach-80K, BusinessFirst-120K

Virgin Atlantic (Non-Star partner, Starwood transfer partner @ 20,000:25,000, AMEX MR transfer partner @1:1.15 or 1:1 after 10/31): Coach-80K, BusinessFirst-120K

Just spend 10 seconds and register your Continental mileage number for these promos and you’ll get 700 miles!

Promo #1

Promo #2

Promo #3

Note: The miles will takes 6-8 weeks to post.

As you probably know Continental is about to become the largest airline ever to change alliances when they go from 9 member Skyteam to 24 member Star.

They leave Skyteam on 10/24.  If you want to redeem Continental miles for Skyteam partner flights or partner Skyteam miles for Continental flights don’t forget to do it by 10/24!

Continental joins Star Alliance on 10/27.

Here are the major changes:

Current Continental Skyteam Mileage Chart

New Continental Star Alliance Mileage Chart, Effective 10/27

The nice thing is that for the most part with the new Star Alliance chart the rates are the same no matter which airline you fly on. Under the old charts the rates varied according to the airline. Also the premium cabin on any flight without a true business and first class is only considered business class!

The new Continental chart is basically the same as United’s chart except that a round-the-world trip is much cheaper with Continental miles (160,000 in coach, 220,000 in business, 280,000 in first) than with United miles (200,000 in coach, 300,000 in business, 400,000 in first) and Continental has promised not to block partner award availability when using Onepass miles on Star Alliance carriers, while United severely blocks partner award availability when using their miles.

Here are the rate differences when redeeming Continental miles on sample routes between the: Current Rate/New Rate.

(Most surprising is the drop in mileage for TLV flights, which were the only flights to go up for 2009, and are now amongst the only flights to go down!)

Newark-Chicago in coach with Saturday night stay: 20,000/20,000.

Newark-Los Angeles in coach without Saturday night stay: 50,000/25,000.

Newark-Honolulu in coach: 35,000/40,000.

Newark-Honolulu in BusinessFirst: 75,000/80,000.

Newark-Tel Aviv in Coach: 90,000/75,000.

Newark-Tel Aviv in BusinessFirst: 120,000/115,000.

Tel Aviv-Honolulu in Coach: 110,000/80,000.

Tel Aviv-Honolulu in BusinessFirst: 140,000/120,000.

Newark-Buenos Aires in Coach: 50,000/55,000.

Newark-Buenos Aires in BusinessFirst: 90,000/100,000.

Newark-London in Coach: 50,000/55,000.

Newark-London in BusinessFirst: 100,000/105,000.

Newark-Shanghai in Coach: 60,000/65,000.

Newark-Shanghai in BusinessFirst: 120,000/125,000.

Other integration news:

-Saturday night stays are no longer required for a domestic saverpass reward flight. (Eff: 10/27)

-Award redeposit, change, and expedite fees are $75 per passenger for non-elites, $50 for silver elites, $25 for gold elites, and free for platinum elites.  The fees are contingent on the status of the member redeeming the miles, not the status of the flying member. Date changes more than 21 days before the flight are still free. (Eff: 12/15)

-Continental Silver=Star Alliance Silver. (Eff: 10/27)

-Continental Gold and Platinum=Star Alliance Gold for international lounge access and 3 free checked bags. (Eff: 10/27)

-Continental Platinum members get free same day confirmed changes. (Eff: 10/01)

-All fares (even those not purchased on continental.com) will earn full elite miles.  Finally every domestic carrier offers full redeemable and elite miles regardless of where you purchase your ticket. (Eff: 10/27)

-Elites will earn their 25%-100% bonus miles based on 500 mile minimum segment miles even on flights under 500 miles.  Previously the bonus was based on the actual flight miles. (Eff: 10/27)

-

Continental Double Elite Miles Registration Linky

Wow the bookings must be really bad for the airlines to resort to a double elite miles twice in a year!

At any rate Continental has finally matched the double elite miles promo initiated by AA and matched by United for travel between 09/09/09 and 12/15/09.

