Aegean Airlines Miles&Bonus - Miles credited to wrong FFP [consolidated]

Its my first post. So please be nice to me. :-)

I flew SAA from CPT to JNB in December. Flight and everything was fine but the miles were credited to the wrong account. During the reservation I added my Mileage Plus number as I used Mileage Plus at this time for almost all my travels. Two weeks before my flight I joined Miles&Bonus.

On the day of my flight I added Miles&Bonus as my frequent flyer program at the check-in machine in Cape Town. My A3 account number was printed on my boarding pass, so I thought it will be fine otherwise it would show my UA number.

A few weeks later to my disappointment miles were posted to UA.
I sent A3 a copy of my boarding pass but they are not willing to give me any miles unless I can proof that UA removes the miles from my Mileage Plus account.

IMHO they should just give me the 500 tier miles. How should it be my problem now?? A3 number was on the boarding pass. That is what counts in my opinion.
Or am I wrong with that?

below is what A3 Customer Service wrote me:
If during the reservation the Mileage plus account number was inserted, then the miles will automatically be credited to this account regardless if during check in you gave your Miles&Bonus card and the boarding card has this sign.

Moreover, even if we accept to accommodate such an irregular request, we need a formal confirmation or authorization by United Airlines that the miles have been removed. Aegean Airlines cannot proceed to process this request without UA's consent in writing.

You should ask UA to send in writing to Aegean through internal communication by email the request on your behalf and we will do our best to accommodate this request.

You should try to contact united to remove the miles from your account only once that happens can the same be credited to A3. I know this is something of a crazy situation but there is really not much that anyone can do about it as A3 won't credit miles unless united removes it from your account.

If you still have a copy of the boarding pass with the A3 number on it, then you can fax a copy to A3 and UA and generally they will work it out. However, if you don't have that boarding pass, your chances are approximately zero.

If you still have a copy of the boarding pass with the A3 number on it, then you can fax a copy to A3 and UA and generally they will work it out. However, if you don't have that boarding pass, your chances are approximately zero.

Well, I have experienced this recently. UA was more than happy to delete the miles from my account, but it remains to be seen whether OZ will credit them to my account properly.

LAX

Well, I have experienced this recently. UA was more than happy to delete the miles from my account, but it remains to be seen whether OZ will credit them to my account properly.

LAX

Ah, so you decided to go with OZ instead of US?

Thank you very much for your replies.

I still have my boarding pass and I already sent it to Aegean and United.
So will see what happens.

Thank you very much for your replies.

I still have my boarding pass and I already sent it to Aegean and United.
So will see what happens.

Save the BP, even after you sent pictures/scans. You have a good chance, but it will take arguing.

Ah, so you decided to go with OZ instead of US?

Not exactly. I have been maintaining *G via OZ for lounge access in addition to my UA status for several years now. With the new MP changes, I am doing OZ + US rather than OZ + UA.

LAX

In this situation you are best off confirming removal of one FFP and insertion of anoer with an agent at check-in or in the lounge before flying, not just by using a self check-in machine. It is worth checking they have updated the FQTV (mileage accrual) field and not one of the other frequent flier fields in the airline's system such as FQTS. Input of FFP numbers into airline systems at self check-in machines or online do not always follow through to the correct field if an entry already exists.

As others have posted, in thiis situation hipefully A3 will now credit the miles. I would fax/email A3 the BP showing your A3 FFP number and also a print of your mileage statement showing both the original credit to and the reversal of the credit by UA.

This thread makes me glad that when I booked on united.bomb, I refused to give UA my MP or OP number and was careful that only my A3 FF number was associated with the reservation. Of course, if I do more of this, entering my address, credit card, and secure flight information by hand for every booking will quickly become a pain, but I did not want to risk possibility of not getting A3 credit.

Updating a FF number after booking is always "risky". From what I know, there are two fields in the system for FF... Don't ask which ones, I have no idea...

But you do have to make sure that BOTH fields are replaced by the FF number that you want to accrue to.

Best is to do that with a real person rather than a machine though.

Keep the physical BP, only send scans until they request for the original. But then keep a scan for yourself, you never know.
Good luck

No, you only need to ensure the FQTV field has updated for accrual. The other fields do not affect accrual (and if you update only other fields your points will not post).

It is safest to do this with an agent on the phone or at the airport, not a good idea to use a website or self-checkin machine to do this, and it is a good idea to ask to see this on screen if the correct information is not on your BP after making the change, or check again with a different agent before boarding.

YMMV but in my experience changing the FF number works if you are careful.

Just to let you know what happened in the end.

It took MileagePlus about 2 months to reply to my request. They said that the miles can be removed but MileagePlus will not write a confirmation about the removal and notify Aegean about that.

I then sent a formal letter to the CEO of Aegean Airlines. Within 1 week (and it takes 2 to 4 days to send a letter from Switzerland to Greece) I got a reply from someone at Miles&Bonus that out of courtesy the flight was credited to my account.

