I just received word that Wednesday, February 29 will be the last day to apply for the Continental OnePass Plus credit card. Starting March 1 the standard card of the “new” United will be the United Explorer card.

The sign-up bonus on the OnePass Plus card is 25,000 miles after first use, plus 5,000 miles for adding an authorized user. In addition to that, if you spend $25,000 on the card in the first year you earn 10,000 bonus miles, for a total of up to 40,000 miles for signing up. The annual fee on the card is $95, though it’s waived for the first year.

There’s no doubt the Chase Sapphire Preferred card has more benefits than the OnePass Plus card, including a 50,000 point sign-up bonus, double points on dining and travel, a 7% annual points dividend, and no foreign transaction fee.

That being said, we’re in a bit of a “use it or lose it” situation with the OnePass Plus card, given that this is the last opportunity to sign up for the card and still get the bonus. Starting on March 1 you’ll no longer be able to earn this bonus. If you sign up for the OnePass Plus card you shouldn’t have an issue still earning the bonus on the United Explorer card in the future. So if it’s between the Chase Sapphire Preferred card and Continental OnePass Plus card right now I’d probably sign up for the Continental card now, since there’s a good chance the Chase Sapphire Preferred bonus will still be around in a couple of months.

So if you don’t have the card already, I’d seriously consider signing up for the Continental OnePass Plus card…

Update: It appears as if the terms and conditions say you can only earn one bonus between the Continental OnePass Plus and United Explorer card after July 19, 2011, so it may make sense to hold out for a better bonus. Whether or not it’s enforced in practice, though, I don’t know.

Full disclosure: I receive a referral bonus for anyone that signs up through the above links. As always I’m very appreciative for anyone that signs up through my links and I will only provide a referral link if it offers the best available sign-up bonus.

This is hands down the worst frequent flyer news of the year so far. Continental has just announced that as of February 13, 2012, they’ll be discontinuing their OnePass partnership with Virgin Atlantic. Per the announcement:

Effective February 13, 2012 we will discontinue our OnePass partnership with Virgin Atlantic. Mileage accrual benefits are valid for travel through February 13, 2012. Please refer to the Mileage Credit Request Form for information regarding obtaining missing mileage credit. OnePass reward reservations for travel on Virgin Atlantic must be confirmed and ticketed by February 13, 2012, and they are valid one year from the date ticketed.

I think we all saw this coming, though I was hoping it would be later rather than sooner. I’m not so concerned about the mileage accrual side of things, though redeeming OnePass miles for travel on Virgin Atlantic in Upper Class was always a real bargain. Virgin Atlantic has a phenomenal business class product, and their lounge in London is one of the best business class lounges out there.

Anyway, you can still make reservations for travel over the next year, though if you need to change your reservation  after February 13, it will need to be for travel on a different airline that’s still a OnePass partner airline.

Keep in mind that you can use Continental miles to fly from the US to Asia via Europe, so you could conceivably book Virgin Atlantic Upper Class from Los Angeles to London to Tokyo for 60,000 miles one-way, for example.

The worst part of this news is that I think once this relationship ends, there will be no way to redeem miles for travel on Virgin Atlantic without paying fuel surcharges.

For about a year now it has been possible to transfer miles freely between Continental OnePass and United Mileage Plus accounts in the same name. While that’s nice in order to be able to combine miles, people tend to overlook the usefulness of transferring United Mileage Plus miles to Continental OnePass in order to book awards through Continental, even if you otherwise have no miles with them. Why, you may ask?

1. Continental lets you book Star Alliance awards online, which saves you $25. United charges a phone ticketing fee of $25 for non-1Ks, which is unfortunate since most Star Alliance awards can’t be booked through United’s website. By transferring the miles to Continental you can book through them and save money.
2. Continental partners with Virgin Atlantic, while United doesn’t. Virgin Atlantic has surprisingly good award space in Upper Class, and for the time being they’re still partners with Continental OnePass, while they aren’t partners with United Mileage Plus.
3. Continental’s computers auto-price award tickets. Don’t underestimate the beauty of this. Try booking an award ticket through United from the US to Asia, one way via the Atlantic and one way via the Pacific. Most United agents will say that’s a round the world ticket, and needs to be priced as such. Continental’s computers correctly price this as a US to Asia award. All the time I’ll book ten segment itineraries that sound crazy to agents, and United agents almost always question me. Continental agents almost never do, since the computer will tell them if an award isn’t permissible.
4. Continental lets you book mix cabin itineraries on the same records. Say you want to fly from Los Angeles to London in business class and London to Los Angeles in first class. That would cost you 117,500 miles (50,000 miles for the outbound, 67,500 miles for the return). United would make you book this as two one-way tickets, meaning you potentially have to pay two booking fees and two cancellation or change fees if you were to make a change or cancel. Continental, on the other hand, will allow you to have mixed cabin itineraries at different price levels on the same record. So that means that with United, if your outbound is in business class your return has to be as well. With Continental, on the other hand, if your outbound is in business your return can be in coach, business, or first class, either at the standard or saver level.
5. Once ticketed, Continental will let you change the type of award you have. Say you book an award ticket in business class roundtrip from Los Angeles to London for 100,000 miles. Say, then, that a week before departure Continental opens up award space from Los Angeles to London in first class, and you wanted to switch the outbound to first class. United would require you to cancel your reservation and start over (meaning you would lose your award space on the return), while Continental would be able to reprice the itinerary and charge you the mileage difference, while not messing with the return portion of your itinerary.
6. Continental has more liberal change rules. Up until 21 days before departure both airlines now allow free “simple” changes to itineraries. The difference is how the airlines define simple changes. For Mileage Plus, the origin, destination, carriers and routing would have to remain the same. For OnePass, on the other hand, the change would have to be made at least 21 days in advance and the origin and destination must remain the same. The routing and carrier, however, may change. That means that Continental lets you change the routing for free up until 21 days before departure, while United charges you for that.

So do the smart thing and always book through Continental when ticketing your awards.

Continental OnePass and United Mileage Plus are both offering 50 miles per Top Guest check-in at participating airports. You simply have to register your “smart” phone with Top Guest and then use either Facebook or Four Square to make those check-ins.

The page says you need to be “at or near” select United/Continental airports, so as long as it’s within range and you’re checking in, you should be fine (no need to actually be flying that day). You should be able to check-in once per 24 hours.

Priority Club has a similar program whereby you can earn 50 points per “check-in,” so that’s an easy way to rack up 18,000+ Priority Club points per year, and the same seems to also be the case with United now. Now, Top Guest has been known to close the accounts of those that check-in every day at multiple reward-earning businesses (Hilton, Priority Club, Virgin America, etc.), so proceed with caution.

(Tip of the hat to Gary)

Just a reminder that today (Friday, September 30) is the last day to transfer points from American Express Membership Rewards to Continental OnePass. Not only is it the last day to transfer points, but as of tomorrow the American Express Platinum card will no longer get you access to the Presidents Club.

I shared my thoughts as to whether or not to transfer points from Membership Rewards to OnePass here, which is about all the advice I can give on the topic, since everyone’s circumstances are different.

As I wrote about on TravelSort, this is indeed a huge loss for the Membership Rewards program.