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The final flight with a Continental flight number will be Continental 1267 which is scheduled to depart on March 2nd from Phoenix at 11:59pm and arrive in Cleveland at 5:46am.

Saturday March 3rd is the switchover date, and there’s a decent chance it will be a nightmare travel day as the systems are combined and United agents start using the Continental SHARES system.

On March 3rd your Continental OnePass and United MileagePlus accounts will be merged.  The fun part (well, at least for a Continental guy like me) is that everyone’s surviving number will be the Continental 8 digit alphanumeric number.  The United number will be history.  If you only have a United number you’ll be generated an 8 digit alphanumeric number.  So the name United MileagePlus survives, but the Continental number lives on.

If you earned Continental or United elite status in 2010 and didn’t requalify in 2011 that status will expire on March 2nd.

Continental.com will automatically forward to United.com…except that it will look exactly like Continental.com looks like it does now but with the United name and logo (which now has the Continental globe instead of the tulip).  That’s a good thing as Continental.com is far more adept and advanced than United.com.

-If you have miles in your United account transfer them to Continental now. Miles in Continental accounts won’t start expiring until 09/30/13, so you’ll get a nice extension on any possible mileage expiration.

-The Continental OnePass Plus card will be going away, probably on or before March 3rd, so now is the last chance to apply for that card, which along with the United MileagePlus Explorer card can both be matched from 30K up to 50K after you receive the card.
Both cards also give primary rental car insurance (almost all other cards only provide secondary coverage to your own personal car insurance), they make your miles never expire, give free checked luggage and priority boarding, in-flight food, drink, and TV discounts, last seat EasyPass award availability, 2 annual lounge passes, 10K bonus miles for spending $25K annually, upgrades for elite cardholders on award tickets, and double miles for Continental and United purchases.

Update 2: Monday, 02/13 is the last day to finalize bookings on Virgin Atlantic with Continental miles!

Update: You can no longer search for or book reward flights between the US and London on Virgin from Continental.com for dates after 02/13.  You’ll have to call Continental to book.  Other flights (like London-Hong Kong-Sydney) are still bookable online for now.

Originally posted on 01/18:

The Continental-Virgin Atlantic relationship will end on 02/13/12.  All awards must be ticketed by that date.

If you want to try out Virgin Upper Class using your Continental miles now is the last chance.  It costs 100,000 miles round-trip to fly in Upper Class between the US and Europe and of course you get access to Virgin’s famous clubhouse when flying in Upper Class.

Or you can fly all the way from JFK to Sydney (via London and Hong Kong) in Virgin Upper class for just 135,000 miles with a free stopover anywhere along the way if you’d like.  You’ll need to call to book an award like that, but you can piece together availability by searching on Continental.com for reward travel on “nonstop flights only” for JFK-LHR, LHR-HKG, and HKG-SYD separately, bearing in mind that stopping over in a city along the way can help stitch together a valid saverpass award by waiting for an open date while you tour the stopover city.

Virgin Atlantic was a non-alliance partner with Continental.
Continental remains partners with the dozens of Star Alliance member airlines as well as the following non-alliance airlines:
-Aeromar
-Cape Air
-Copa
-EVA Air
-Hawaiian Airlines
-Island Air

HT: moish, via DDF

Continental has discounted awards to Europe and Central/South Africa.
For example for Europe, flights on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday are 22,500 miles each way instead of 30,000 miles each way. Flights on Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday are 24,000 miles each way instead of 30,000 miles each way.

For example:
Newark-Zurich, 02/07-02/13, 45K miles+$64.40 tax.
Newark-Zurich, 02/08-02/19, 46.5K miles+$64.40 tax.
Newark-Zurich, 02/05-02/19, 48K miles+$64.40 tax.

Just type in your dates and the discount will apply automatically as long as you are traveling on valid dates (see rules below). Select flights and continue to see the discount.

Flights must have a Continental or United flight number, so flights on Virgin Atlantic for example with a Continental flight number will qualify.

You can transfer points from your Sapphire Preferred or Ink Bold cards to Continental (or from Freedom or Ink Classic cards if you have or know anyone that has a Sapphire Preferred or Ink Bold card). And of course you can transfer United miles to Continental miles for this promotion (and to extend the life of your miles).

Important rules:
-Valid for travel from the US49 and Europe and from the US49 and Central/South Africa.
-Book by 11:59pm CST on January 16, 2012.
-Travel between January 27, 2012 and March 22, 2012.
-Reduced reward mileage prices apply only to travel on United®, United Express®, Continental, and Continental Express-operated flights.
-Reduced rewards only valid on round-trip travel on a SaverPass reward.
-Stopovers are not permitted.
-A 21 day advance purchase is required.
-Saturday night stay required.
-Save 20% on peak travel days (Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday) and 25% on off-peak travel days (Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday).
Can combine peak and off-peak.
-Open jaw allowed within the same region (i.e. fly into LHR and out of FRA).
-This offer cannot be applied to previously issued tickets.
-Reward only eligible for travel in Economy.
-No upgrades are permitted on reward travel tickets.
-If a wholly unused ticket is exchanged for travel outside of the validity period, the mileage will be credited back into the member’s account for the applicable service charge, and a new ticket will be issued at the appropriate number of miles for the new reward.
-On a partially used ticket, if the new travel date requested is outside of the validity period, a new one-way ticket needs to be purchased or a new one-way reward at the applicable mileage level needs to be redeemed. The unused return ticket is not valid for travel and cannot be credited back into the member’s account.

HT: Hudi, via DDF

Update 2: From March 4th through March 31st Continental will be operating the Houston to Honolulu route with 777 aircraft instead of 767 aircraft! Among many other niceties (flying on a larger, newer plane, etc) that means lie-flat beds instead of angled seats in Businessfirst and AC power outlets and Audio/Video on demand entertainment systems for all passengers instead of a loop system!
If you can go in March the 777 between Houston and Honolulu will be a real treat! And best of all it’s available every single day at the saver rates!
HT: eliteflyer

Update: This seems to work for all qualifying Continental accounts listed below on the Continental BusinessFirst flights from Denver, Houston, and Newark to Honolulu.
From Continental Gold and Platinum elite accounts (and apparently some cardholder and silver elite accounts, but not most of them…) there is also perfect first class saver award availability on pretty much every domestic route, like Newark to Houston, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, S. Francisco, etc, even on the 757-200 lie-flat BusinessFirst equipped planes!

EWR-HNL (click to enlarge)

EWR-LAX (click to enlarge)
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If you have the Continental OnePass Plus Mastercard, or are a Continental elite you’ll want to check this out!

People who have one of those can book the last seat on the plane for miles, but at the easypass rate for typically double the miles.

Right now though when logged into your Continental.com account that has a Continental card or is elite you can book the last seat availability at saver rates on certain routes. So far I’ve just seen this on domestic routes.

For example for Newark-Honolulu, which is always difficult to find in coach and extremely difficult to find in BusinessFirst there is saverpass availability on nearly any day you want to travel!!! That means just 40,000 miles each way to fly nonstop from Newark to Honolulu in BusinessFirst whenever you want!

(It’s a glitch because the fare class is “JN” which should cost the easypass rate as it’s good for last-seat availability, but is bookable right now at the saverpass rate!)

Find other routes that work well with this glitch?  Book a ticket with the glitch? Post a comment!

Book now and think later!  If you don’t have enough miles in your account you can hold award tickets for 3 days, I don’t recommend holding this as you may not be able to book it once the glitch is fixed.
You do however have 24 hours to cancel a booked award reservation for free.  Plus dates on award tickets can always be changed 21+ days before the new flight for free, as many times as you want!

This availability glitch won’t last long though so don’t wait!