I even got 1184 miles which includes a 50% bonus. I think I was only eligible for 500 miles. On SAA you earn 150% for quite a lot of economy fares. At the moment I am waiting for 9000 miles which I will get for my flight from FRA to CPT via JNB.

I still have the 789 miles which were wrongly credited to MileagePlus. :p

Hello,

I was flying A3 some weeks ago, and changed my FFP number from A3 to OZ at the gate (since OZ had a higher earn rate). After my trip, I checked to see if my miles were credited only to find out that they were credited to A3.

From my understanding, I'm supposed to request for A3 to cancel the mileage credit before filing a retroactive claim with OZ? What happens if my boarding pass only reflects the A3 number?

I know it's just a difference of 1,000 miles, but any little bit helps towards OZ lifetime Diamond Plus!

Thanks!

Were you using A3 elite FF benefits on the trip? Then A3 might say that the flights should have been credited to their program, and in fact there has been a debate here about this including discussion of the associated ethics.

Hello all,

now it has happened: the miles that were supposed to get me *gold on a3 were posted to the wrong program.

the flights were booked on swiss.com, 3 legs swiss, one lufthansa. i entered the a3-number during the booking process and it showed it on all boarding passes. i also confirmed at the lounges and gates that the number was on file. so far everything looked fine. then i had the lady at the lounge at gva change the ffp to miles and more for the lufthansa operated leg. she did, but did not give me a new boarding pass, which i´m fine with. when checking the account i notecid the miles from the gva-leg within a day on my miles and more account. looked perfect so far. i waited a bit for my lx-miles to show up on aegean: nothing. checking the mileage credit for other flights on my miles and more account today i noticed, that now the other segments show up there as well! they were certainly not there 2 days ago. and they were not credited at the same time as my gva-leg which was the last of that trip. how did they manage that days later those legs that were not meant to end up with miles and more suddenly show up there? what can i do to get them to the correct account and who do i contact? miles and more? aegean? lx? any ideas?

i´d appreciate any advice. the ftl-service i called was no help. was first told to "look on the website" for a phone- and fax-number (?!) then was given the german number for "general issues" 01805-5959 - and they don´t work on sundays.

The way she entered into the booking must have changed the whole booking. Always a dangerous thing to do personally speaking. I would have put the A3 number into the booking and then taken it out for the GVA LH sector then do a retro claim with M&M . You would have been better to have nothing in then risk it going to the wrong program which as it turns out has credited everything to the wrong program.

You cant do a retro claim now on A3 as its already credited to your M&M account. Sadly there is no going back .

Your only course of action would be to email M&M and explain it but Im not hopeful.

thank you, DELLAS.

yes, it was naive to assume, that it cannot hurt to change the ffp on the way back - i did not know that it is even possible to change the frequent flyer-number on a flight that had already been completed the day before! that´s why i had it changed for my last leg from gva. i took into consideration that this might also change the ffp for the flight into gva, which would have been ok with me. but it really comes as a surprise to me that this had changed the two flights from the previous day. (flew AAA-BBB-CCC // CCC-GVA-AAA). I expected the flight AAA-BBB-CCC to be untouched. how wrong i was :(

meanwhile i talked to aegean and i was told to send them an e-mail with a scan of the boarding passes. well, i´m not very hopeful but i´ll try. and i´ll also e-mail miles & more.

update: i received a reply to my request to remove the miles from my miles&more-account today. to my surprise: my request got approved and the miles were removed today. ^ so far so good. now i need aegean to cooperate. they haven´t replied to my e-mail yet (ok, i didn´t expect them to be that fast). i´ll try a retrocredit and send them an e-mail as well. hope it works out well...

I flew SFO - FRA - DEL on UA and LH respectively. Had used my A3 FFP number for both the reservations and the boarding pass issued by UA at SFO had A3P (with number on the UA BP and just A3P on the LH BP)

Today I see that the FRA - DEL miles have posted to my United MP account. I really don't want this to happen as the category was Y and A3 will give me 150% of the miles.

What is the procedure to get these miles off United MP and get them posted onto A3 M&B ?

I flew SFO - FRA - DEL on UA and LH respectively. Had used my A3 FFP number for both the reservations and the boarding pass issued by UA at SFO had A3P (with number on the UA BP and just A3P on the LH BP)

Today I see that the FRA - DEL miles have posted to my United MP account. I really don't want this to happen as the category was Y and A3 will give me 150% of the miles.

What is the procedure to get these miles off United MP and get them posted onto A3 M&B ?
I would try to retroclaim using the boarding pass. When A3 returns that it credited to a different FFP, you can point out that only your A3 number was printed on your boarding pass.

Yeah anilyst, how did they even get your UA FFP # connected with this itinerary anyway? Weird.

I would try to retroclaim using the boarding pass. When A3 returns that it credited to a different FFP, you can point out that only your A3 number was printed on your boarding pass.
I contacted MP via the online form and received a prompt reply within a couple of hours.

Per your request we have deleted LH 760 FRADEL for 06/03/12 from your
MileagePlus account. The deletion should show on your account summary
within 48 hours. Once we delete flight activity from your account, the
flight cannot be added back.