With all of these double elite miles promos there’s really no excuse to be paying for checked baggage or flying in coach

HT: Shawn

Continental Mileathon Registration Linky

With the Mileathon the more activities that you do, the more miles you get!  Normally this is a targeted promo, but it currently has open registration!

Sample activities:
-Enroll in the OnePass frequent flyer program
-Purchase an Economy Class round-trip ticket
-Book online at continental.com
-Check in online at continental.com
-Acquire a Continental Airlines Credit Card

All activities between 09/01-12/31 count for credits and at the end of the period you can trade the credits for the corresponding number of miles.

Consumer Offer Linky

Business Offer Linky

With the consumer offer you get 10,000 miles after opening the checking account and making 5 debit card transactions within 60 days of opening the account.

You get another 15,000 miles after your first purchase on a Continental debit card.  The cheapest Continental debit card has a $25 annual fee.

If you have a Continental Airlines debit card, you and all of your traveling companions will get to check a free bag when flying on Continental regardless of which credit card is used to purchase the ticket.

With the business offer you get 10,000 miles after opening the checking account and depositing $500 within 30 days of opening the account, and another 15,000 miles for making a purchase on a Continental debit card.

HT: FT

Offer Linky

Copy and paste the following link:
http://www.continental.com/web/en-US/apps/onepass/promotions/registrationDetails.aspx?promoCode=A7319

Valid for the first passenger on an itinerary with a Onepass number listed.

Valid for tickets bought between 07/01 and 08/31.

Now bookable on Continental.com.

Valid for travel from now through 12/08/09

Sample valid dates: 05/19-05/26.

You can use Continental’s +/- 3 day function to search for the fare.

The base fare is $354+tax.

If you fly via Newark you will earn 12,260 base miles, plus 500 miles with Continental’s current 500 mile online booking bonus.

For travel to Sao Paulo, with the current double elite qualifying miles running through 06/15/09 you would earn 24,520 EQM’s, or 480 EQM’s short of elite status through 02/11.

For travel to Rio de Janeiro, with the current double elite qualifying miles running through 06/15/09 you would earn 25,392 EQM’s, or more than enough for elite status.

www.continental.com

Valid for travel through 06/07/09 with a 3 day or Saturday night minimum stay.

Don’t forget to register for double elite-qualifying miles!

Also Continental has a nonstop flight from Newark to Honolulu for just $438 round trip including all taxes but travel must be completed by 05/19.

Chase counts incoming ACH transfers from other banks and incoming paypal/google checkout revenues as direct deposits!

The miles for this offer posted for me within a month of making an incoming ACH transfer from another bank account!

Continental Offer Linky

-10,000 miles for opening up the checking account with direct deposit.

-11,000 miles for opening a Continental/Chase debit card. ($25 annual fee)

-7,500 miles for adding 3 additional cardholders with no annual fee.

Update: The terms seem to exclude US residents…as to why this shows up on the US version of Continental.com is anyone’s guess…

Effective today Continental has brought back the 500 mile bonus when you buy tickets directly from Continental.com!

Offer Linky

The offer is valid for tickets bought between 03/29/09 and 12/31/09.

Only the first traveler listed on the reservation will earn the bonus, so if you have multiple travelers you may want to book everyone separately so that they can each earn the bonus miles…

So which airline will be the first to match?

For the first time since just after 9/11, Continental has just released a double elite qualifying miles offer in response to AA and United’s offer!

Double EQM’s Offer Registration Linky

Best of all, unlike AA and United’s offer there are no exclusions for previously bought tickets!

All travel between 03/20 and 06/15 will earn double elite qualifying miles!

While most of the other airlines often have yearly elite qualifying mile promotions, Continental has traditionally been very careful about offering any sort of elite shortcut.

In my opinion Continental’s bottom and mid-tier Silver and Gold status levels are the best of any domestic airline.  Silver status requires 25,000 elite qualifying miles flown in a calendar year, while Gold requires 50,000. Status earned now will last until February 28, 2011.  Benefits from being elite include 2 free checked bags for you and your companions, bonus miles on each flight, free upgrades to the best domestic first class product, and even free upgrades on non-BusinessFirst international routes. Here is the list of elite benefits on Continental.

