It is always awkward when the fine print on a partner offer unveils a change in benefits before the company itself has the opportunity to make the announcement. It looks like that may have happened with Continental Airlines this week as a new credit card offering from Chase has come out and the fine pint contains a rather interesting nugget. The new card is the OnePass Plus card. It is apparently replacing the “normal” OnePass card (the $85/year) one with mostly similar benefits, perhaps plus one:
ELITE UPGRADES ON REWARD TICKETS: Chase is not responsible for offer fulfillment. Get details.
The details link there is just to the regular Continental Elite Upgrades page, the same page that includes this nugget, “Also, travel rewards … are not eligible for Elite upgrades.” Moreover, the actual benefits described above the fine print do not mention this benefit anywhere. But why add it to the fine print if it doesn’t really exist? Oh, and it is also listed in the fine print of the Continental Presidential Plus card, their high-end card.
Did Chase let the cat out of the bag on this one? It would be nice to see Continental add this benefit to compete with a similar offering from Delta. It would be also be interesting if Continental chose to only extend that benefit to passengers who are both elite and co-branded credit card holders. I suppose time will tell just how much foresight that fine print has….
UPDATE (4:30pm EDT): It was 10% accurate. Updated details here: Continental upgrades on reward flights confirmed.
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Any possibility that OnePassPlus is the new name of the United-Continental FF program? One Pass + Mileage Plus = OnePassPlus?