I hope they meant that they will only reverse the mileage credit, though the wording sounds a bit scary.

Now to try retroclaiming via A3, and yes, the Boarding Pass has "A3P" under the FFP column, though the number is not mentioned on the LH leg.

jiejie,
The original itinerary was booked on United.com using the Explorer card. I later changed the FFP # on United.com using the "Edit Traveler Information".

United has reversed the LH miles credited. Now to get A3 post those.

miles&more [...] miles were removed today. [...] now i need aegean to cooperate [...] i´ll try a retrocredit and send them an e-mail

How did you get on?

United has reversed the LH miles credited. Now to get A3 post those.

How did you get on?

Updates from either/both of you would be appreciated -- I'm in a similar situation and am sure many others will be during this period of growth for A3's Miles&Bonus programme.

How did you get on?



no news, unfortunately. still waiting for a3 :(

i retroclaimed through the website more than 3 weeks ago and haven´t gotten any reply so far. i called the hotline about an estimated time it takes a3 to give a reply for a retroclaim of non-a3-flights. i talked to a nice lady who told me that she couldn´t tell and, given the circumstances of my retroclaim (miles already went to a different program), that i should send an e-mail to miles_bonus@aegeanair.com, explain my story in this e-mail (also tell, that the incorrectly credited miles were removed from the other ffp´s account) and ask for a reply. she also said, that i should use the contact-form on their website to ask for a reply to my e-mail, if i don´t hear back in time. i sent the e-mail and now i´m waiting again. *sigh*

if anyone has a more direct contact to miles&bonus who could speed things up a little bit - i would highly appreciate any help...

unfortunately. still waiting for a3 :(

Sorry to hear that this is not yet resolved, but the update is appreciated all the same and will remind the rest of us to manage our bookings (and expectations).

Hope it's sorted out for you soon!

Sorry to hear that this is not yet resolved, but the update is appreciated all the same and will remind the rest of us to manage our bookings (and expectations).

Hope it's sorted out for you soon!

thank you very much, IMH! i´ll post an update as soon as something happens - promised!

no news, unfortunately. still waiting for a3 :(

i retroclaimed through the website more than 3 weeks ago and haven´t gotten any reply so far. i called the hotline about an estimated time it takes a3 to give a reply for a retroclaim of non-a3-flights. i talked to a nice lady who told me that she couldn´t tell and, given the circumstances of my retroclaim (miles already went to a different program), that i should send an e-mail to miles_bonus@aegeanair.com, explain my story in this e-mail (also tell, that the incorrectly credited miles were removed from the other ffp´s account) and ask for a reply. she also said, that i should use the contact-form on their website to ask for a reply to my e-mail, if i don´t hear back in time. i sent the e-mail and now i´m waiting again. *sigh*

if anyone has a more direct contact to miles&bonus who could speed things up a little bit - i would highly appreciate any help...

A retroclaim filed over a month ago for miles flown by my wife on TK with no FF# on the ticket has produced zero response from A3. Emails have not been answered either. Good luck to you.

Yes it is always a bit risky to ask a desk agent to change any kind of FFP on a ticket... there is always a chance they screw up your whole itinerary (regarding miles I mean).

If something like this happen, first thing to contact is the FFP where the miles were credited wrongly. Explain the story and ask them nicely to remove those miles from your account.
Once it's done, contact the FFP where you wanted the miles to be credited in. It should work... fingers crossed.

Now, for A3, they might not be super fast but I always had an answer from them. They even called me on my Singapore cell phone.

If you can (if time difference is not an issue for you), try to contact them by phone, it's much easier and faster. Their English is quite good too.

Good luck.

How did you get on?



How did you get on?

Updates from either/both of you would be appreciated -- I'm in a similar situation and am sure many others will be during this period of growth for A3's Miles&Bonus programme.
No updates from my end. United was very prompt in reversing the mileage credits within 24 hours. I haven't seen an update from A3.

Will call them once I get back Stateside from my vacation.

If you can (if time difference is not an issue for you), try to contact them by phone, it's much easier and faster. Their English is quite good too.


Haha, business hours, 8am to 5pm, in Athens, are 10pm to 7am here on the US west coast. I will try to stay up late enough tonight to call, though.

Your only course of action would be to email M&M and explain it but Im not hopeful.

I've actually done this with M&M in the past and they did agree to remove the miles from my LH account, allowing me to claim them in BD DC. It was about 18 months ago, when I fell for logging onto LH's web site to check in for a flight, which put my LH M&M number into the whole booking, even though I manually changed it to BD DC. Instead of showing BD*G it showed my LH number on the e-boarding pass. I therefore asked the check-in agent to check my DC number was in the booking in FRA and he said he had, and a new code BDP or something like that (not BD*G) appeared on all the boarding passes for the whole trip, but when I got back all the flights earned in LH. I sent a grumpy email to M&M stating how disappointed I was with their IT system and that it wasn't my fault. They replied saying it was my fault for logging in but grudgingly removed the miles from my LH account as the usual "gesture of goodwill". DC then credited the miles. I'm sure A3 would do the same as its a genuine mistake but I suspect you'll need to send in the email correspondence and a statement showing the miles deleted from your M&M account.

