Category: Air Travel
Posted by Nathan Hurst (The Detroit News) on Tue, Nov 17, 2009 at 11:04 AMContinental and United up elite perks
Continental Airlines and new Star Alliance partner United Airlines announced Monday they'll be offering better benefits for their elite members.
For one, the two airlines, now partners under the Star Alliance since Continental left SkyTeam (with Delta and Northwest) last month, will start offering unlimited complimentary upgrades for each others' elite customers beginning in the second quarter of 2010.
And United is really ratcheting it up for its top-tier fliers: they'll also be able to get free upgrades to Hawaii (Delta and others specifically exclude Hawaii from free upgrade programs). Some will even qualify for unlimited free international upgrades.
That's a big change for United, which currently has one of the toughest upgrade systems for elites, requiring 500-mile certificats for most bump-ups.
All of the details for the new programs are here for Continental and here for United.
