Any experts on using Continental reward travel?

[poohfan]

We're on a budget (who isn't?) and want to use our Continental reward points for 4 rdomestic US ound trip tickets to Orlando next year. We have 100,000 points so if we can get four tickets that are the 12,500 one way (25,000 round trip) ones we'll have just enough points.

I was told these seats are few and go very fast. That I should call 331 days in advance of my flight to get them. So I called Continental today. The agent told me that the first seats to go on sale are the high priced ones and the 50,000 round trip point tickets. That the 25,000 round trip tickets don't get released until 3 - 6 months in advance. And yes they do go fast so my chances of getting them are slim.

Is it true that the 25,000 point round trip seats don't get released first?

He also said that if I had a problem and wanted to change my flight in the future I could only switch those tickets to a flight that had 25,000 point seats available. And that my chances of finding that were slim to none. He was basically trying to tell me not to cash in my points and just pay for the seat.

Do you think I'm wasting my time trying to use my reward points?

 

[disneyag]

It has become more and more difficult to use your airline miles. We have Continental points and it's difficult to redeem them (in spite of the fact that we are Continental Elite members.)

Try going online and making a reservation. On the bottom of the box where you type in your travel dates, there's a box to check for "reward travel". That will give you an idea about what is available.

Another option would be to turn in enough miles for 2 tickets and purchasing the 2 other tickets.