Lessons From Redeeming Continental-United Airlines Miles

As we have been talking about now for months, the purpose of us collecting all of our miles and hotel reward points is to book for travel to Hawaii as a family. Shortly after meeting my wife, I went alone to Hawaii to visit with a college friend, and it has always been my intent to take my wife there to see everything she missed. Only this time, we will have our two little ones to bring along too.

So going back a little over a year ago, we opened up United Airlines credit cards for a 50,000 mile bonus each. At the time, it was the first 50,000 mile offer put out by United (unlike the 60,000 mile offer currently being solicited to certain members, and that should become available to everyone in early October). By stocking our United accounts with 50,000 miles, we knew could easily get either 2 domestic trips each, or be able to go to Hawaii if we were able to snag one of the 40,000 mile round-trip flights.

In addition, with the merger of Continental and United, we had the availability to transfer all of our miles between programs, adding to our stockpile. The additional miles would come in handy considering it is such a long flight, and we would need a third seat for Bug.

So we have had a lot going on in our lives the past year including having Land Shark earlier in the year, as well as buying a new home. However, now that things have started to settle down, we have begun the process of planning for a family trip to Hawaii.

Periodically over the year, every time I have checked into the United availability, flights have been available at the 40,000 mile redemption level. So I had no concerns about booking flights.

Well once we decided it might be best for us to travel to Hawaii in the summer of 2012, we started the process of securing flights. Except, now I can not find a single flight out of our home airport to any of the Hawaiian islands for under 80,000 miles on United. Currently the only sub-80k tickets are at the end of August, and consequently at the 330 day out window, and not feasible for us. So I have been looking into other available options.

The easiest solution was to go to the Continental site and check for availability. Wow, what a difference in searching! I had heard it said before, but Continental’s website for mileage redemption is a lot nicer that United’s. While I currently am not able to find 40,000 mile flights, there at least have been several business class flights available at the 80,000 mile and under redemption level. Plus Continental’s website will at least show partner alliance flights available.

So I am now broadening our search to include airports within a several hundred mile radius, as I am determined to try and find a mileage redemption option that fits within our schedule and mileage availability.

Multiple Account Hiccup

The first problem to overcome though is our Continental accounts. My wife and I both had OnePass accounts prior to meeting each other. Then, after we were married, we opened dual Continental checking accounts, and even though we provided our Continental account numbers to Chase, they issued us new accounts.

So our first goal is to combine the accounts in each of our names together. Ok sounds simple enough. Except somehow the Continental website is archaic and wanting us to submit the request in writing via snail mail. Really? That really puts a kink in the plan when I have an available flight option sitting and waiting.

So I called Continental at the provided OnePass number (713-952-1630), as the agent told me they were the only ones that could combine the accounts. I called, and called again later, and kept getting the same message…due to high call demand, we are unable to accept your call at this time. Is this normal that a company will not even let me sit on the phone and wait my turn? Is there some run on OnePass miles that I am missing out on and why everyone is calling at the same time? Hmm.

So I will continue to try and contact Continental to have our accounts merged.

The other problem though is that my wife’s accounts are in both her maiden name and now new last name. That is going to likely require us to submit a marriage certificate to validate the name change, prior to combining the accounts.

So we will monitor how long this process takes, and if they can handle the request over the phone. Since the addresses are the same on all the accounts, I would hope they could try and combine the accounts over the phone and avoid long delays. The longer it takes, the less likely we may sitting on a beach a little less than a year from now.