Yes it is always a bit risky to ask a desk agent to change any kind of FFP on a ticket...

A couple of days ago, at an airport in Greece, I got a chance to see how A3's systems don't exactly make it easy for them.

My PDF boarding pass showed only my A3 M&B number. I explained the problem to a friendly and helpful check-in agent and then watched as she typed and (she believed) corrected the problem. My new BP also only showed my A3 number.

SKG's wonderful fast free internet let me check the ticket record online, where I could see that the M&M number was also still in the reservation.

Two more helpful and friendly A3 agents, one speaking very good English and the other native-standard German, took a closer look at things. We could see an FQTV field with my A3 number but also an additional line: "*SSR FQTV A3 HK/ LH9922xxxxxxxxxxx ...". They managed to delete this and the following day 1,000 miles successfully reached my A3 account. :) :)

thank you, hiyo and enelym1978! good luck to you as well, hiyo!

@enelym1978: i already talked to them twice and was always told to send an e-mail to the previously mentioned address... but yes, they were nice and the english of both agents i talked to was very good. my miles were removed within days from the wrong programm; that was not an issue - it took me just one e-mail. i´ll wait a few more days and call aegean again, i guess...

@hiyo: where did you see those business hours? i talked to them later than 5 pm athens time (but maybe that was the reason why i was told to send e-mails ;) )

thank you, hiyo and enelym1978! good luck to you as well, hiyo!


@hiyo: where did you see those business hours? i talked to them later than 5 pm athens time (but maybe that was the reason why i was told to send e-mails ;) )

Just guessing on the business hours. I called after 10pm here, 8am there, and after a maddening automated path, got an agent who said the request for miles credit had been sent to Turkish Airlines and it is up to their system to authorize.

She said it was automated, and all she could do, if I wanted, was resend the request, which would move it to the back of the queue. I got the sense that Turkish is slow with these transactions, and that leaving it alone was the best course.

To recap, this is for a flight my wife took IST-NEV in April on TK. It is the one that would put her into A3 Gold status with the TK domestic 250 mile minimum. She is at 19916 miles with Aegean, so 84 from *G. Not so big a deal, as I am *G on UA at least until Jan 2014 with already booked flights.

I vaguely would guess that Athens general business office hours are something like 9 am to 7 pm local time, although certain businesses like banks and maybe government agencies might close earlier. Somehow 8 am to 5 pm sounds wrong to me.

A3 still hasn't credited the miles that United had reversed. So wrote an email to them attaching copies of the boarding pass and the LH website screenshot.

Lets see if they reply! :-/

A3 still hasn't credited the miles that United had reversed. So wrote an email to them attaching copies of the boarding pass and the LH website screenshot.

Lets see if they reply! :-/
So I did get a response from A3.

"In reply to your request, we would like to inform you that as you have made the retro claim to Lufthansa, we have to wait for their official response. We cannot proceed to any further actions without the permission of the operating carrier.

Best Regards,"

Guess I will send a mail to LH to expedite this. Any idea how good Lufthansa is when responding to such requests ?

I have a similar problem. I booked some flights on A3 and only decided to join A3 programme. My agent had automatically entered my LH number in the system but later confirmed that he removed this from the system and replaced it with my new A3 number. And this is the number that showed up on my boarding passes so I assumed things would be ok. 1 week later I notice miles credited to LH and nothing (of course) on A3. How bizarre. Not sure i'll bother with it but sounds like untidy IT doesn't it?

Not sure i'll bother with it but sounds like untidy IT doesn't it?

It certainly does.

I can quite understand why you might not want to bother asking for it to be put right, but if you do decide to try then you'd be doing everyone else a favour... The more people draw attention to the problem, the more likely A3 is to want to fix it.

update: after more than 6 weeks i received an e-mail. i was told that miles can only be registered to one program (surprise...) and that the miles cannot be transferred between star alliance airlines afterwards (uhu, but the lounge employee can overwrite two completed flights from the previous day...), and that the frequent flyer number has to either be on the reservation or shown at check-in to register the miles. beautiful - they completely ignored my e-ticket and boarding passes that all show my a3-number on it.

so i called a3 again. the lady i talked to said that i should send in the boarding passes, e-ticket and m&m-statement that shows that the miles were removed from my m&m-account. *sigh*

i have a feeling that i lost these miles completely... :(

to be continued...

It certainly does.

I can quite understand why you might not want to bother asking for it to be put right, but if you do decide to try then you'd be doing everyone else a favour... The more people draw attention to the problem, the more likely A3 is to want to fix it.

Based on others' experience here, the process to try to 'fix' the mis-posting seems quite onerous. However, I did speak to my agent who promised he'd bring this up with the A3 sales manager in Cyprus (which is where I was flying to) - hopefully senior management making a fuss will be a more effective way to improve things than trying to talk to negotiate with call centre operators in Greece and Germany.