HT: FT

Updated with more information from an article originally posted on 08/01:

09/30 is the last day to transfer American Express Membership Rewards points into Continental miles.  The good news is that at least we can still use Chase Sapphire Ultimate Rewards points or Ink Bold Ultimate Rewards points to instantly transfer miles into anyone’s Continental account. And there are no fees with Chase.

Membership Rewards Transfer Options Linky

-Personally I transferred out my entire hoard of Membership Rewards points to Continental.  For my money nothing compares with the generosity of their program.  They’re part of the Star Alliance which has dozens of top-notch member airlines with great award avaialbility, they never charge fuel surcharges on award tickets, they allow for one-way awards, they have a stopover+2 open-jaws policy, they allow free date changes and routing/airline changes, and therefore are extremely valuable for me.  I have no qualms banking millions of miles with Continental.

The nice thing about program like American Express Membership Rewards, Starwood Starpoints, and Chase Ultimate Rewards is their flexibility.  What I’m about to suggest is that having the miles in Continental is better than that flexibility, but for some people that may not be true.  It may still be better to retain that flexibility to transfer to a worse program when you know exactly what you want to use your miles for.  While Continental may be better as a whole, if you just need 1 ticket it’s always possible that another program may be better for you.  And of course American Express can always add another transfer partner like AA or USAirways (both of those are transfer partners at a 1:1.25 ratio with Starwood) that would change everything.  Finally airlines are always tinkering and changing their award charts.  Having points in a flexible is a hedge against that as you can always transfer to another airline.  But still that didn’t stop me from loading up on Continental miles.

Let’s take a look at the other options.

-Delta is always running promotions for bonus miles (25%, 40%, 50%, there’s even a 67% bonus offer now) when you transfer Membership Rewards points.  There’s a reason for that, and it’s because of how bad their miles are.  Miles are not all created equal, just like no 2 monetary currencies are exactly alike.  It’s nearly impossible to get tickets at the saver level, they are part of the worst alliance (Skyteam) with the stingiest and worst collection of airlines in an alliance, they charge fuel surcharges for redemptions on some partners and on some tickets originating overseas, there are no true first class redemptions possible with Delta miles, they don’t have one-way awards, they don’t allow you to cancel/change an award within 3 days of departure, their website is terrible and often misprices awards and their agents are even worse.  Gary coined them SkyPesos for good reason, and I don’t participate in their program too much.

That being said, some people have great success with Delta miles.  Every person uses miles in their own way, so if Delta works for you, then by all means grab those 50% and 67% bonuses while you can…they may not have to offer as many once Continental is gone.

-Air France/KLM Flying Blue is another Skyteam option, but they charge hefty fuel surcharges.  Their are some loopholes (for example for tickets on Delta originating in Israel or buying one-way tickets from the US) though.  They also consider Israel to be part of Europe which makes it cheaper than other programs, and they have incredible promo award pricing, but those get slammed with fuel surcharges.  Overall not a place I’d want to bank miles.

-BA/Iberia is the OneWorld option.  Their mileage programs are merging soon.  They’re set to announce changes to their program in November that are likely to get rid of sweet redemptions options like 40,000 miles to South America without fuel surcharges and 50,000 miles to Asia.  Massive fuel surcharges are the norm for most flying. It’s very possible that there will continue to be some good uses of BA miles.  Like there are today within the US with free stopovers or to Hawaii.  But that’s not something I would count on.

-ANA was a great Star Alliatnce option until a couple months ago when they added fuel surcharges on Continental, United, USAirways, and Virgin Atlantic.  They still have a great award chart (60K to Israel in coach or 90k in Business) but it’s hard to swallow their fuel surcharges.

-El Al has a terrible program with high surcharges.  If you want award tickets on El Al find yourself some AA miles to fly surcharge free.  Caveat is AA can only book coach or business tickets on El Al, not first class.

-Airtran has some very intriguing aspects of their program (32 points for a ticket on another airline in the US, 50 points for a ticket on another airline to Hawaii, or 100 points for a ticket on another airline anywhere in the world) that I’ve taken advantage of in the past, but they’re being swallowed by Southwest (mooooooo) next year who I’m sure will get rid of that.

-Virgin America (effective next month), Frontier, Jetblue, and Hawaiian‘s programs are mostly domestic and they don’t particularly interest me, but they may for some folks.  I tend to pay for most domestic tickets and save my miles for international trips where I can get greeter value out of them on trips I could otherwise not afford.

-Virgin Atlantic, Singapore, and Alitalia charge massive fuel surcharges.  Singapore has some value as they have expanded availability for flying on Singapore, but be prepared to pay an insane amount of miles and surcharges if you want that A380 first class suite.  Alitalia only charges 80K to Israel in business class, but fuel surcharges are heavy.

-I’m not familiar with the Aeromexico (Skyteam) program, but being Skyteam I would guess there’s nothing too exciting about it.  I could be wrong here, so correct me if I’ve been missing out on something.

That leaves us with Continental (ending 09/30) and Air Canada, besides for all of the hotel options.

-Air Canada’s Aeroplan program is definitely a viable Star Alliance alternative program to transfer your points to, although I still prefer Continental miles to Aeroplan. Aeroplan miles for example require activity once a year to keep the miles active and expire after 7 years no matter what. Currently Continental miles never expire, although that will change once United swallows the Continental program on January 1st. They still won’t expire in the new program if you have a Continental OnePass Plus or United MileagePlus Explorer card though.

It’s worth noting that if you shuffle your miles from United to Continental and then back to United again you’ll extend the life of your miles by 18 more month.

Another factor is that while Air Canada doesn’t charge fuel surcharges when flying on Star Alliance and partner carriers, they do charge a surcharge if you want to fly on Air Canada.  They also seem to charge slightly higher taxes than Continental/United.  Continental/United never charges a fuel surcharge on award tickets.  Continental/United also allows for one-way awards at half the miles of a round-trip award, which Air Canada charges a premium for one-way awards.

Not that there aren’t advantages to the Air Canada program.  For one, they allow 2 stopovers on a mileage ticket, so you can check out 3 cities for as long as you want to, all for the cost of just 1 award.  Continental only allows for 1 free stopover and doesn’t allow for any free stopovers on a domestic US48/Canada award ticket.  Air Canada will also allow you to fly to Asia via Europe, something that is difficult to pull off with Continental miles.

Another major advantage to the Aeroplan program is that infants are charged just $50 in coach, $75 in business, or $100 in first class on an award.  With most programs, including Continental, you need to pay 10% of the full fare for an infant.  On a business class or first class ticket that can be very expensive, possibly even expensive enough to make you consider just paying the miles for a seat for the infant.

You can borrow miles and send them over to Continental now and pay them back by opening new cards up or spending on cards within the next 12 months.  However you will be charged 2.5 cents per point if you do not pay back the points over the next year.

Here are some cards that can be opened to get points to pay back borrowed points. Be sure to clear your browser’s cookies to receive the best offer for each card:

American Express Consumer Platinum Card

American Express Consumer Premier Rewards Gold Card

American Express Consumer Gold Rewards Card

American Express Business Gold Rewards Card

American Express Business Platinum Card

Having problems seeing card offers? Getting a “card not available” or other error message? Read this!
1. Try using another browser (IE, Firefox, or Chrome) to see the offer.
2. You can try deleting your browser’s cache and cookies to see the offers. To do so just hold down the Ctrl, Shift, and Delete buttons on your keyboard and then delete your cache and cookies.
3. You can also try browsing “incognito” or “in-private” to see the offers. In IE and Firefox you can access this mode by holding down Ctrl, Shift, and P buttons on your keyboard. In Chrome you can access this mode by holding down Ctrl, Shift, and N. Then just return to DansDeals.com and click on the card offer you want.