On Y and B coach fares (which are automatically upgraded for elites at the time of booking) as well as on all Business/First fares you will now earn at least 250% elite qualifying miles. Thus a single BusinessFirst flight from NYC to Israel will make you elite.

Continental’s upper-tier Platinum level however is altogether disappointing, and is nowhere near the benefits of upper-tier Executive Platinum on AA. The only redeeming factor is that Continental Platinum only requires 75,000 elite qualifying miles, while AA’s EXP level requires 100,000 elite qualifying miles.

I’ve long considered Continental to be the best airline on which to earn elite status with.  While AA’s EXP status is arguably the finest example of elite status that can be earned with miles flown, that status requires 100,000 elite qualifying miles in a calendar year to attain. For anything less than that you’re probably best off with Continental.  At any rate here are some interesting tidbits from them, much of it courtesy of Flyertalk user “sbm12.”

-All elites can now get upgraded to first class at the time of purchase on Y (full-fare) and B (discount full-fare) tickets.

-Date changes on award tickets will go from being $150 to being free as long as the origin and destination cities remain the same and it is done over 21 days in advance of the flight.  Changes within 21 days will now be $75.

-Effective in March confirmed changes at the connection city will be go from $50 to being free.

-LiveTV will begin being launched next month and will cost $6 in coach and free in first. Limited Wi-fi will be launched later this year and will be free for all passengers.

-Lie-flat seats in BusinessFirst will begin being installed on 777 aircraft in September, on 757 aircraft in November, and on 767 aircraft next January.  The process will take about 20 months for the fleet to be converted over.

-Non-elites can now purchase first class upgrades for $50-$250 at the check-in kiosk but will be prioritized after all elites and their companions have been given complimentary upgrades.

-Northwest and Delta elites will no longer receive free checked luggage when flying on Continental as those airlines do not let Continental passengers receive free checked luggage when flying Northwest/Delta.

-Continental will leave the Skyteam alliance on 10/24/09. No Skyteam flights after 10/24/09 will earn miles on Continental.  Tickets booked on Skyteam partners before 10/24 for travel after 10/24 will be honored. There will likely be a short period of time of Continental not belonging to any alliance before being integrated into the Star Alliance.

-Integrating a deep relationship with United will be the main point of concern during the transition in order to get the benefits of what a merger would’ve brought without the risks. Expect full club reciprocity with the relationship.

-Continental Silver (25K EQM’s) will be Star Alliance Silver. Continental Gold and Platinum (50K and 75K EQM’s respectively) will be Star Alliance Gold.

-Continental will not follow United’s lead in intentionally blocking alliance airline’s award availability (Starnet blocking).

-ETA on the 787 dreamliner is Q2 2011.

Offer Linky

Earn 2,000 miles for enrolling and an additional 5,000 miles when you fly for the first time before 12/31/09.

Caveat: You must have an address listed on your Continental account from the “Mid Pacific, South Pacific, China or South Asia.”

From the January 2009 Continental magazine:

Sign in at Continental.com, go to “My Account”, and select “Email subscriptions” on the manage profile page.

Offer valid for new subscribers who are residents of the 50 United States.  Must subscribe by 01/31/09 and remain subscribed for 60 days to receive bonus miles.

Offer Linky (Exp: 12/31/08)

Offer Linky

East coast fares start at just $199/each way!

Effective immediately: If you have a Continental credit or debit card you and everyone traveling on your itinerary (up to 9 passengers) get to check 1 bag for free!

Offer Details Linky

If you are a Onepass member and have a primary Continental credit/debit card saved to your profile the checked bag fee will be automatically waived for you and everyone traveling with you.  Otherwise you can just give your active credit card to the ticketing agent and they will waive the fee for you at the the airport.

Additionally, Scott O’Leary, the managing director of customer experience over at Continental, reports that even secondary cardholders will qualify for a free bag for them and all of their companions by showing a ticketing agent their Continental credit or debit card. However secondary cardholders will not be able to have the charge automatically waived by saving the card to their Onepass profile.

