United MileagePlus (Consolidated) - HKG-PEN on United "Operated by Cathay Pacific?"

Hi All, I apologize in advance if this is in the FAQ somewhere and I missed it. I have checked there and done multiple searches.

I have a round trip booked with United on united.com form PDX to Penang Malaysia in August. The HKG-PEN leg is showing on United as "operated by Cathay Pacific". Is this a codeshare or what? They are not part of *A and I am wondering if I will even get miles for this. Why would United book a non *A (and non-partner) airline as part of an itinerary booked on their website



Thanks

Roy

Hi All, I apologize in advance if this is in the FAQ somewhere and I missed it. I have checked there and done multiple searches.

I have a round trip booked with United on united.com form PDX to Penang Malaysia in August. The HKG-PEN leg is showing on United as "operated by Cathay Pacific". Is this a codeshare or what? They are not part of *A and I am wondering if I will even get miles for this. Why would United book a non *A (and non-partner) airline as part of an itinerary booked on their website



Thanks

Roy

A number of airlines can interline (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interlining) with each other. No *A airline flies HKG-PEN nonstop, so UA put you on the CX nonstop as an interline over routing you HKG-SIN/BKK-PEN (TG only flies BKK-PEN 1x a day, so the timing on those flights might not be good.)

If losing the miles freaks you out (though with a PDX-SFO/ORD-HKG-PEN itinerary already being 24 hours of flying, I might not want to add ANOTHER connection for a few thousand miles and adding MORE time flying, unless I was desperate for EQ-er, oh, wait this is FlyerTalk, of course you want the EQM), ask to route HKG-SIN/BKK-PEN on SQ/MI(SilkAir) or TG. (BTW- you won't get UA miles or EQM on MI for the SIN-PEN leg either, should you choose that routing. SilkAir is not in *A, nor is it a UA partner.)

eponymous_coward,
Thanks for the quick reply. That is what I thought, no award miles or EQM...That's OK. I'm sitting at 122K right now. I just did not understand why it would say "operated by" if it wasn't at least a code-share. My main reason for the HKG connection was United metal for the long-haul portion vs. a *A partner or code-share on that leg (no chance of upgrade). I am already confirmed in Biz first on the return but the outbound leg is still wait listed on a GPU. :confused:

I don't want to add to the already long trip for that amount of mileage so I will just fly it like it stands. :D

At least it is a Y fare on Cathay so maybe they will be nice to me...I can only hope.


Cheers,

Roy

Remember that you can credit CX miles to AS if you want an alternative to CX/AA.

eponymous_coward,
Thanks for the quick reply. That is what I thought, no award miles or EQM...That's OK. I'm sitting at 122K right now. I just did not understand why it would say "operated by" if it wasn't at least a code-share.

When you view the reservation does it have a CX flight number? That's the easiest way to determine if it's a codeshare or not. Regardless, everything said above about not earning miles on the segment is true.

I believe the website says "operated by" for all other airline segments now, although not 100% certain.

Santander,
That is at least a small benefit, I do have a AS FF #. Thanks

This is from Alaska's website with regards to earning miles in Economy:

Economy Cabin: Earn actual flight miles* flown in Y, H, or K classes of service. Earn 50% of actual flight miles* flown in L, M or V classes of service.