-Just fill out the standard application. Don’t click for the shorter existing cardmember application or you will not get the best offer.

United MileagePlus Explorer Visa Linky
Continental OnePassPlus Mastercard Linky

Chase is now synergizing the benefits of the Continental and United cards and has added some great new benefits. If you have an older United card you can call the number on the back of the card to convert it to a MileagePlus Explorer Card. Continental OnePass Plus cardholders will be automatically converted over the the MileagePlus Explorer card next year, but you can also call to convert your card earlier if you so desire, but the benefits are now the same.

This is the last chance you will have to earn the signup bonus on both the Continental and United cards!
Miles can be transferred freely between the Continental and United programs.
With miles from either program you can book travel on any of the dozens of Star Alliance partners. They are both extremely valuable miles and they both can be used for one-way tickets now. However there are still many advantages to Continental miles, so you’ll probably want to transfer your United miles there. See below for a comparison.
Best of all neither program charges any fuel surcharges, something that most other programs can’t say.

For each card you can get 25,000 miles for signing up and making a purchase and 5,000 miles for adding an additional cardholder, so you’ll get a total of 30,000 miles for signing up!
You can add the 2nd user onto the account when applying online.
There is no fee for the first year, the fee is $95 for subsequent years.

Benefits:

-Priority boarding.
Always have room for your carry-ons because you will be able to board in the elite line. On Continental you will board together with elites for now and on United you will board right after elite members and before everyone else.
-First checked bag free.
When flying on United or Continental you will get a free checked bag for yourself and everyone else on your reservation.
You can also add other family members as free secondary users on your account so that they can get free baggage as well when they’re not traveling with you. The fee waiver for secondary users isn’t automatic as it is for the primary cardholder, but you just have to show your card to the ticketing agent and they’ll be able to waive your checked bag fee!
-Miles that never expire.
Currently Continental miles don’t expire but United miles expire after 18 months. It appears in the new program that miles will expire, but if you are a cardholder your miles will not expire!
-Primary Car Rental CDW Insurance.
Most cards have secondary DCW insurance when you rent a car. This means that if you damage your rental vehicle you must file the claim with your own personal insurance policy first, and only if they won’t cover the damage will the credit card cover the damage.
With primary rental car CDW insurance you will not have to file anything with your own insurance company. Chase will cover the entire bill for any damage to your rental car. Just be sure to decline the rental agency’s CDW coverage and Chase will have your back! This primary CDW coverage applies everywhere in the world except in Israel, Jamaica, and Ireland (blame the bad drivers there!)
-United Club passes.
You will get 2 club passes (a $100 value) on every anniversary date of your card.
-Upgrades on Reward tickets for Elite members.
When flying on Continental, elite members can now be upgraded even on a mileage ticket for upgrade eligible flights. This benefit will also be introduced to United flights for 2012.
-Last seat EasyPass availability.
Currently on Continental only elite members can redeem extra miles (typically double) for last-seat availability. This is being introduced on United as well. During peak periods (like for flight to Tel Aviv during the holiday seasons) there may not be availability for non-elites. With this benefit credit card holders will also get last seat easypass availability when they need it.
-Double miles on Continental and United tickets.
-Annual spending threshold bonus.
Get 10,000 additional bonus miles with $25,000 or more in eligible spend each calendar year.
-In-flight Discounts
By having the card you will get a $2 discount off in-flight alcoholic beverages and $2 off in-flight DirecTV service!
-Concierge Service
-Luxury Hotels & Resorts Program
-Cardholders will also be able to use Chase’s new concierge service to book from the “Luxury Hotels and Resorts Collection” When you book through the concierge you will get exclusive benefits, upgrades, and amenities.

The cards also some with ultra-premium benefits and insurances that normally only come with much more expensive cards, including:
-Price protection: If you find an ad, online or in-store, that the price of an item you bought within the past 90 days is lower than what you paid, you can get a refund of up to $500 per item and $1,500 per year!
-Return protection: Return an item up to $300 and up to $1,000 a year within 90 days if the store won’t take it back.
-Free roadside assistance: Up to $50 per event
-Delayed baggage insurance: Up to $300 of essential items covered per ticket.
-Trip delay Insurance: Up to $300 per ticket if your flight is delayed to spend on hotels, cars, etc.
-Trip Cancellation/Interruption Insurance: Up to $1,500 coverage per event.
-Lost or damaged luggage insurance: Up to $3,000 coverage per event
-Travel Accident Insurance: Up to $500,000 per event
-Emergency evacuation, transportation, and medical coverage.
-Extended Warranty Protection: Extra year warranty.
-Purchase protection: If an item you bought within the past 90 days is stolen or damaged or if you have an “involuntary and accidental parting with the item” you can get a refund of up to $10,000 and up to $50,000 per year.
-Ticket Event Protection: If you can’t attend an event ticket for a covered reason you will get a refund of up to $500 per ticket, $2,000 per event, $4,000 annually.
-Identity Theft Protection: $1,000 coverage per stolen identity event.
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Current advantages of Continental miles over United miles:
-Continental has more lenient routing rules (you can go to Australia via Asia for example) on award tickets.
-Continental has no “maximum permitted mileage” policy. If you can find award seats be designing your own roundabout routing it can usually be booked. On United there is a “maximum permitted mileage” policy, although they have just recently been moving towards a more generous policy by allowing people to exceed the maximum permitted mileage by 15%.
-Continental allows free routing changes on award tickets.
-Continental is partners with many non-Star Alliance carriers, like Virgin Atlantic.
-Continental allows for a free stopover and open-jaw on award tickets.
-Continental “Plan B” allows you to book a BusinessFirst award even if there is only coach availability and go on a waitlist and standby for a BusinessFirst seat. If you do not get the BusinessFirst seat (even if you do get a First class seat on the domestic flight) then you will get a refund of the additional miles that you paid for it!
-Continental allows you to book travel on non-Star Alliance partner carriers on the same itinerary and at the same rate as Star Alliance carriers. United has separate award charts for non-Star Alliance partner carriers that make them much more expensive than Star Alliance partners and won’t let you book travel on alliance and non-alliance partners on the same itinerary.
-Continental gives all Elite members significantly expanded coach saver award availability (XN) and coach (YN), first (FN), and businessfirst (FN) last seat standard award availability. Continental also gives Platinum Elite members expanded first and businessfirst (O) saver award availability.
-Continental’s agents are all located in the US. If you aren’t elite on United you will be routed to their offshore agents who can be very hard to understand at times.
-Continental allows you to book many more partner airline flights online than United does, thus avoiding phone booking fees. Although a manager from either airline should be able to waive the fee if you push hard enough due to the fact that it can’t be booked online.
-Continental miles don’t expire. United miles expire after 18 months of not having account activity.
-Continental counts all elite miles towards lifetime million miler status, even if it was flown on a partner airline, purchased on Continental.com, or earned via the Presidential Plus credit card. United only counts miles that were actually earned by flying on a United flight.

Current advantages of United miles over Continental miles:
-United doesn’t charge a fee for changing a booked award flight to a flight within 21 days.
-United offers miles and money options for some flights to stretch your mileage balance with a cash supplement.

Update: Today is the last day to make bookings under the current award chart for Continental and United!  You can book tickets now and then change them later on for free without paying more miles.  There is also no change fee as long as the new travel is scheduled 21+ days in advance.  When you use Continental miles you can also make free routing changes although on United there continues to be a fee for routing changes on award tickets, so be sure to transfer those United miles to Continental before booking!

Update: Continental/United has partially relented.  Originally the plan was to go with the more expensive United rates.  However the new chart now states that a round-the-world ticket will cost 180,000 in coach, 260,000 in business, and 350,000 in first.  This is cheaper than the old United rates but more expensive than the old Continental rates.