Is there an email ID for Lufthansa that I could send an email asking them to expedite the process to get the miles posted to my A3 ?

I had the exact same problem. At Online Check-in for a SAA flight swapped from UA Mileage Plus to A3 Miles&Bonus. A3 number was on Boarding Pass so I thought I will be fine.

Miles were then credited to UA. SAA refused to have anything to do with it.
A3 requested the miles to be withdrawn from UA account plus a written confirmation from UA. UA did not want to write a confirmation that they removed the miles which meant that A3 did not credit the miles.

In the end wrote a letter to A3's CEO and posted it to the headquarter.
I did not really expect an answer but 2 weeks later my miles were credited on my A3 account. I even got 150% miles which I was not entitled to plus I still have the miles in my UA account.

I had the exact same problem. [...] In the end wrote a letter to A3's CEO and [...] 2 weeks later my miles were credited on my A3 account.

Thanks for the report. Their CEO cam expect several more letters if they don't get on top of this.

I got a brush-off email this morning ("miles already exported to another airline") and am now waiting for a reply to my follow-up.

Thanks for the report. Their CEO cam expect several more letters if they don't get on top of this.

I got a brush-off email this morning ("miles already exported to another airline") and am now waiting for a reply to my follow-up.
Well, there's something I don't understand: In his last post IB6825 had also written:
...I even got 150% miles which I was not entitled to plus I still have the miles in my UA account... Even if I simply don't see why the glitch should have been caused by A3 and not the "other" airline(s), Aegean's response was much more than one would expect.

Thanks for the report. Their CEO cam expect several more letters if they don't get on top of this.

I got a brush-off email this morning ("miles already exported to another airline") and am now waiting for a reply to my follow-up.

I believe the problem of moving miles from one account to another is to be had on most programs. Surely, the first program is happy to delete the miles, but adding them to another very rarely turns out well, IME. Because the money that operating airline paid for the miles somehow need to be transferred between programs. Is there really such an SOP inside *A? Maybe there is not much for A3 to get on op of.

Especially if one is swapping programs to maximize benefits, I don't see how A3 should be on top of that.


As we see from IB6825's post, A3 in that case decided to give the miles for free, because they could not be removed from where they were credited. Indeed very generous.

I believe the problem of moving miles from one account to another is to be had on most programs. Surely, the first program is happy to delete the miles, but adding them to another very rarely turns out well, IME. Because the money that operating airline paid for the miles somehow need to be transferred between programs. Is there really such an SOP inside *A? Maybe there is not much for A3 to get on op of.

Especially if one is swapping programs to maximize benefits, I don't see how A3 should be on top of that.


As we see from IB6825's post, A3 in that case decided to give the miles for free, because they could not be removed from where they were credited. Indeed very generous.
I agree. There is not a lot to blame A3 here. I flew LH ticketed on UA. Had A3 # on the BP. But even then UA decided to go ahead and credit the miles, which they promptly deleted when requested.

Now the tough part to get LH approve (again ?) A3 to credit miles in my M&B account and I am okay to wait as long as I am assured (by who ?) that they will be credited :)

another update: this time a got a quick response. bottomline is, that swiss had refused the first request weeks ago and that a3 now has "forwarded the case to the appointed department for a special request to the operating carrier, as there is an internal process between Star Alliance members concerning these matters."

i am happy that they apparently try to resolve my issue. now let´s see what lx is doing. i don´t expect much, but hope against hope... wonder if it makes sense to contact lx myself.

Another email exchange later and A3 have finally accepted that I wasn't trying to pull a fast one. They have credited the missing miles "by exception this time". :)

Their systems obviously do not cope well with purging reservations of unwanted FFP numbers so I have to echo the advice that people don't try to switch programmes as a matter of course.

It should be possible, and is of course quite legitimate, to enjoy status benefits thanks to FFP 1 whilst simultaneously building up miles/status in FFP 2, but in practice you should expect it to bring pain and grief.

I agree. There is not a lot to blame A3 here. I flew LH ticketed on UA. Had A3 # on the BP. But even then UA decided to go ahead and credit the miles, which they promptly deleted when requested.

Now the tough part to get LH approve (again ?) A3 to credit miles in my M&B account and I am okay to wait as long as I am assured (by who ?) that they will be credited :)
A3 got back to my reminder email and say that they still haven't heard back from Lufthansa regarding the missing miles.

Is there anyway to contact LH ? Preferably their HQ ?

Is there anyway to contact LH ? Preferably their HQ ?

This thread (http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/miles-more-lufthansa-austrian-swiss-other-partners/1359015-any-direct-channels-replace-lhrelate-lhconnect.html) details one possible method, which helped me with a M&M issue but will probably not be of any help in your situation.

Does your UA MileagePlus account clearly show the flight being credited and then deleted again? If so, a screenshot to A3 might help.

