Continental Elite Status Match for Delta Elites

Continental left Skyteam and joined Star Alliance on Oct 27, 2009. Since their move to Star Alliance they have been aggressively offering Delta elites status on Continental.

I just took them up on their offer and it was very easy and quick. Here a look at how quick it is to request, and be approved for status over at Continental.

The Request

I'm a Delta Platinum member with over 100k miles flown YTD so I requested a status match to Continental's Platinum Elite level.

To request my status I logged into my Delta account and saved my most recent statement to my desktop as a PDF. Once I had my most recent statement showing my status level over at Delta, I sent a copy of it to Continental (onepass@coair.com) with my continental #, delta #, and a statement of my request:

"I would like to request a status match to Continental from my Delta Platinum status. Attached is a copy of my recent Delta statement.

My Continental # is: XXXXXXXX
My Delta # is: XXXXXXXXXX"

The Response

Within 2 days I received an email from a OnePass Customer Service Manager welcoming me to Continenta's Platinum Elite Status level with benefits through February 2011.

Bottom line

If you are a Delta SkyMiles member of any status (Silver, Gold, Platinum, Diamond) go ahead and submit a request to Continental for status match to the appropriate level. The status levels get you the benefits described in this link, and the status is good until February 2011. You also get reciprocal upgrades while flying on United Airlines flights with your Continental status.

New Link in Misc Section - Seat Counter.com

I've added a seatcounter.com link to the recommended link section.

Seat Counter is a great tool to generally see how many seats are left in a particular fare bucket on a flight or routing. The tool will show the available number of seats in each fare class. If a 9 is showing in the fare class that means there are 9 or more seats available. They also color classify availability in green, yellow, and red (green meaning high availability and red meaning low).

Sample Search

I did a sample search on seat counter from Tampa to LA on December 4th. The search results screen is shown below.

You can see from the search results that the only direct flight of the day from TPA to LAX is on Delta and has plenty of availability left including 5 tickets in discounted first fare bucket A.

For information on how to read the Seat Counter results see their FAQ here.

Speed Tape

Yesterday I posted about what I thought was duct tape on the engine. It turns out it was actually speed tape which is a variant of duct tape.

Here is a story of an American Pilot's experience with Speed Tape on his trip to St Thomas. Very interesting story.

American Airlines Customer Service & Duct Tape

I noticed a few things on my most recent American Airlines flight, like Duct Tape on the Engine, and Union members sitting chatting it up while a customer stands at the gate waiting for service.

Really...Duct Tape on Engine?? Really..

I have no idea if this is common practice, or if this is considered safe and best practice. Looks like the latch underneath the tape was missing so they covered it up with this tape. Does anyone know if this is common? All I can find is this 10 Ten list of things to know your flying on a bad airline.

Employees Sitting Around Chatting While Customer Waits For Service

There were 5 American Airlines (Union - Wearing Badges) employees sitting next to the gate chatting it up less than 50 minutes prior to departure. Not one of them stood up to see if they could help the customer standing in front of the gate before the flight, and 2 of them ended up on the flight sitting in the bulkhead seat.

Bottom Line

American treats its Elite members well. I was just shocked to see that tape on their plane engine and the lack of customer service in this instance.

Up In the Air - December 4th

Am really looking forward to this movie. Here is another trailer.



If you'd like to get a sneek peek at the movie sign up for a free screening of Up In the Air on December 2nd. The cities that are available: Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Philadelphia, Los Angeles, Miami, New York, San Francisco, and DC.

The Place Miles Can Take You

I stumbled across this pretty good personal travel report site by a guy who is a United 1K. For those who don't know what 1K is, that means he travels...alot.

He has some interesting pictures on his site. My favorite picture is the "The Night Scene" second to last picture in Gallery 1, pretty incredible picture.

US Airways Flight 1549

Take a look at the Animation from US Airways Flight 1549.