Originally posted on 03/16:

Related:
United Airlines Award Chart Changes.
-United Visa Signature: Get 30,000 Miles For Signing Up, $50 Cash Back, And First Year Free!
-Continental: Take Advantage While You Can…
-Click here to read about and apply for all of the benefits of the Continental OnePass Plus Card

As expected Continental has updated their award chart as part of their merger process with United.

Current Continental Award Chart Linky

Current Continental Interactive Award Chart Linky

06/15 Continental Award Chart Linky

One of the great features of the Continental program was their round-the-world award option.

The Continental round-the-world world allows to take up to 16 flights and is an incredible value.

As of 06/15 the rates will go up significantly.
Currently it is 160,000 miles in coach, 220,000 miles in business, and 280,000 miles in first.
On 06/15 it will be 200,000 miles in coach, 300,000 miles in business, and 400,000 miles in first.
The new rates bring Continental in line with what United has been charging for a round-the-world.

If you book travel prior to 06/15 you will be charged the current rate, even if you are traveling after 06/15.

As of 06/15 you can make redemptions for one-way travel using Continental miles.  You can make one-way bookings now by just transferring miles to United.  The only difference would be for booking the expanded award availability that Continental Elites have access to.

Other changes for Continental folks are similar to the United changes from earlier today. The short haul US/Canada award for 20,000 miles will now only be for flights up to 700 miles in length instead of 750.  Travel to Oceania also goes up using Onepass miles (as opposed to going down with Mileage Plus miles)

You can still travel on non-Alliance partners with Continental on the same ticket (including round-the-world tickets) for the same award rate. United still does not allow that and generally charges much higher rates for non-alliance award rates.

Related:
Continental: Take Advantage While You Can…
Click here to read all of the amazing benefits of the Continental OnePass Plus Card

100 Free Continental Miles Linky

Just enter your Onepass number and click the little arrow to register and you’re done!

It usually takes Continental up to 4 months to post miles for these types of offers, so please don’t hold your breath!

Add this to the bucket of every mile helps you travel for free faster…

Updates:
-If you transfer your United miles to Continental and then back again to United you will extend the expiration date of your miles by 18 months! If you leave them in Continental they currently do not expire at all!
-Continental and United are synergizing many of their policies on 06/15 and some of the advantages of each program listed below may no longer apply after that date.

Originally posted on 03/07:

Related:
-Chase United Visa Signature: Get 30,000 Miles For Spending $1, $50 Cash Back, And First Year Free!
-Chase Continental OnePass Plus Mastercard: Get 30,000 Miles For Spending $1, $50 Cash Back, And First Year Free!
-Chase Sapphire: Get 53,210 Miles For Spending $3,000, And First Year Free!
-Get Your First Year Free, Triple Points On Airfare, And 16,000 AMEX Membership Rewards Points After Spending $1,000 On The American Express® Premier Rewards Gold Card!
-Getting To Israel Using AMEX Membership Rewards Points!
-Continental: Take Advantage While You Can…
-Click here to read about and apply for all of the benefits of the Continental OnePass Plus Card

You can now transfer miles back and forth between your Continental and United mileage accounts!  The names on both account must match exactly.
Want to know more about the differences between the programs? Scroll to the bottom and I’ll highlight some of them.

You can now for a limited time transfer AMEX points into United miles!  Just transfer to Continental and then to United!
AMEX points must be transferred to Continental no later than 09/30/11.

Transfer Miles Linky
If you get an error online you can also call Mileage Plus Customer Service at 800-421-4655 or OnePass customer service at 800-554-5522 to manually make a transfer or request a status match.

-You can transfer miles only once per day, in 1,000-mile increments with a limit of 200,000 miles per transfer. (Smaller amounts of miles can be transferred by calling United or Continental over the phone.)
-You can transfer miles only between accounts in your name.
-If you change your mind, you can wait 24 hours and move the miles back into their original account.
-Transferring miles won’t affect your elite status in either program.
-Transferring miles does not consolidate your accounts.
-You can also leave your miles in both accounts. Your accounts will not be combined until the end of 2011.

You can also match your status and combine elite miles between the 2 programs as well!

Elite Status Match/Transfer Linky
Use your Continental elite mileage number when flying Continental and your United elite mileage number when flying United to maximize upgrade benefits.
-If you’re currently an elite member of one program, we’ll match your status in the other.
-If you qualify for higher elite status or a match to equivalent elite status, please wait 7-10 days for this information to appear in your online account. Your new card will arrive in the mail four to six weeks after we update your status.
-Combine your elite activity to qualify for a higher elite status in both programs.
-When you register, you’ll make a one-time designation of either your Mileage Plus or OnePass account as your primary account for upgrades for the year. This is where the Regional and Systemwide Upgrades you earn in 2011 will be deposited. You can receive these upgrades in one account or the other, but not both.
-Registering does not link or combine your Mileage Plus and OnePass accounts. Your Mileage Plus and OnePass accounts will remain separate throughout 2011.
-Only EQM, EQS or EQP count toward your elite status. Award miles and bonus miles do not qualify.
-Registration is optional. If you do not register, you will continue to earn elite status based on qualifying activity in each separate program.
————————————————————————————————-
Each program’s miles have their own advantages. For now you can take advantage of whichever suits you better by transferring miles back and forth freely!

-Both airlines belong to the Star Alliance, so you can book travel on any of the dozens of Star Alliance airlines with either program’s miles.
-Continental has always allowed you to have a free stopover and an open-jaw. United used to allow only one but they have just recently matched Continental policy and will allow both on an itinerary, so no difference these as well.
-Be sure to compare both charts as there are some differences between rewards in some regions of travel.
Continental Award Chart Linky
Continental Interactive Award Chart Linky
United Star Alliance Award Chart Linky
United Other Partner Awards Linky

Continental OnePass advantages over United Mileage Plus:
1. Continental has more generous routing rules than United. For example Continental will allow you to travel to Australia via Asia, where availability is significantly better. United requires you to fly directly to Australia. In general Continental will allow more roundabout routings which makes finding availability much easier if you know how to search for creative routings.
2. Continental allows you to change award tickets for free if it is done over 21 days before your flight as long as you don’t change the origin or destination city. This includes changing connecting cities. On United a change to a connecting city will incur a $150 charge per ticket.
3. Continental has much lower award fees. Cancellation of an award ticket is just $75 (or significantly less if the miles came from an elite member’s account). United charges double that.
4. Continental Plan B allows you to book a BusinessFirst Saver award ticket even if there is only Coach Saver avaialbility. If BusinessFirst avaialbility opens up you will be automatically moved to BusinessFirst. If you don’t wind up sitting in BusinessFirst you will get a mileage refund. More discussion on this in the DansDeals Forums.
5. Continental has no “maximum permitted mileage” policy. If you can find award seats be designing your own roundabout routing it can usually be booked. On United there is a “maximum permitted mileage” policy, although they have just recently been moving towards a more generous policy by allowing people to exceed the maximum permitted mileage by 15%.
6. Continental allows you to book travel on any Star Alliance or partner airline if they have award avaialbility. United on occasion uses Starnet blocking and won’t let you book partner travel if they don’t feel like it.
7. Continental allows you to book travel on non-Star Alliance partner carriers on the same itinerary and at the same rate as Star Alliance carriers. United has separate award charts for non-Star Alliance partner carriers that make them much more expensive than Star Alliance partners and won’t let you book travel on alliance and non-alliance partners on the same itinerary.
8. Continental’s agents are all located in the US. If you aren’t elite on United you will be routed to their offshore agents who can be very hard to understand at times.
9. Continental charges significantly fewer miles (160K coach/220K business /280K first) for an around-the-world award than United charges (200K coach/300K business /400K first).
10. Continental gives all Elite members significantly expanded coach saver award availability (XN) and coach (YN), first (FN), and businessfirst (FN) last seat standard award availability. Continental also gives Platinum Elite members expanded first and businessfirst (O) saver award availability.
11. Continental allows you to book many more partner airline flights online than United does, thus avoiding phone booking fees. Although a manager from either airline should be able to waive the fee if you push hard enough due to the fact that it can’t be booked online.
12. Continental miles don’t expire. United miles expire after 18 months of not having account activity.
13. Continental counts all elite miles towards lifetime million miler status, even if it was flown on a partner airline, purchased on Continental.com, or earned via the Presidential Plus credit card. United only counts miles that were actually earned by flying on a United flight.