Major kudos goes out to Continental for figuring out a way to differentiate themselves and bring back free checked luggage for non-elite travelers!

So which credit card should you get? Continental has a travelbank credit card with no fee for 1 year and a $29 fee for subsequent years, it is definitely not worth using that card for spending, but it will pay for itself if you fly Continental at all. Also if you sign up for the regular $85/year credit card they will often waive the fee for you, and even if they won’t they can downgrade you to a no annual fee card that earns 1 mile per $2 spent. A horrible deal for spending to be sure, but a great card to hang onto if you ever fly on Continental and are not elite!

Related: The key to being able to use your miles: Alliances!

Continental has announced that its transition from Skyteam to Star will take place in the 4th quarter of 2009. In addition their new lie-flat Business seats will be implemented at that time as well.

The move adds significant value to banked Continental miles as the Star Alliance is easily superior to Skyteam with regards to mileage ticket availability and breadth of airlines.

10,000 Mile Offer Linky

-Valid for 3+ day full-size rentals in Los Angeles, Denver, and Orlando. Rental must begin by 10/31.

Alternatively there is a 5,000 mile offer valid at all Advantage locations for rentals beginning by 11/15:
5,000 Mile Offer Linky

Offer Linky

“Sign up today, and you’ll receive:

-3,000 bonus miles
-2 miles for every $1 on the supply portion of your electricity bill every month
-A permanent sales tax waiver on the delivery portion of your bill, which can be as high as 9.9% today
-No fees or long-term commitments
-Great rates”

See the offer link for full T’s and C’s.

HT: Moishe, via dansdeals.com/forums

Complimentary helicopter service with coach class fare code: Y

Complimentary helicopter service with first class fare codes: C, R, A

Complimentary helicopter service with businessfirst class fare codes: J, D, Z

$45 helicopter service through 10/31 with coach class fare code: H

“US Helicopter provides an eight-minute flight from Newark to the Midtown Manhattan (TSS) or the Wall Street (JRB) heliport. To make your travel even easier, you can check in for your Continental flight and check your bag through to your final destination at the heliport. TSA security screening is conducted from the heliports and no further screening is required in Newark, allowing easy connectivity to all Continental flights. You’ll also earn 500 OnePass miles on US Helicopter codeshare flights when connecting to or from a Continental flight.

US Helicopter flights operate hourly, Monday through Friday from 7:00 a.m. to 7:50 p.m. Flights connect to and from gate C-71 at Newark. “

$45 Offer Linky

BusinessFirst Offer Linky

Update: See the comments for basic info on Alitalia and the start of the new rates to Israel.

Continental Airlines is in the lengthy process of switching airline alliances.  It is the biggest airline to ever switch alliances.

Star Alliance is a much larger alliance than Skyteam or OneWorld, and has many extremely attractive partners to redeem miles on.

Unfortunately the switch doesn’t bode too well for fans of the only domestic airline to still offer free food on domestic flights, here are some of the changes Continental will be implementing to prepare for a closer relationship with the dirt of the domestic aviation industry, United and USAirways.

-Elimination of the 500 mile minimum flight earnings.  Continental joins United and USAir, the domestic Star Alliance carriers, in eliminating the minimum mileage earnings on short flights.  This takes effect for tickets  booked on or after 11/15/08 for travel on or after 01/01/09.

-Reduction of elite bonus miles in line with United starting for travel on 03/01/09 (USAirways was recently the first and only airline to completely eliminate elite bonus miles). Platinum members will now earn 200% of flown base miles instead of 225%. Gold members continue to earn 200%. Silver members will now earn 125% instead of 150%.

-First checked bag will go from being free to matching the new industry standard $15/each way for tickets booked on or after 09/05/08 for travel on or after 10/07/08.  Elite members and their companions will continue to get 2 free checked bags per person.

-Mileage tickets to/from the US and Tel Aviv will go from 70,000 in coach and 100,000 in businessfirst to 90,000 in coach and 120,000 in businessfirst. (Yay for Starwood and the Alitalia /Continental workaround!)

Offer Linky

Use coupon code: MUAZ041

Save 20% off rates with Continental’s BCD: U072500

See offer for full rules.

