United MileagePlus (Consolidated) - Dispute with UA's Mileage Plus

I booked a June trip through Orbitz on United. It was from JFK-VIE-TLV. The first flight was nonstop JFK-VIE, the second flight was VIE-TLV a few days later, and the return TLV-EWR was later nonstop. The entire ticket said it was United, but that certain flights would be operated by United's partner, Austrian Air. The JFK-VIE flight was a code share flight, operated by Austrian, with two separate flight numbers, one for United and one for Austrian. The VIE-TLV flight had no United number and was on Austrian. The return leg was nonstop on a United aircraft.

I was credited only with points for the nonstop United return flight and now Mileage Plus is telling me that Austrian will not credit me because the fare was an "S" fare which they say would not qualify for points on Mileage Plus.

I am still working on this with them, but fear I will be refused and I am outraged. I had no idea there would be any problem with receiving points for any flights, especially the outbound flight which had a United flight number. The fare was not cheap; I chose United happily thinking I would receive proper credit and would have chosen a different airline had I known there was any question about this. Orbitz certainly never hinted the fare would not qualify in any way for points.

Does anyone out there have thoughts or suggestions of how to proceed with this?

Sorry, but it's your fault.

Orbitz will sell you any ticket you want and they don't ever tell you it earns or does not earn miles. On *A the operating carrier determins earnings (in contrast to ST where the marketing carrier is relevant). Sometimes it can be difficult to determine, how booking classes translate; there is always a risk with codeshares.
UA earnings on OS is very restricted.

As noted by cfischer, the responsibility is yours to look at the MP mileage earning page for OS to make sure your fare basis qualified.
Here's the relevant page for Austrian http://www.united.com/CMS/en-US/marketing/custcomm/promotions/Pages/AirlinePartnerDetails.aspx?ItemId=302

You did not do your homework. Everybody knows its the ticketing carrier's crediting rules that apply if want to credit to their program. Any OTA will offer you any fare(class) carrier you choose.They have no responsibility as to whether it gives mileage credit or not. What are the Mileage Plus rules for OS S -class you purchased - thats the answer - whether you like it or not.

People are being too harsh on the OP, as it's entirely possible to book such an itinerary on united.com, get a fare code on the codeshare that looks fine on the Austrian chart, and only discover after your lack of credit that the UA code turned into an ineligible code. Got burned once myself before discovering this. (One of the things I like about AA is that you get AA's credit on every AA numbered flight, regardless of operating carrier.)

OTAs are usually used by kettles who don't care about miles.
Thus, fare class is irrelevant information to them, and, when designing a website, leaving out unnecessary information is key to ensuring users have an enjoyable experience.
This is why I call in and ask for the fare class before buying, and verify all codeshares.

People are being too harsh on the OP, as it's entirely possible to book such an itinerary on united.com, get a fare code on the codeshare that looks fine on the Austrian chart, and only discover after your lack of credit that the UA code turned into an ineligible code. Got burned once myself before discovering this. (One of the things I like about AA is that you get AA's credit on every AA numbered flight, regardless of operating carrier.)

if you care about FQTV credit you have to look at the booking class and codeshares, that is pretty much common knowledge. If mapping is difficult you can always turn to places like FT for help. After the travel is completed there is nothing you can do about it.

You did not do your homework. Everybody knows its the ticketing carrier's crediting rules that apply if want to credit to their program. Any OTA will offer you any fare(class) carrier you choose.They have no responsibility as to whether it gives mileage credit or not. What are the Mileage Plus rules for OS S -class you purchased - thats the answer - whether you like it or not.
Clearly it's NOT the case that EVERYBODY knows this, as the OP didn't know.

Clearly it's NOT the case that EVERYBODY knows this, as the OP didn't know.

Is your point that OP should get points for flights not eligible for points?:confused:

Is your point that OP should get points for flights not eligible for points?:confused:

i believe his point is that far too many ppl on this website say d-bag things behind the guise of an anonymous screenname and ip address. i agree with him.

I don't think "what's generally known" matters. What matters are the rules and the rules are that OP's fare bucket didn't qualify on one of the operating carriers and thus he doesn't earn.

If you are someone who cares about these things and can't just shrug your shoulders and let it go, then you have an obligation to learn the rules in advamce. There's no way around it and OP's got nothing to be "outraged" about.

Does anyone out there have thoughts or suggestions of how to proceed with this?

I see that you are relatively new to FT so welcome !
Don't pay attention to all the petty remarks. Some of us have lost our manners.

Codeshare is helpful in some aspects but can be terrible in others. The rules are not the same for all airlines and no, not everyone knows this stuff.

Now as far as your question; there is really nothing you can do; I think many of us have been there and learned the hard way. I am sure this will not happen again to you.

...I think many of us have been there and learned the hard way. I am sure this will not happen again to you.Amen

Yes this is a lesson most have learned the hard way.

Amen

Yes this is a lesson most have learned the hard way.

Same here. The codeshare issue and the difference in earning across carriers is why .bomb has caveats all over the place about checking with the operating carrier for mileage earning. The annoying thing is that it can be a real pain finding out the actual fare code and for this reason I avoid codeshares like the plague. There is literally no advantage to being on a codeshare, and lots of disadvantages. It only benefits the airlines (I guess).

Afraid it's just one of those learn from experience moments. MP won't do anything for you as the rules are clear (even if not always clearly displayed). And as others have said the likes of Orbitz don't care about such things so never advertise what the rules might be. It can be even worse since you can end up with a (hidden) flight on a (non-UA earning) partner of a partner as part of such an itinerary, and you wouldn't even get miles if you were in full F. Always check the award accrual charts, and ideally use a real travel agent who will care enough to help you check such things. Codeshares exist really to help market flights to people who don't travel often, they have no special status for mileage programmes in general.

Hey OP, sorry to hear what happened to you. I had something similar happen to me with TAP a few years ago. Booked the ticket via Orbitz, found out after the flight that the fare class I flew in didn't earn miles. Luckily it only cost me something like ~2000 miles. You got hurt a lot worse than I did. At least as others are saying the same thing will never happen to you again. Remember what they said in Batman:

Why do we fall? So that we may pick ourselves back up