United Mileage Plus advantages over Continental OnePass:
1. United allows you to book one-way travel at half the rate of round-trip travel. (Stopovers aren’t permitted on one-way travel)
2. United doesn’t charge any expedite/close-in fees on award tickets booked within 21 days of travel. Continental charges varying amounts up to $75 for these depending on the elite status of the redeeming member’s account.
3. United offer miles and money options for some flights to stretch your mileage balance with a cash supplement.

Any other advantages/disadvantages that I missed? Hit the comments and I’ll update the post!

HT: David, via the DansDeals Forums and UAInsider via FT

Related:
Continental: Take Advantage While You Can…
Click here to read all of the benefits of the Continental OnePass Plus Card


100 Free Continental Miles Linky

Just enter your Onepass number and click the little arrow to register and you’re done!

It usually takes Continental up to 4 months to post miles for these types of offers, so please don’t hold your breath!

Add this to the bucket of every mile helps you travel for free faster…

HT: mordylich, via the DansDeals Forums

Update: DEAD!

Bookable on Orbitz (with full mileage earning, free cancellations within 24 hours, and price assurance refunds) or directly from Continental.

Sample valid dates for LAX-MIA or MIA-LAX:
05/11-05/18.

Plenty of other dates are available as well.

Step 1: Register your Continental Onepass Mileage Account For The Mileathon Promotion

By getting the card and making your first purchase by 03/31 you will get 20 credits, which will earn you at least 2,500 miles in the Mileathon promotion. If you get just 10 more credits you will get 5,000 miles in the Mileathon promotion.

Step 2: Apply here for the Continental OnePass Plus Card to get 25,000 miles with your first purchase, 5,000 miles for adding a free additional cardholder, and $50 cash back!
You only need to spend a buck on the card to get the miles and there is no annual fee for the first year!

Step 3: After you get approved for the card wait a couple days for the card to show up in your Chase.com profile (If you don’t have a Chase.com proflile just wait a week or so until you get your card) and then follow the instructions in this post to get another 25,000 miles added to your account!

Final tally:
-2,500 miles from mileathon.
-25,000 miles signup bonus.
-$50 cash back signup bonus
-5,000 mile additional cardholder bonus.
-25,000 mile bonus for emailing Chase online.
Total=57,500 miles plus $50 cash back and no annual fee the first year!

With the card you will get free checked luggage, free primary rental car CDW insurance, free baggage and trip delay coverage, free roadside assistance, free price, purchase, and return protection, free Presidents Club Lounge Passes, and much much more.) Read more about those benefits and some of the other card benefits in this post.

What can you do with the miles? Plenty!
-Domestic US ticket: 25,000 miles
-Latin America: 35,000 miles
-Hawaii: 40,000 miles
-South America: 55,000 miles
-Europe: 55,000 miles
-Oceania: 60,000 miles
-Asia: 65,000 miles
-Israel: 75,000 miles
-Australia: 80,000 miles

Continental Mileathon Registration Linky

Activities must occur between 02/01-04/30 (unless otherwise noted) to count for credits. At the end of the period you will get miles depending on the number of credit earned.

With the Mileathon the more activities that you do, the more miles you get!
-Purchase a full-fare (Y) BusinessFirst round-trip ticket: 20
-Purchase a First Class or BusinessFirst (F, C, D) round-trip ticket: 12
-Purchase a full-fare (Y, B) Economy Class round-trip ticket: 12
-Purchase an Economy Class (M, E, U, H, Q, V, W) round-trip ticket: 6
-Book online at continental.com (J, F, C, D, Y, B, M, E, U, H, Q, V and W): 1
-Book a car rental at continental.com: 3
-Book a Best Rate Guaranteed hotel reservation at continental.com: 4
-Purchase a Continental Airlines Vacations package: 6
-Purchase continental.com cruise package: 6
-Acquire the Continental Airlines Presidential Plus Card: 30
(Card must be acquired between Feb. 1 and March 31, 2011. First purchase must be made by March 31, 2011, to earn Mileathon credit.)
-Acquire a Continental Airlines OnePass Plus Card: 20
(Card must be acquired between Feb. 1 and March 31, 2011. First purchase must be made by March 31, 2011, to earn Mileathon credit.) -
-Purchase or renew a Presidents Club membership: 20
-Enroll in the OnePass Frequent Flyer program: 2
-Sign up for Continental e-mail subscriptions: 3
-Make a ShopOnePass floral purchase: 3

5 credits=500 bonus miles
10 credits=1,000 bonus miles
20 credits=2,500 bonus miles
30 credits=5,000 bonus miles
45 credits=10,000 bonus miles
65 credits=15,000 bonus miles
85 credits=25,000 bonus miles
105 credits=35,000 bonus miles
125 credits=50,000 bonus miles
150 credits=75,000 bonus miles
175 credits=100,000 bonus miles

Read all about the OnePass Plus card and the dozens of benefits and ultra-premium protections (free checked luggage, free primary rental car CDW, baggage and trip delay coverage, roadside assistance, price, purchase, and return protection, and much more.) that come with it in this post.

If you recently applied for the Continental OnePass Plus card within the past 60 days to get 30,000 miles and $50 you can get another 25,000 miles!!
That card gave 25,000 miles and $50 cash for signing up and making your first purchase and 5,000 more miles for adding a 2nd cardholder.

Numerous posters on the DansDeals Forums have reported that they have been able to get an extra 25,000 miles added to their accounts by following this method.

Here’s how to do it!

Step 1: Go to chase.com and login to your online account.

Step 2: After logging in look on the left side of the page and locate the “contact us” link and click it.

Step 3: Click on the link “To contact us by e-mail, send us a message.”

Step 4: Click on “Compose Message.”

Step 5: Next to the “Credit Card” tab select “Rewards Inquiry” and click “Go”

Step 6: Select the account number of your Continental OnePass Plus card.

Step 7: Select “Other Rewards Program Inquiry.”

Step 8: Write something to the following effect in a message:
“I recently applied for the Continental OnePass Plus card and received 25,000 miles for making my first purchase. However I just received an offer to signup for the same card and receive 50,000 miles here: http://www.continental.com/web/en-US/content/products/chase/continental.aspx?&offer=OPP50
As a loyal Chase customer who just applied for this card I would appreciate if you would credit the additional 25,000 miles from this offer.”

Step 9: You should get an email when Chase posts a response. Just login to your account again and click on “You have a new message” in the left-hand side of your account center to read the message.

Step 10: Post a comment here letting us know what Chase said!

The 50,000 mile offer doesn’t come with the 5,000 mile offer for adding an additional cardholder or the $50 bonus, so you’ll actually get a total of 55,000 miles and $50 by applying for the 30,000 mile offer and then using this method to write to Chase!

Update 2-01/12/11:  Another week, another big loss as predicted in this post from just 2 weeks ago.  Effective immediately Continental is no longer offering easy year-long status matches.  Instead they are adopting United’s policy that you will only get matched for 90 days and in those 90 days you must complete a challenge to fly 10,000 miles to keep Silver, 17,500 miles to keep Gold, and 35,000 miles to keep Platinum.