The 8,500 bonus miles are on top of the normal daily miles received for renting a car.

For a short period of time Continental had information on their new BusinessFirst seat up on their website.  This was confirmed by Continental to have gone up too early…but they can’t take back what’s already been saved!

BusinessFirst is arguably the best class of service available between the US and Israel.

The rumor is that the new seats will be in a 2-2-1 configuration on the widebodies and a 2-1 configuration on the narrowbodies.

The seats will be completely lie-flat.

Looking to use miles to fly in Continental’s BusinessFirst class to Israel? It’s 100K directly from Continental, but just 80K if booked via Alitalia, which is a Starwood transfer partner at 20,000 Starwood=25,000 Alitalia.

Here are links where you can read from the now taken down articles.

Article part 1

Article part 2

Article part 3

Article part 4

Article part 5

Chase counts incoming ACH transfers from other banks and incoming paypal/google checkout revenues as direct deposits!

Continental Offer Linky

-10,000 miles for opening up the checking account with direct deposit.

-11,000 miles for opening a Continental/Chase debit card. ($25 annual fee)

-7,500 miles for adding 3 additional cardholders with no annual fee.

Continental is finally launching a million miler program. They join AA, Delta, and United in offering lifetime perks for people who have flown 1,000,000 miles.

Elite status is typically earned by earning at least 25,000 elite qualifying miles in a year. There are however many other ways of becoming elite, such as via a challenge, a status match, or via a million miler program.

Continental’s million miler program is similar to Delta’s and United’s in that it only counts flight miles, and not other miles. AA is by far the most generous in counting all miles earned for million-miler status.

Unfortunately only elite qualfying miles count for Continental’s lifetime elite status-so award flights taken don’t count ;(

The most unique and intriguing part about Continental’s program is that it will give you the ability to grant million-miler status to a companion. I can only imagine what that status will fetch on ebay!

I came across Continental’s new million miler program while beta-testing the latest version of their website, scheduled to be deployed on the 14th. Here are some pictures showing the new program from the beta site.  As you can see, I’m not even in the ballpark…but if anyone who is needs a companion, just send me an email!

Another positive change coming on the 14th is the ability to see exit-row seat availability while searching for a flight, which on the current site is not possible:

With all of the bad news in the aviation industry I’d like to talk about something positive.  Continental recently launched one of the most impressive mobile sites ever: pda.continental.com

Here is the scoop on some of it’s groundbreaking features:

-Flight status that tells you the flight number of your inbound aircraft.  With the inbound flight number you can have a much better idea about the chance/time of delay for your flight.

-Real-time Battlefield upgrade standby list with passenger names.  This list tells you your upgrade priority rank versus every other elite member on the plane.  It also tells you how many elite members have received a complimentary upgrade, and even which seat they are in.  Additionally it says how many people are booked and checked into first class.  It maintains privacy by only listing your first initial and the first 3 letters of your last name.

-Real-time flight standby list: What your rank is for clearing standby on a flight, and how many passengers have already cleared standby or are still on the list.

-Real-time seating maps showing the availability of every seat on the plane, including blocked seats that only a gate agent can assign.

-Online check-in.

-Boarding pass display so that you don’t need to print a boarding pass to clear security (Limited airports only at the current time)

-And many, many more features.

To illustrate how I was able to use it to my benefit:

Continental offers unlimited complementary first class upgrades for their elite members in two manners.   The first is the EUA, which is an automated system that upgrades platinum members at 5 days out, gold members at 3 days out, and silver members at 1 day out.

The EUA only works if the elite member is on their own itinerary without any other passengers and only if their is availbility in “F” class at the time that the EUA runs its course.

The 2nd upgrade manner is the battlefield upgrade in which the gate agent manually processes upgrades by elite status ranking and fare purchased.  On Continental the gate agent will actually get disciplined if they send out a flight with empty first class seats if there were elite members in coach!

