Business Travel Tips

Continental announced some changes to its OnePass program.
These are the changes that Continental says will be taking effect in the next 30 days:

1. New instant ticketing requirement for continental.com and phone bookings.
Effective August 17, 2008, all customers booking travel at continental.com or over the phone with Continental Reservations will be required to purchase tickets at the time they make their reservations. In these cases, we will allow the flexibility to make changes to reservations within 24 hours without incurring change fees.

This includes canceling your reservation and requesting a refund to the original form of payment. For the majority of you who are already accustomed to instant ticketing, our new 24-hour window for fee-waived changes and refunds will be an improvement. This policy will also include OnePass Reward Travel. Customers redeeming OnePass rewards will be given a three-day ticketing time limit if there are not enough miles in their OnePass account, allowing time for mileage transfer requests or to purchase miles through the Mileage Purchase Option. Here are the additional terms and conditions:
a) The 24-hour timeframe is defined as the 24-hour period starting at the time the reservation is completed.
b) There are no exceptions to this policy for OnePass Elite members.
c) Tickets exempt from this policy include group tickets and tickets purchased using Western Union, cash or eCertificates. These reservations will be placed on a courtesy hold to allow the required ticketing arrangements to be made.

2. Reward change fee and redeposit fee increases.
Effective August 17, 2008, our fee for OnePass reward changes and reward redeposit fees will increase to $150, bringing them more in line with the change fees we have for most restricted fares. Currently, these fees are $35-$50. Our Platinum Elite members will continue to be exempt from all reward change and redeposit fees.

3. Close-in ticket fee increases.
Effective August 17, 2008, our fees for close-in reward bookings will increase to $75 for all reward ticketing within 21 days of departure. Currently, these fees are $35-$75 for travel within 14 days. For our Platinum Elite members, the fees will remain unchanged ($0 for ticketing 15 days or more or in advance, $35 for travel within 4 to 14 days, and $50 for travel within 3 days).

4. BusinessFirst upgrade reward copay increases.
Effective August 17, 2008, we will be raising the upgrade service fees for our BusinessFirst mileage upgrade rewards. Most increases are $50, some are $100, and some are unchanged. Below are the new BusinessFirst upgrade service fees by fare class:
- Y:$0
- H: $100 ($200 for Hawaii)
- K/M: $250
- N/B: $350
- O/V: $400
- U/Q: $450
- All other fares: $500
(source)