CO Reward Travel FFMs now greatly inflated

To keep itself going the same route of Delta or NW, the standard reward
travel is almost nonexistent now -- as I learned this year, beginning
to use the million FFMs accumulated when I fell off the Platinum wagon
for the first time in 7 years.

For most reward travel, the required miles for "standard travel" such
as 120,000 FFMs for first class, now requires 240,000 FFMs for the
"Easy Pass" on most itinearies.

So, when I found a Free Business First roundtrip from EWR to HKG in
November, for 120,000K miles I was quick to grab it, because the fare
is $4,800 if I pay for it! And even if I pay for a coach ticket and
use
the FFM for upgrade to Business First (considered it), it would not be
nearly as attractive as paying 120K for the free roundtrip!

That's where the interesting part of CO's inflated scheme comes in.

My desired roundtrip is ATL to HKG via EWR. So, to complete my
roundtrip, for the same 120K miles, I have to find a connection from
ATL to EWR, and EWR back to ATL.

CO's rule now is that I can attach the one-way reward travel ONLY
if they exist in the "standard reward" category, even though I had
already paid the miles for First Class. :-)

As of now, I found an ATL/EWR standard reward COACH (but no
First Class) for the front portion -- which will automatically be
upgraded to First without charge, when the "stardard reward"
miles for First opens up for that date.

Meanwhile, there is no standard miles reward travel from EWR to
ATL on my return day, even though there are 8 flights on the web
on that day, on nearly completely empty planes!

The reason I knew about the empty planes was that I found a
nearly unheard of one-way fare of $109 from EWR to ATL on a
flight that fits my itinerary. But the PAID ticket cannot be
attached
to a Reward ticket either, so I have to either (a) take a chance
that a "standard reward" ticket opens up for EWR to ATL , or
(b) pay a much higher fare for the same flight when it gets closer
to November, or (c) buy the cheap ticket as an "insurance", and
pay the change-itinerary fee for a future flight if my FREE (paid
for) EWR - ATL leg becomes available in "standard reward
travel" for either coach OR First Class!

I took option (c), even though I may have to throw away the ticket,
because even now, the refundable ticket for the same one-way is
$274, and the one-stop fare (via IAH) is $473 and $513. Further-
more, a one-way fare is often more expensive than a roundtrip!

I purchased the $109 ticket last week -- which was how I found
out I had a complete choice of seats on the empty plane!

As I looked at the CO web this morning for the same flight, it had
already gone up to $114 -- still an excellent fare for that leg. I
am sure it'll continue going up as November, the day of the flight
appoaches.

I had already paid inflated Reward Travel tickets on several other
flights this year.

This is to let the FF travel on CO with FFMs to use that their
miles are not worth nearly as much as it used to.

-- Bob.