Update-01/05/11: Going, going, gone.  Chase is no longer offering a Continental debit card for their checking accounts.  Existing cards are still valid but will likely be phased out in the future. Take advantage of other offers while you can!

Originally posted on 12/28/10:

Continental’s Onepass program will be gone by the end of 2011.  Until then take advantage of everything you can, such as:

-Open a Continental OnePass Plus Mastercard free for the first year and get 30,000 miles after your first purchase, $50 cash-back, and free checked luggage.
The worst part about a merger for me is that there are less credit cards out there to churn!
Read all about the OnePass Plus card and the dozens of benefits and ultra-premium protections (primary CDW, baggage and trip delay coverage, roadside assistance, price, purchase, and return protection, and much more.) that come with it in this post.

-Open other Chase cards that give Continental miles.
-Chase Sapphire Preferred: 28,000 miles after spending $3,000.
-Chase Sapphire (You need to have a Sapphire Preferred or Ink Bold for points to be transferable to Continental): 10,500 miles after spending $500.
-Chase Ink Bold Business: 10,000 miles after your first purchase.

-Open A Chase consumer checking account and get 25,000 miles, or 50,000 miles if you also open a business account.
Chase is phasing out reward debit cards so this may be the last chance to get miles just for opening a bank account!

-Transfer AMEX Points to Continental.  Points need to be transferred by 09/30/11.
Continental is a great option for AMEX point transfers. They have very lenient routing options, have dozens of Star Alliance and non-alliance partners, allow free date and route changes, don’t block award flights, and don’t charge a fuel surcharge. They also have great round-the-world award rates.
There are tons of AMEX cards to open for points and they are fully churnable so you will get the bonus points even if you already have the card:
-AMEX Plat Charge Card: 51,000 miles after spending $1,000.
-AMEX Premier Rewards Charge Card: 16,000 miles after spending $1,000.
-AMEX Gold Charge Card: 10,500 miles after spending $500.
-AMEX Zync (You need to have another AMEX charge card to transfer points to miles): 10,000 miles after your first purchase.

If any of the card links don’t show the signup bonus you need to clear out your browser’s cache and cookies or try using a different browser!

-Get an elite status match. Continental will match your elite status that you have in other programs.  If you’re bottom-tier in another program they’ll give you Silver, mid-tier in another program will get you Gold, and top-tier will be matched to Continental Platinum. Continental won’t match the status of partner airlines.
You can only status match once in your lifetime, so with Continental going away now is the time to use that match!
Matched status will last through 01/31/12.

To get a status match just call the Continental OnePass Service Center at 713-952-1630, prompt #4, or email them at onepass@coair.com

Did you just get elite status on Delta thanks to just transferring over some AMEX points? Match now!

With Silver you’ll get:
-2 free bags for you and all your travel companions
-25% bonus miles on flights and 500 mile minimum flight earnings
-Priority phone line, check-in, security, and boarding
-Space-available upgrades 1 day before your Continental or United flight
-You will also get upgrades on award tickets starting in 2011 if you also have the Continental OnePass Plus card.
-Elite section seating on Continental and economy plus seating on United
-Expanded availability on saverpass mileage awards in coach
-Last-seat availability on easypass mileage awards
-Instant upgrades on B/Y fares
-Reduced $50 reward expedite and cancellation fees.

Gold will get you the above and
-3 free 70 pound bags for you and all your travel companions on all Star Alliance carriers.
-Star Alliance Gold, which gets you free lounge access at hundreds of lounges when traveling internationally
-100% bonus miles on flights
-Space-available upgrades for you and your companions 3 days before your Continental or United flight
-Reduced $25 reward expedite and cancellation fees.

Platinum will get you the above and
-Space-available upgrades for you and your companions 5 days before your Continental or United flight
-Free reward expedite and cancellation fees.
-Free same day flight changes
-Expanded availability on saverpass mileage awards in First and BusinessFirst.
-Instant upgrades on M fares

-Last chance to buy a lifetime lounge membership?

United doesn’t sell a lifetime lounge membership (they do give one after you have 2,000,000 hard-earned BIS miles) and the combined company may very well stop selling this.
Continental has raised the price on the lifetime membership just about every year for the past 20 years. While it took just a few hundred dollars to buy one originally, about $1,400 to buy one 10 years ago, and about $2,700 to buy one 5 years ago, it now sells for $4,600-$5,900 depending on your elite status.

You get lounge access at hundreds of partner lounges across the globe where you are pampered with free drinks, food, wi-fi, and a comfortable place to relax.

A lounge membership also allows to you and your guests to access the secure part of the airport even when you don’t have a ticket whenever you feel like it.

Having a lifetime membership gets you a $295 annual discount off the $395/year presidential plus mastercard which gets you stuff like 25% more bonus miles for elites, 2 free bags for non-elites, and bonus elite miles for spending.

So are there any other Continental offers that are worth doing before it’s too late? Hit the comments!

Currently posting from: Bicheno, Tasmania, Australia

Related:
Continental: Take Advantage While You Can…
Click here to read all of the benefits of the Continental OnePass Plus Card

100 Free Continental Miles Linky

Just enter your Onepass number and register and you’re done!

It usually takes Continental up to 4 months to post miles for these types of offers, so please don’t hold your breath!

Add this to the bucket of every mile helps you travel for free faster…

HT: David, via the DansDeals Forums

Update 2: The OnePass Plus card is now publicly offering a $50 cash statement credit for opening the card and making 1 purchase. So you now get 30,000 miles and $50 and no annual fee for the first year just for spending a buck on the card!
If you applied for this card recently without the $50 cash bonus, just call Chase and ask for them to match the current offer!

Update: Don’t forget to take advantage of all of the Continental mileage offers out there that you can before it’s too late!  Continental has merged with United so this card will only still be available for a very limited amount of time!

Originally posted on 09/02:

Continental Airlines OnePass Plus Mastercard Offer Linky

If you don’t yet have a Continental Onepass mileage account you can enroll here.

Signup Bonus:
You will get 25,000 miles for signing up for the Continental OnePass Plus MasterCard after making your first purchase. Plus you get 5,000 miles for adding a free 2nd user to your account, so you’ll get a total of 30,000 miles just for signing up!
You can add the 2nd user onto the account when applying online.

Card Spending Benefits:
-The annual fee ($85) is waived for the first year!
-You earn 1 Continental Onepass mile per dollar spent and 2 per dollar spent on Continental.
-You will get a bonus 10,000 miles for every year that you spend $25,000 on the card! In other words if you typically spend $25,000 in a year you will earn miles at a rate of 1.4 miles per dollar spent (35,000 miles for $25,000 spend)

Continental Onepass miles are among the most highly valued miles in the entire industry!
Did you know that:
-They can be redeemed on 40 partner airlines, including the global Star Alliance network with its amazing award availability and other partners like Hawaiian and Virgin Atlantic.
-They are very lenient on routing rules, so you can travel to Australia for example across the Atlantic or Pacific oceans, something most airlines would never let you do!
-They allow you to make a free stopover AND a free open jaw on a single award ticket to make your miles much more valuable.
-They allow free date and even free airline and routing changes on award tickets.
-They allow you to make changes to your award ticket even after departure.
-They do not block partner airline availability like some other airlines do.
-They never charge a fuel surcharge on award tickets, even if you travel on partner airlines that normally charge a fuel surcharge!
-They allow you to book a BusinessFirst award even if there is only coach availability and go on a waitlist and standby for a BusinessFirst seat. If you do not get the BusinessFirst seat (even if you do get a First class seat on the domestic flight) then you will get a refund of the additional miles that you paid for it!
-They have an excellent award chart. You can fly to Israel on Continental, or on partners like Air Canada, USAirways, Aegean, Austrian, Brussels, Lot Polish, Lufthansa, SpanAir, Swiss, Tap Portugal, and Turkish. With so many partners it’s much easier to find availability. You can mix and match carriers and still fly for 75,000 in coach, 115,000 in BusinessFirst or Business, or 145,000 miles in First class on a 3 class aircraft.
-Want to go “around-the-world?” Continental has one the cheapest around-the-world mileage tickets around. It’s just 160,000 miles in coach, 220,000 miles in BusinessFirst or Business, or 280,000 miles in First class on a 3 class aircraft.  You can fly around the world on any partner airline and stop off for as long as you want in 6 different cities anywhere in the world!

