I Need a Little Advice (Continental)

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28-Jan-2009, 03:39 AM
rhodenbeck

I have a problem that I think you guys may be able to help me out with. I am a dependent of a Continental employee (10 year seniority) and I am thinking about nonreving to London during my spring break (LAX-LHR on 3/12 evening/late night and returning Sunday 3/22. I was wondering what my chances are for getting on a flight around this time. My dates are flexible (leave LAX anytime after 6:00pm on Thursday; arrive anytime before Monday 3/23 at 9:00am). I am new to nonrevving and have never heard of "interline" and "ZED." My friends have already booked their ticket via Priceline, Expedia, etc. and got round-trip flights for ~$550. They are telling me that I should just go ahead and book a ticket so I do not get left behind. What do you guys think? Any advice/help you could offer would be greatly appreciated.

PS - I checked the flights on Continental for those dates on SeatCounter.com and it showed two nonstop flights. I think they are British Airways flights, however, because they do not show up on Continental.com and I found that flight numbers in this range are BA. (CO 8244 and CO 8288)
29-Jan-2009, 01:55 AM
Migflanker

Unlike Vgaslady whose one concern is geting to/from London, you have the added complicaton of wanting to meet up with friends. I have to say that usually when I've taken these ( I'll non-rev and meet you there) trips http://www.nonrev.net/forums/style_e...DIR#>/wink.gif things have worked out well. However, there have been the few times (and trust me, friends will never let you forget those) that I didn't show up be---cause I was struck in Dallas (now I ask you, could I help it if they closed the airport because of thunderstorms and wind gusts of 60 MPH, I was willing to fly.) http://www.nonrev.net/forums/style_e...#>/biggrin.gif
But, because you have 10 days and are flexiable, Im going to come down on the side of non-reving, with the caveat that you get plenty of back-ups on other carriers, plan on arrving late and leaving early, invest in a good lucky charm and don't come looking for me if London turns into the springbreak place to be. http://www.nonrev.net/forums/style_e...DIR#>/wink.gif .

Edited to add vital stuff http://www.nonrev.net/forums/style_e...#>/biggrin.gif
You might also want to read Al's How to non-rev article, lots of good info.
29-Jan-2009, 02:37 AM
rhodenbeck

Yeah, I think I have decided to try and nonrev. Thank you so much for your input. I have a question about the back-ups, though. My step-mom has not mentioned the ID90 or ZED or anything like that. How much do these cost (relatively speaking) and what method do you use to get these?
29-Jan-2009, 01:40 PM
aazed

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (rhodenbeck @ Jan 28 2009, 09:39 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div>

Quote:

PS - I checked the flights on Continental for those dates on SeatCounter.com and it showed two nonstop flights. I think they are British Airways flights, however, because they do not show up on Continental.com and I found that flight numbers in this range are BA. (CO 8244 and CO 8288)[/b]

Hi rhodenbeck - CO does not codeshare with BA, those are Virgin Atlantic flights. You may want to have your stepmom check on the details of CO's agreement with them.
29-Jan-2009, 05:04 PM
spongebue

I'm not sure if the cost varies from one airline to another (don't think it does) but LAX to LHR nonstop through AA or BA is $105 in, $215 returning through BA or VS on a ZED. Of course, it's all distance-based, so you should look at making your way to JFK or another major airport out east (LAX-IAH-JFK on CO, perhaps) on your own airline, where it's free, then ZED from there to LHR. Looks like $90 into LHR on AA, $200 returning. Hmm, guess that's not much of a savings, but even then... keep your eyes peeled, and see if you can't just get on a flight from IAH or EWR on CO.

To book a ZED, there should be some link from CO's employee website. NW takes us to http://ifc.id90.com, but it doesn't have Continental on there.

If you go through NW, feel free to send me a message, I'll do what I can to look up our LHR offerings through MSP and DTW. By then, I might be back on NW and might be able to look up DL (I'm no longer an active employee, and haven't been able to check their site yet, even though I have an account).
30-Jan-2009, 04:17 PM
aazed

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (spongebue @ Jan 29 2009, 11:04 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div>

Quote:

I'm not sure if the cost varies from one airline to another (don't think it does) but LAX to LHR nonstop through AA or BA is $105 in, $215 returning through BA or VS on a ZED. Of course, it's all distance-based, so you should look at making your way to JFK or another major airport out east (LAX-IAH-JFK on CO, perhaps) on your own airline, where it's free, then ZED from there to LHR. Looks like $90 into LHR on AA, $200 returning. Hmm, guess that's not much of a savings, but even then... keep your eyes peeled, and see if you can't just get on a flight from IAH or EWR on CO.

To book a ZED, there should be some link from CO's employee website. NW takes us to http://ifc.id90.com, but it doesn't have Continental on there.[/b]

Actually there could be a fare difference depending on the type of agreement CO has with each of the carriers involved. CO has a ZED medium with AA and probably with BA to, with VS it could be ZED low.

As for booking, you wouldn't, these are space-available so you would need to contact the airline(s) involved to create a flight listing. For travel on BA you would need to access their flight listing website The ID90.com url provided by spongebue is not a booking or flight listing tool. It is a fare calculator and NW uses it as a tool for its employees to request ID/ZED tickets.