rj123456

I'm trying to book an award ticket on AZ that involves a segment (HND-SHA) on Shanghai Airlines (FM), which is 100% owned by China Eastern (MU)

The Alitalia rep insists that Shanghai Airlines is not one of their partners.

Skyteam lists FM as a member airline (from this press release http://www.webcitation.org/6I0WlgMTk) but it is not one of the logos listed on their website.

The Alitalia page on China Eastern http://www.alitalia.com/us_en/millem...a-eastern.html does mention FM but does not SPECIFICALLY say that awards may be redeemed on FM:
[B]
"...Miles can also be earned by flying with Shanghai Airlines, a subsidiary of China Eastern."[/B

The published Alitalia Millemiglia rules here: http://www.alitalia.com/us_en/millem...mma/index.html do not list FM, nor does the award partners page: http://www.alitalia.com/us_en/millem...artner_skyteam.

But the award chart table ("MM Accumula con partner Skyteam 2013 - EN_tcm86-1304.pdf") that is downloadable from this page mentions FM in footnote 8 - on restrictions for awards from the "Northern Asia" region to the "Northern Asia" region:

8. Flights up to 1,500 miles within China, only by China Airlines, China Southern, China Eastern and Shanghai Airlines: 25/40. Flights up to 1,500 miles within Vietnam, only by Vietnam Airlines:
25/40. Direct flights within Asia only by Air France: 20/30. Flights between Bangkok and Hong Kong only by Kenya Airways: 40/60

Actually all that is saying is that intra-China flights <1,500 miles have to be on the 4 specified China airlines, and FM is definitely an Alitalia partner for at least those flights. Since there is no footnote on North America-Northern Asia flights, one would imagine that these are permitted.

Finally, the Air France Flying Blue website allows an HND-SHA booking on Shanghai Airlines.
http://picpaste.com/pics/Shanghai_Ai...1418244526.JPG



What do I have to do to convince the Alitalia phone reps???

raistlin

They are right, FM is not a Skyteam airline, MU is. The fact you can earn miles on FM does not mean you can book awards there necessarily.

rj123456

Shanghai airlines shows up on the MM award chart! (see footnote 8)

8. Flights up to 1,500 miles within China, only by China Airlines, China Southern, China Eastern and Shanghai Airlines: 25/40.

Air Rarotonga

HND is not in China...

rj123456

Irrelevant. The footnote merely restricts flights within China to the airlines listed. Regardless I tried booking an FM flight within China and Alitalia insisted they could not do it.

MeltingAlf

That MM chart is quite a pain to read indeed.

Could it be because it stated that "direct flights within Asia only by Air France"?

Oh, and do note that China is considered "Southeast Asia" for the purposes of MM as per that chart.