Effective in 2011 Continental cardholders who are elite will also be able to get complimentary upgrades even on award tickets!

Continental cardholders can also redeem miles for hotel and car rewards.

Here are some of the amazing benefits the card comes with:
-With the recent launch of the OnePass Plus card Chase has added some incredible new benefits. The card is one of the only cards that offers free primary rental car CDW (collision damage waiver) insurance! Nearly every other credit card I have researched only has secondary rental car CDW insurance. With secondary insurance if you damage your rental car you will first need to file a claim with your own personal car insurance company and only it they don’t cover the entire bill will your credit card step in and pay the difference. This can cause your personal insurance rates to go up.  This card is now my go-to card for car rentals!

With primary rental car CDW insurance as is now offered on the OnePass Plus card you will not have to file anything with your own insurance company. Chase will cover the entire bill for any damage to your rental car. Just be sure to decline the rental agency’s CDW coverage and Chase will have your back! This primary CDW coverage applies everywhere in the world except in Israel, Jamaica, and Ireland (blame the bad drivers there!)

-If you have the OnePass Plus card you and up to 9 of your traveling companions will automatically get a free checked bag when flying Continental (normally $25 each way!) You do not need to pay for the trip on the card to get this benefit, you merely need to have the card! You can also add other family members as free secondary users on your account so that they can get free baggage as well when they’re not traveling with you. The fee waiver for secondary users isn’t automatic as it is for the primary cardholder, but you just have to show your card to the ticketing agent and they’ll be able to waive your checked bag fee!

-Chase will send you 2 free Presidents Club passes (normally $100) annually. Plus they’ll also send you 2 discount vouchers for flights!

-By having the card you will get a $2 discount off in-flight alcoholic beverages and $2 off in-flight DirecTV service!

-OnePass Plus Cardholders will also be able to use Chase’s new concierge service to book from the “Luxury Hotels and Resorts Collection” When you book through the concierge you will get exclusive benefits, upgrades, and amenities.

The card also some with ultra-premium benefits and insurances that normally only come with much more expensive cards, including:
-Price protection: If you find an ad, online or in-store, that the price of an item you bought within the past 90 days is lower than what you paid, you can get a refund of up to $500 per item and $1,500 per year!
-Return protection: Return an item up to $300 and up to $1,000 a year within 90 days if the store won’t take it back.
-Free roadside assistance: Up to $50 per event
-Delayed baggage insurance: Up to $300 of essential items covered per ticket.
-Trip delay Insurance: Up to $300 per ticket if your flight is delayed to spend on hotels, cars, etc.
-Trip Cancellation/Interruption Insurance: Up to $1,500 coverage per event.
-Lost or damaged luggage insurance: Up to $3,000 coverage per event
-Travel Accident Insurance: Up to $500,000 per event
-Emergency evacuation, transportation, and medical coverage.
-Extended Warranty Protection: Extra year warranty.
-Purchase protection: If an item you bought within the past 90 days is stolen or damaged or if you have an “involuntary and accidental parting with the item” you can get a refund of up to $10,000 and up to $50,000 per year.
-Ticket Event Protection: If you can’t attend an event ticket for a covered reason you will get a refund of up to $500 per ticket, $2,000 per event, $4,000 annually.
-Identity Theft Protection: $1,000 coverage per stolen identity event.

Have any questions about any of that? Hit the comments!

Don’t need any of those amazing benefits? All you need to do is spend a buck on the OnePass Plus MasterCard and you’ll have more than enough miles for a free domestic ticket and you’ll have a whole year to try out the benefits of the card for free!

Update: Offer extended through 12/31!

Related: Continental’s New OnePass Plus MasterCard: Get 30,000 Miles And Your First Year Free! Plus Get Free Checked Luggage, Free Primary Car Rental Insurance And Dozens Of Other Ultra-Premium Protections! Click here to also read about some of the amazing benefits of Continental miles!


Chase Consumer Offer Linky

Chase Business Offer Linky

-You are able to open a consumer account online by using the unique coupon code generated when you click on the offer links above.   Just generate your own coupon code, and apply for a checking account online. The “Chase checking” account is free with 5 debit transactions in a month. The “Chase better banking” account is free with a $1,500 balance.  Chase automatically located my Continental mileage number

-Chase/Continental Miles customer service line: 877-292-4273

-With a Continental debit card you also get a free piece of checked luggage for yourself and anyone else on your itinerary when you fly Continental. See Dansdeals.com/baggage for all baggage fees and exemptions.

-The 25,000 mile consumer offer requires making 5 purchases on a Continental debit card which carries a $25 annual fee.  The card earns 1 mile for every 2 dollars spent.

-The 25,000 mile business offer requires funding the account with $500 and making a purchase on a Continental debit card which carries a $65 annual fee. The card earns 1 mile for every dollar spent.

-The terms state that you can get the miles for each offer once per calendar year.

-You enter the coupon code on the page right after choosing an account and clicking “Open now.”

-Be sure to also request the $25 Continental debit card when you apply online.

-If you fund the account online via a credit card (up to $500) it may be counted as a cash advance.

-You must fund the account with a minimum of $100 of new funds.

-There is no need to open a savings account, you can however fund it with another $500 if you choose to open one.

-Only the consumer offer accepted the code for me online, the business offer did not work with the code online-you’ll have to go in a branch for that one.

-On an account that I opened last year 22,500 miles posted within a few weeks of making the 5 debit purchases, and the remaining 2,500 miles took a of couple months.

-You need to spend at least $2 on the card in 1 month within 60 days of opening the account to trigger the entire 25,000 mile bonus.

-25,000 miles is enough for a free domestic ticket (only 20,000 miles are needed for short-haul flights under 1,500 RT miles, like New York-Chicago) and is 33% of the way towards a free ticket to Israel (75,000 miles)

Related:250 free Continental miles (08/03/10)
250 free Continental miles (07/02/10)
600 free Continental miles (06/08/10)

250 Free Continental Miles Linky

Just enter your Onepass number and register and you’re done!

It usually takes Continental at least 4 months to post miles for these types of offers, so please don’t hold your breath!

HT: FT

Related: 600 free Continental miles.

250 Free Continental Miles Linky

Just enter your Onepass number and register.  It says that it’s only available for credit/debit cardholders, but it’s letting anyone register for now…

The miles won’t post until mid-October according to the terms, so please don’t hold your breath!

HT: lgluck

www.continental.com

Use promo code: ZGGMBYERCJ

This is a group meeting discount code from the Independent Petroleum Association of America on Continental travel completed by 11/15/10.

HT: Lou Bob, via dansdeals.com/forums

One of the biggest downsides of award redemption is that you don’t qualify for upgrades.  Delta will offer it later this year, but only to Gold members and higher.

Continental just announced that they will allow for free upgrades for all Continental elite members who either have the Onepass Plus credit card (currently known as the Continental World Mastercard…I’m assuming that OnePass Plus will be the future name of the combined United Mileage Plus and Continental OnePass reward programs) or the Presidential Plus credit card.