This thread (http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/miles-more-lufthansa-austrian-swiss-other-partners/1359015-any-direct-channels-replace-lhrelate-lhconnect.html) details one possible method, which helped me with a M&M issue but will probably not be of any help in your situation.

Does your UA MileagePlus account clearly show the flight being credited and then deleted again? If so, a screenshot to A3 might help.
No. I dint take any screenshots, but I have an email communication from UA mentioning that they have removed the miles from my account. :-/

Miles finally got posted. Not sure the date, but they were posted in the last few days.

Miles finally got posted.

That's good to hear. :) Thanks for updating the thread.

I wonder if anybody successfully retrocredited miles to another FF program for segments that do not accrue miles on A3. For instance, LH T or L classes have zero accrual on A3 but 100% on MileagePlus. Would it work if you have A3 on boarding pass (for status) but then retrocredit the segments that have not accrued miles to MP?

No, as they will be, in effect, treated as credited at 0%.

No, as they will be, in effect, treated as credited at 0%.

That's too bad...

But how to reconcile it with reports that flights that have 0% accrual are not registered in A3 mileage history whatsoever like they've never happened?

But how to reconcile it with reports that flights that have 0% accrual are not registered in A3 mileage history whatsoever like they've never happened?

I cannot speak form experience with A3, but in BD-DC members could not see the zero earning segments, but they were in stored in the database. There was some good reason for not displaying them, but cannot remember what it was.

More practically, there is a flag on Starnet (the *A system for transmitting FFP data) which indicates that an FFP number has been entered - and all things being equal, credited. Now privacy concerns would not allow a look-up to see what has happened inside your A3 account, but another carrier - UA in this example - would probably not look any further than the Starnet flag before suggesting you've already had your due.

On check-in at YYZ last week I had the agent remove my AP# and add my A3#, and the outbound flight posted correctly to A3. Unfortunately the return flight a few days later posted to AP, despite my again confirming with the check-in agent that I would be accruing to A3. :mad:

Has anyone had success in getting Air Canada/Aeroplan to remove a transaction from their account so you could do a retro claim with A3?

On check-in at YYZ last week I had the agent remove my AP# and add my A3#, and the outbound flight posted correctly to A3. Unfortunately the return flight a few days later posted to AP, despite my again confirming with the check-in agent that I would be accruing to A3. :mad:

Has anyone had success in getting Air Canada/Aeroplan to remove a transaction from their account so you could do a retro claim with A3?

I'm waiting for the same thing. I contacted *A after I was rejected at check-in and at the gate in PVG. The agents had never heard of Aegean. They credited the flight to AP.

*A put me in touch with Aegean, who said they will take at most 4 weeks to resolve the matter. This was in July and I have yet to receive an update.

I'm waiting for the same thing. I contacted *A after I was rejected at check-in and at the gate in PVG. The agents had never heard of Aegean. They credited the flight to AP.

*A put me in touch with Aegean, who said they will take at most 4 weeks to resolve the matter. This was in July and I have yet to receive an update.

Let us know how it goes, I'm still trying to get Aeroplan to remove the miles directly but if that fails I'll try contacting *A.

update: my miles that went to the wrong program eventually got credited into my a3-account :)

update: my miles that went to the wrong program eventually got credited into my a3-account :)

Better late than never... Congratulations for staying on the case (and thanks for reminding us all, again, that it is best to lock all other FFP cards in a lead lined safe before even thinking about booking a flight that one plans to credit to A3).

Let us know how it goes, I'm still trying to get Aeroplan to remove the miles directly but if that fails I'll try contacting *A.

Bad news.

Reply from them:
Further to your request we would like to inform you that according to Star Alliance terms, it is not possible to remove miles already credited to an account and then credit them to another account within Star Alliance.

Ugh, seems like I'll be stuck at 19k and not make it to 20k for *G :(

Well, it isn't unpossible to remove the miles and credit them to another account. But, it is very difficult and complicated to do this. It is more easier to fly for the missing 1000 miles.

Time for a milerun methinks :)

It definitely isn't impossible - other *A carriers have reversed miles credits. Once uncredited, you can just claim the flight to A3 as a retro-credit.

In gnof's case, it looks as if this is the airline's error, if the agents refused to enter the A3 number at your request due to never having heard of A3. However, if the airline don't want to uncredit the miles, there is not much you can do except escalate all the way to the top.

As last resort you may be able to appeal to A3's goodwill as they do have the ability to give you an ex gratia credit at their discretion. If you show you have attempted to resolve this with the airline and that the airline was inflexible, and point out that the reason for the matter is the refusal of the airline's agents to enter your A3 number in the first place - due to not having heard of A3 - this may help your case.

Of course we can blame the check-in agents that could not *change* the FFP in their system... But I think we also have to blame the OP's that book flights with a different FFP (for what reasons ever - perks?) and then want to change last minute the FFP at the airport! Book with the right FFP from the beginning or leave it blank, then you can still re-claim the missing miles!

I hope that A3 will strictly enforce this rule to not credit any flights that have already been credited to another FFP. This costs the airline unnecessary money and wastes the time of its Rep!