When I flew from Ontario, CA to Cleveland after Pesach I knew from Continental’s new mobile site that “ELE. D.” I was #1 on the battlefield upgrade list.  I also saw that first class was fully booked, but that one passenger hadn’t yet checked in.  After I settled into my exit-row seat I took a look at the pda site and noticed that I had been upgraded to seat 1F.  I waited until boarding was complete expecting to be pulled up to first class, but noone came.  So, I got a flight attendant’s attention and asked to please double-check with the gate agent who should be sitting in 1F.  I was settled in the comfy leather seat within 60 seconds!

It’s nice to see an airline truly empower the customer with such proprietary information in today’s day and age, and it’s one example of why Continental will survive the impending airline blood-bath…

Update: DEAD!

United filed a cheap Hawaii fare this morning from Continental’s hubs, and Continental has responded by filing a cheap fare from USAirways’ hubs.
Doesn’t make sense to me either, (preparing for a United/USAir merger?) but I’ll take it anyway!

Pittsburgh-Honolulu is $219+ RT
Philadelphia-Honolulu is $251+ RT
Charlotte-Honolulu is $261+ RT

Taxes will add about $45 depending on the routing.

All fares are now bookable for travel from 08/08 through 03/09. There is a 3 day minimum stay counting from time of departure. There seems to be good availability and all fares were available for the sample dates that I checked of 09/09/08-09/16/08 and 01/13/08-01/20/08 at continental.com

auction.continental.com

Continental’s auction site usually has auctions that wind up finishing for way too many miles, but once in a while they have decent fixed price auctions. Here are a couple auctions for you to burn up some orphan Onepass miles and catch the rematch of last year’s ALDS.

A Onepass auction account is required to view the auctions.

05/06 Yankees-Indians Matchup-1,000 Miles/Ticket (Tier Reserved)
05/07 Yankees-Indians Matchup-1,500 Miles/Ticket (Tier Box)

Update: A lot of people asked to be updated if Continental releases more seats for Pesach, so I kept my eyes open and tonight I found the largest amount of Pesach travel dates that I’ve ever seen before! Below are the current dates with open seats updated as of 04/01.

The airlines that fly to Tel Aviv know good and well when they can charge exorbitant prices and block out all “saver” mileage seats. I was just able to land a saver BusinessFirst ticket for a friend to go from Cleveland to Israel for Pesach from 04/10-05/06 for just 100,000 Continental miles and $35 in tax! To buy the ticket would have been about $5,000, so he got an excellent value of 5 cents per mile.

These mileage seats will probably be gone very soon, so book now! You are able to go coach in one direction and BusinessFirst the other. Listed availability is as of the time of this posting only and will change rapidly!

You may be able to book Continental travel on these dates with miles from other Skyteam alliance partners such as Air France/KLM Flying Blue, Delta, and Northwest. Continental tickets to Israel booked via Flying Blue are just 25,000 miles each way (or 20,000 Starpoints), but Flying Blue tacks a fuel surcharge onto award tickets that the US based airlines do not.

Only days that have reward flights that don’t overlap on Shabbos are listed below:

Continental non-elite member’s saverpass availability nonstop Newark-Tel Aviv:

EWR-TLV

Coach (35,000 miles OW): 04/01, 04/02, 04/03, 04/05,04/06, 04/07, 04/08, 04/09, 04/12

BusinessFirst (50,000 miles OW) 04/01, 04/02, 04/03, 04/05,04/06, 04/07.

TLV-EWR

Coach (35,000 miles OW): 05/02, 05/04, 05/05, 05/07, 05/08

BusinessFirst (50,000 miles OW) 05/04, 05/06.

Continental Elite member’s saverpass availability nonstop Newark-Tel Aviv:

Adds coach availability on 04/13 from EWR-TLV

The airlines that fly to Tel Aviv know good and well when they can charge exorbitant prices and block out all “saver” mileage seats. I was just able to land a saver BusinessFirst ticket for a friend to go from Cleveland to Israel for Pesach from 04/10-05/06 for just 100,000 Continental miles and $35 in tax! To buy the ticket would have been about $5,000, so he got an excellent value of 5 cents per mile.

These mileage seats will probably be gone very soon, so book now! You are able to go coach in one direction and BusinessFirst the other. Listed availability is as of the time of this posting only and will change rapidly!