Upgrades will be allowed on all current routes that provide free upgrades on paid tickets, not on BusinessFirst routes.  So for Hawaii for example, the nonstop flights from Newark and Houston will not be eligible as they are BusinessFirst flights, but the flights from Los Angeles and Orange County to Honolulu or Maui will be eligible for free upgrades.

The upgrades will be prioritized according to elite level just after revenue tickets. So a Platinum on a paid ticket will be upgraded before a Platinum on an award ticket, who will be upgraded before a Gold on a paid ticket, etc.  Platinum and Gold members on an award ticket will also be able to upgrade a companion on a paid or award ticket at the gate.

Time for the rest of the airlines to match!

Update: You can call BMI at +44 (0)1332 854274 (2 cents per minute via Google Voice) to request that your Star Alliance Silver card be expedited. In the package are some other goodies like a Star Alliance Silver luggage tag.

Did you get free Silver status on BMI? Lucky you! You now can get free checked bags for yourself and your traveling companions on airlines like Continental, United, and USAirways.

On Continental.com go to “Manage Reservations” and find your itinerary or enter your confirmation number.

When you are viewing the reservation click on “Edit traveler information”

At the very bottom of that page you will find “Frequent Flyer Information (Optional),” select British Midland (BMI) Diamond Club and enter in your BMI member number.

24 hours before your flight you can checkin at Continental.com and select bags. If you have BMI Silver status it should allow you and everyone else on your itinerary to select 2 free 50 pound bags. On your boarding pass it will also display your BMI number along with *S. *S stands for Star Alliance Silver.

If for whatever reason it does not allow you to select bags for free you can try calling Continental up, but your best bet may be at the airport. At every airport is a sign saying how much luggage costs and it’s very clear that Star Alliance Silver members get 2 free bags. Below is a pic that I took at LAX of the sign with my phone last week.  Just show the agent that your boarding pass says *S and they will be able to waive your luggage fees.

After checking your luggage at the airport using one of Continental’s kiosks you can go back into your reservation at the kiosk and change your mileage number from BMI to any Star Alliance mileage number that you perfer to earn miles with.  I had no problem changing from my BMI/Star Alliance Gold number to my Continental Silver number, but it did cost me an upgrade   More about that in my trip notes…

www.continental.com/mileathon

I got 5,000 miles during the last mileathon for opening a Chase and Key Continental debit card.

The bonuses for purchasing tickets and checking in online are generally only for expensive fares only, but the bonuses for opening credit or debit accounts are nice on top of all other offers like 30,000 for a free credit card and 25,000 for a Chase checking account.

Opening a Continental credit card earns 20 credits, a Continental debit card earns 15.  When you register you can see the entire list of credit earning activities and how many credits you need for each mileage threshold.  For example 30 credits earns 5,000 miles and 45 credit earns 10,000 miles, etc.

The first purchase on the credit/debit cards must be made by 05/31 for mileathon credit.  Most other activities must be done by 06/30 for mileathon credit.

Update 4: Missing miles from this promo? The correct contact number for that department is 877-292-4273

Update 3: Warning: Do not fund the account with a Citi credit card as they appear to be charging a cash advance fee!

Update 2: Extended through 06/30.

Update: I received 2 letters via snail-mail from Chase with tracking numbers for 10,000 Continental miles and 15,000 Continental miles respectively. Both letters had a contact number for a personal banker to speak with and my correct Continental Onepass mileage number listed on them without my having to call up Chase to supply it!

Originally posted on 01/10/10:

I posted back in August about the new Chase bank account offer that awards 25,000 miles without the need for direct deposit as was required in the past.  They gave the option to make 5 debit transactions instead of requiring direct deposit.

Consumer Offer Linky

Business Offer Linky

-With a Continental debit card you also get a free piece of checked luggage for yourself and anyone else on your itinerary when you fly Continental. See Dansdeals.com/baggage for all baggage fees and exemptions.

-The 25,000 mile consumer offer requires making 5 purchases on a Continental debit card which carries a $25 annual fee.  The card earns 1 mile for every 2 dollars spent.

-The 25,000 mile business offer requires funding the account with $500 and making a purchase on a Continental debit card which carries a $65 annual fee. The card earns 1 mile for every dollar spent.

-The terms state that you can get the miles for each offer once per calendar year.

-Based on advice in this thread on the Dansdeals Forums I was successfully able to open a consumer account online by using the unique coupon code generated when you click on the offer links above!  Just generate your own coupon code, and apply for a checking account online. The “Chase checking” account is free with 5 debit transactions in a month. The “Chase better banking” account is free with a $1,500 balance.

-You enter the coupon code on the page right after choosing an account and clicking “Open now.”

-Be sure to also request the $25 Continental debit card when you apply online.

-I was able to fund the account with $500 from my Chase Continental credit card, thereby earning another 500 easy miles!  You can fund the account with any Visa or Mastercard for up to $500.  It specifically says that it will count as a purchase, not as a cash advance.

-You must fund the account with a minimum of $100 of new funds.

-There is no need to open a savings account, you can however fund it with another $500 if you choose to open one.

-If you’re worries about getting the miles, you may want to make a printout of the offer during the application when it mentions the 25,000 miles.

-There is no place to enter in your Continental Onepass number, so you will have to call up Chase after you receive your debit card to supply them with your mileage number.

-Only the consumer offer accepted the code for me online, the business offer did not work with the code online-you’ll have to go in a branch for that one.

-On an account that I opened last year 22,500 miles posted within a few weeks of making the 5 debit purchases, and the remaining 2,500 miles took a of couple months.

-I was able to make 5 debit purchases at a Sam’s Club gas station for $0.02 each which qualified for the miles-so there is no minimum on the 5 purchases.

-25,000 miles is enough for a free domestic ticket (only 20,000 miles are needed for short-haul flights under 1,500 RT miles, like New York-Chicago) and is 33% of the way towards a free ticket to Israel (75,000 miles)

All you need to do is register your Onepass number for these offers and you’ll get 200 miles deposited into your account.  The miles may post anytime between now and mid-May…

Star Alliance 100 Miles Registration Linky

Cruises 100 Miles Registration Linky

With the upcoming reciprocal upgrades between Continental and United elite flyers you knew this announcement couldn’t be far off. It matches United’s Global Services membership level and systemwide upgrades for United 1K flyers. Now when will Continental build an economy plus section on their planes?

Continental just announced that they will reward flyers who earn 100K elite flyers with 4 one-way systemwide upgrade certificates.  The upgrade certificates are valid from any fare paid.  Currently only AA allows the use of systemwide upgrade certificates with any fare.  And Continental’s new BusinessFirst cabin is light-years ahead of AA’s next generation business class.  Systemwide upgrade earned in 2010 must be used by 02/28/12.

Systemwide upgrades will be fully transferable! They are valid to anywhere Continental flies. A one-way upgrade will upgrade the entire one-way ticket, regardless of the number of segments.

Also for high-spend Platinums there is a new top-tier elite level called Presidential Platinum for people that fly 75K elite miles and spend $30K/year.  They’ll get confirmed upgrades 6 days before the flight and a free presidential plus mastercard which includes a presidents club membership.  Flyers that have 4 million lifetime elite miles will get lifetime Presidential Platinum status.

Both programs start 01/01/10.

Update 2-11:00pm: DEAD!

Update-9:40pm: HURRY! Still bookable on orbitz and priceline but dead on continental.com

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Now bookable on priceline, orbitz, or continental.com.  Search for LGA-SJC.

The price is $39 plus tax for each way.  Total should be about $58 with tax each way.

Travel is valid between 12/04-12/15.

Sample valid date: 12/08-12/15.

This is a great fare for a mileage run! You will earn at least 3,024 redeemable miles for each way, and 6,048 elite miles.

Thanks to g.f. for the comment!

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.