Thanks, everyone, for all the advice.

I'll contact AC to see if they can reverse the credit as it seems like I won't get the chance to fly *A before January (when I enrolled in A3).

Of course we can blame the check-in agents that could not *change* the FFP in their system... But I think we also have to blame the OP's that book flights with a different FFP (for what reasons ever - perks?) and then want to change last minute the FFP at the airport! Book with the right FFP from the beginning or leave it blank, then you can still re-claim the missing miles!

I hope that A3 will strictly enforce this rule to not credit any flights that have already been credited to another FFP. This costs the airline unnecessary money and wastes the time of its Rep!

In my case, I had my original reservation (booked with AC #) before I joined A3. After learning about A3's easier path towards *G, and knowing that I had just enough flights in this year to make it to *G, I credited all my *A flights to A3. This worked at the airport with Swiss, Continental, United, and ANA in Zurich, Toronto, Chicago, and Hong Kong, respectively.

I knew my YYZ-HKG, PVG-YYZ would push me >20k and give me *G. But I had AC attached to this reservation. So I tried changing it to A3 on AC's website. But it didn't allow me. On the YYZ-HKG flight, I was able to change it to A3 at check-in. Got to 19k. At PVG, agents at check-in did not know A3. Tried again at the gate but same response.

Flight that would have put me >20k on A3 ended up being credited to AC as I had it on my original reservation and was unable to change it.

I feel that the responsibility falls on Star Alliance with regards to my problem. As they admitted A3 to its network, Star Alliance should have made sure (at least try) that agents know what A3 is. A3, knowing that this might be a problem, may also want to alert its Star Alliance partners.

You should always get these kinds of issues sorted out before getting to the airport. Air Canada's call center would have had no trouble changing the number for you, and you always have the option to hang up and call back if you get an incompetent agent...

At PVG, agents at check-in did not know A3. Tried again at the gate but same response.

I don't get this. Why do they need to "know" A3.. can't they just type it in and see what happens?

You should always get these kinds of issues sorted out before getting to the airport. Air Canada's call center would have had no trouble changing the number for you, and you always have the option to hang up and call back if you get an incompetent agent...

With hindsight, yes, I should've.
But after 6 flights without a problem, I didn't think it was necessary.

I don't get this. Why do they need to "know" A3.. can't they just type it in and see what happens?

Presented my Aegean Miles and Bonus Blue (*S) card. They didn't know what it was. Explained what it was for the FFP. They just had no idea and didn't know what to do with it. I was told that I was not allowed to credit it to A3 for that flight. I suspect that they didn't know A3 was part of Star Alliance... even though it's quite clear on the Star Alliance logo is pretty clear on the card...

Better late than never... Congratulations for staying on the case (and thanks for reminding us all, again, that it is best to lock all other FFP cards in a lead lined safe before even thinking about booking a flight that one plans to credit to A3).

thank you!

Presented my Aegean Miles and Bonus Blue (*S) card. They didn't know what it was. Explained what it was for the FFP. They just had no idea and didn't know what to do with it. I was told that I was not allowed to credit it to A3 for that flight. I suspect that they didn't know A3 was part of Star Alliance... even though it's quite clear on the Star Alliance logo is pretty clear on the card...
Where was that? Bern? ;)

Where was that? Bern? ;)

Shanghai

Most people are talking about reversing miles posted to another airline and then applying those to A3's program. As a heads up though, when I contacted A3 to request the opposite procedure (reversing miles posted to A3 in order to post another *A carrier) A3 said that once miles are posted into their account it is IMPOSSIBLE to reserve that.
Just an FYI in case you happen to be in the same situation. If someone has had a different experience, please let me know. I spoke directly with an A3 representative based in Greece.

I'm having the same problem with a TACA flight. At online checkin I entered my A3 number and it was stated on the boarding pass as well as the silver status. Miles were credited to my Lifemiles account though. Any chance to get the miles transfered to A3?

Now i'm having an AVIANCA flight in 2 weeks on a different ticket. While booking this ticket I didn't enter any FFP numbers, but I already did checkins on previous flights on the same ticket with my A3 number for EZE-MDE on AVIANCA but also with my lifemiles number for the flights MDE-LIM on Aerogal because that flight wouldn't earn me any A3 miles. Now i checked on checkmytrip to see that both FFP numbers are stored.
What is the best way to make sure that the next flight will be credited to A3? Don't do online checkin and tell the CI agent to delete the lifemiles number?

Most people are talking about reversing miles posted to another airline and then applying those to A3's program. As a heads up though, when I contacted A3 to request the opposite procedure (reversing miles posted to A3 in order to post another *A carrier) A3 said that once miles are posted into their account it is IMPOSSIBLE to reserve that.
Just an FYI in case you happen to be in the same situation. If someone has had a different experience, please let me know. I spoke directly with an A3 representative based in Greece.

Same problem here now. Wanted to credit miles from two LH flights to SAS EB and all information during check-in looked correct. Asked the LH gate agent to double check that the miles were going to SAS EB and she confirmed.

