shore9

Last month I flew LHR - FRA on a BD codeshare flight, booked through Expedia and operated by LH.

The booking class per Expedia was booked into booking class E, which I assume would be the booking code on BD as that is who it is booked through regardless of operator. Per the Aegean website this should earn 50% of miles flown. Question is, when claiming mileage, do I claim the flight under the LH or BD flight number?

thanks

PVDtoDEL

Miles are earned based on the mileage bucket of the operator.

Avoiding codeshares is generally a good idea.

shore9

So is there a way to figure out what BD E fare lines up to with LH?

I seem to recall there used to be a star alliance cross fare earning chart floating around on FT.

thanks

IMH

I've got a SKG-FRA-LHR reservation with A3, sold in their booking class K, with the second leg operated by LH as a code share.

How can I find out what LH booking class this will map into in order to calculate my A3 earnings? (I'm assuming that the usual *A "miles based on operating carrier" rule applies.)

MSPeconomist

While the *A "based on operating carrier" rule is clear and simple,it's not easy to translate codesahre fare codes. Sometimes you get a good guess by thinking in terms of the description of the fare class: for example, unrestricted and refundable full fare coach is fairly unambiguous and should be easy to translate or at least determine miles earned. Otherwise, the only solution seems to be to contact the carrier operating the flight as well as the FF program. Getting an answer in writing could help if there are problems.

IMH

The problem is that A3 has three categories (saver, semiflex and flex) whereas LH also has a fourth: those sneaky ultra low-earning fare classes that would earn 0 miles on A3. My guess (and hope) is that we can ignore the zero-earning classes and map across 500/1,000/1,250.

I won't bother calling A3 -- the ticket is booked and I'll know soon enough. Either it will be 1,000 miles and I'll have scraped *S or else I'll be looking for another 480 miles... I'll try to remember to report back once it's posted, as it would be good to build up a list for future reference.

zkzkz

I think you would actually have to call LH. A3 would have the info somewhere in their computer systems but it's probably not available to the agents through their interfaces. Whereas LH would only see the booking in their code.

One way to make reasonable inferences is to look at the fares sold by LH for about the same price as the fare you paid A3. For example, picking a random date on that route I see A3 selling the SKG-FRA-LHR flghts for 188 Euro. If I search for the same thing on LH I can find them selling S fare class for 182 Euro. That's probably either the fare that that A3 is mapping into or pretty close to it. I'm not sure which A3 fare i'm looking at though because they don't display that on the pages I'm looking at. Also, i had to search for a different day because apparently LH has different availability than A3's system has so it's possible I actually saw a different fare entirely (like an expensive weekend fare instead of a cheap weekday fare or something like that).

This is much easier to do if you have someone who has access to a travel agent booking system because they can see the full list of actual fares listed, not just the cheapest.

MSPeconomist

Some carriers let you see or even pick the booking class when purchasing a ticket on their website. This tends to require advanced/expert search mode. Others show you the fare code just before purchase. You certainly should be able to look at the complete fare rules before purchase, but this isn't obvious on a lot of airline websites.

KLouis

Well, sort of correct but not entirely. Each one of the three A3 categories (+ business!) consists of a series of "capital letters" like all airlines have, but you only "see" that after your miles have been credited. For all practical purposes, though, the three categories determine the number of miles earned!

IMH

I don't quite understand -- my A3 bookings clear show the fare class and for those flights which are on A3 metal I know what my earnings will be. My question was (only) about a codeshare operated by another carrier. In this case I really will have to wait until the miles are credited to see what LH fare class I've been booked into.

IMH

I've just checked in for the A3-operated segment of this itinerary. The LH-operated segment (for which I cannot yet check in) was showing on the A3 check in page as "Premium Economy" -- so I currently have high hopes of it earning at a decent rate.

(If I can get it to credit to A3, of course. Last week's FRA-SKG has just credited to LH M&M despite the fact that I thought I'd got that FFP out of the booking and the BP showed my A3 M&B number. Grrrr.)

lhr baby

We used to have a useful codeshare mapping thread on BD for DC'ers to post known codeshare data. Possibly worth starting one here but as I have no data to post just yet, perhaps it would be better for someone else to start. Sometimes ticket class mapping is route specific so as a minimum you need to post:

1) Airline issuing ticket
2) Class of ticket purchased
3) Class of ticket it mapped to on A3 (either from boarding pass or statement, if the statements show this)
4) Route from/to

IMH

Yes. That's what I was thinking of when I wrote post 3 above. My codeshare flight was yesterday, so I should be able to report back in a day or two.

IMH

As suggested by lhr baby in another thread here, this thread can be a resource recording how codeshare flights (a) map across from the marketing carrier to the operating carrier and (b) are credited to Aegean Airlines Miles&Bonus accounts.

It's too soon to say whether there will be enough reports to justify collating and sorting the data at the top of the thread. To be on the safe side I'll reserve another post after this one, trusting that the mods won't object, but for the time being expect the thread to have a classic chronological structure (also known as "find it yourself" ).

First data point:

FRA-LHR, marketed by A3 in booking class K (fare basis K2A3GB), operated by LH, credited as booking class S, 500 miles, June 2012

IMH

reserved