You may be able to book Continental travel on these dates with miles from other Skyteam alliance partners such as Air France/KLM Flying Blue, Delta, and Northwest. Continental tickets to Israel booked via Flying Blue are just 25,000 miles each way (or 20,000 Starpoints), but Flying Blue tacks a fuel surcharge onto award tickets that the US based airlines do not.

Continental non-elite member’s saverpass availability nonstop Newark-Tel Aviv:

EWR-TLV

Coach (35,000 miles OW): 04/02

BusinessFirst (50,000 miles OW) 04/08, 04/10

TLV-EWR

Coach (35,000 miles OW): 05/01, 05/04, 05/05

Continental Elite member’s saverpass availability nonstop Newark-Tel Aviv:

EWR-TLV

Coach (35,000 miles OW): 04/02, 04/03, 04/06, 04/07, 04/08, 04/09

BusinessFirst (50,000 miles OW) 04/08, 04/10

TLV-EWR

Coach (35,000 miles OW): 05/01, 05/04, 05/05, 05/07, 05/08

BusinessFirst (50,000 miles OW) 05/06

Why wait on hold and try to find your way around a phone tree maze when you can have companies call your phone or talk to you over the web for free?

I used the Starwood callback link extensively while traveling in Israel in order to make and change award reservations (which was especially nice because incoming calls are free on Israeli cell phones!)

It’s just too bad that more companies don’t utilize this great technology…

Have Amazon call you

Have Continental call you

Have Starwood call you

Know any other popular companies that use click-to-talk technology? Please post a comment!

Earlier today USeless Airways published cheap fares to/from Hawaii and all 3 of Continental’s hubs throughout the end of their schedule.

I didn’t post it because it was a fake, they had published a great fare but they allocated exactly zero seats to the sale!

Nevertheless Continental felt the need to protect its fortress hubs and just matched all 3 of the fares. And they actually had the class to allocate seats to the sale fares!

Houston-Honolulu-$340+ RT On Continental

Cleveland-Honolulu-$353+ RT On Continental

Newark-Honolulu-$432+ RT On Continental

You can save an additional 5% instantly off these fares and get double miles by using your Continental MC and using the code: Onepass

Continental is running an unadvertised sale for dozens of southern/midwestern/eastern US cities to/from Honolulu. The fares start at $400+ RT.

Valid travel dates are between 04/01 and 06/16.

With creative routing you can earn a boatload of prized elite-qualifying miles…

You can save an additional 5% instantly and get double miles by using your Chase Continental Consumer MC or Continental Business MC and using the code: Onepass

Continental:

20% off flights from the US to Europe: US2EUR

Rules:

-Purchase by 03/03

-Valid for outbound travel from 04/06-04/15, return no later than 04/20.

-Saturday night or 5 night stay required.


AA:

15% off flight to/from Hawaii: DFHAWAII

Rules:

-Book by 03/04

-Travel between 04/01 and 06/20


10% off flights between JFK and Los Angeles or S. Fancisco and between Washington/IAD and Los Angeles: AA178E1W

Rules:

-Book by 02/26

-Travel between 02/26 and 04/07

-Blackout: Several, see link for details.


20% off flights between Canada and anywhere in the Western Hemisphere: DFCANADA

Rules:

-Book by 02/29

-Travel between 04/01 and 06/20

-Blackout: 05/15-05/26.

Update: Here is an offer for $125 when you open a Chase account. Some people are saying that the Continental offer and the $125 offer can be combined. YMMV (Your mileage may vary). Either way it must be done in a Chase branch.

$125 Offer PDF Linky

You may need to get your own unique code, this is only available by logging into the secure section of Chase’s website:
$125 Offer Unique Code Linky

Chase counts incoming ACH transfers from other banks and incoming paypal/google checkout revenues as direct deposits!

Continental Offer Linky

-10,000 miles for opening up the checking account with direct deposit.

-10,000 miles for opening a Continental/Chase debit card. ($25 annual fee)

-7,500 miles for adding 3 additional cardholders with no annual fee.

HT:SBS