But now, for some reason, all miles have been posted to A3 and I have no idea how to get this corrected. Sent an online claim to LH via their site but I don't expect an quick or easy way to get this sorted, if even possible at all. 7000 miles down the drain...

miles have been posted to A3 and I have no idea how to get this corrected. [...] 7000 miles down the drain...

Down the drain? :confused: You're *G with A3. Crediting miles there increases your redeemable balance and also puts you in a better position to keep elite status than people who hit the qualifying minimum and just use the benefits.

Down the drain? :confused: You're *G with A3. Crediting miles there increases your redeemable balance and also puts you in a better position to keep elite status than people who hit the qualifying minimum and just use the benefits.

Ok, not down the drain then but since I'm aiming for EBG also it feels very unnecessary to collect more miles to A3 this year. For sure I will credit miles to A3 every now and then later on.

I'm posting a short account of my recent mileage credit woes here, as the question popped up a few times before.

I've been a long-time SAA Voyager member, but recently switched to A3 due to their excellent *G offer. (Maintaining *G on SA is quite tough if you fly Y)

I had a 2 week business trip with quite a bit of flying (CPT-JNB-IST-YYZ-LAX-PHX-FLG-OAK | SFO-HKG-JNB-CPT) so I decided to switch to A3 as the one trip should give me *G.

Everything went well and I even got *S privileges as the status upgraded during my trip. Unfortunately the very last stretch HKG-JNB-CPT had some clerical error slip in. I suspect SAA's system automatically added my SA number to the booking. During checkin I asked the agent to change this to A3 and new boarding passes were printed with the correct details.

Upon my return I discovered that my miles for those flights had in fact erroneously been posted to Voyager. I did a retro claim with A3, but they got a response from SAA saying that the miles were credited.

I then gave SAA a call asked for the miles to be reversed. It did take 4 weeks and 3 calls, but the miles were indeed removed from my account. I then simply did a new retro claim via A3 and got the miles credited to my account today.

Fixing miles incorrectly credited to SAA is thus possible and A3 was helpful in getting this sorted out. Having the boarding passes with the correct number also proved very helpful.

If this happens to you, I'd say it's certainly worth trying to sort it out. Got my *G now.

(I also tried asking the Star Alliance Helpdesk for help with this, but after 3 e-mails they still didn't understand what the problem was and just kept explaining that there is no "Star Alliance Frequent Flyer programme". Not very helpful at all. I'd say avoid that route.)

just kept explaining that there is no "Star Alliance Frequent Flyer programme"

Did you perhaps use the abbreviation SA FFP (meaning South African)?

No, but I suspect they get enough flyers who are confused about how *A FFP's work. They got as far as to explain that you cannot transfer miles between airlines, but by that time I decided it was quicker just sorting it out directly.

On check-in at YYZ last week I had the agent remove my AP# and add my A3#, and the outbound flight posted correctly to A3. Unfortunately the return flight a few days later posted to AP, despite my again confirming with the check-in agent that I would be accruing to A3. :mad:

Has anyone had success in getting Air Canada/Aeroplan to remove a transaction from their account so you could do a retro claim with A3?

Just wanted to update this post for anyone who runs into a similar situation. Turns out getting the miles removed from my AP account was the easy part. I emailed Aeroplan and received a call from them a few days later; the agent stated that while it was against policy to remove miles already posted, he would make an exception in my case since it was an error on their end that caused the miles to be sent to the wrong program. He explicitly warned me that once the miles were removed they could not be restored, and that AP was not responsible for whether or not I'd be able to claim them with another *A program. Fair enough, I was happy to accept that risk as I already have more AP miles than I know what to do with. He also recommended I wait at least 2 weeks before attempting a retro-claim with another carrier so that the removal could make its way through the *A system.

About 3 weeks later I submitted a retro-claim on the A3 website. After about 6 weeks when the miles had not posted, I emailed A3. They responded fairly promptly saying my initial claim was rejected due to an issue with the name on the ticket (not sure what that was about), and they would submit a manual retro-claim on my behalf, which would take another 30 days. After not hearing back or seeing the miles post, I followed up by email again, at which point they responded that the miles had already been posted to another *A program. I replied with a copy of my AP account showing the miles posted and reversed, and explained they were posted in error, and asked that they be added to my A3 account. I never did hear back from them, even after another follow up on my part a few weeks later. I eventually lost interest as I had already made Gold through other flights.

YMMV.

Most people are talking about reversing miles posted to another airline and then applying those to A3's program. As a heads up though, when I contacted A3 to request the opposite procedure (reversing miles posted to A3 in order to post another *A carrier) A3 said that once miles are posted into their account it is IMPOSSIBLE to reserve that.
Just an FYI in case you happen to be in the same situation. If someone has had a different experience, please let me know. I spoke directly with an A3 representative based in Greece.

I am in the same situation. I am hoping that a nice letter to A3 would work, but I am not holding out much hope for this.
Similarly, if anyone has had any success in removing miles from A3 and depositing to another FFP, please post! Thanks!