Flying Blue (Air France, KLM, and Other Partners) - No mileage accrual on KE flights opp. by SB (booking class M)

Hi!

I went on the following trip:
ICN-NOU 5/28 KE 5137*
NOU-ICN 6/2 KE 5138*

operated by Aircalin.

The ticket was booked in M, which according the the Flying Blue website gives 75% of miles flown (see attached). Also the flight was not within the black out period.

Since the miles were not added to my account until end of July, I sent my boarding passes incl. itinerary to FB in Paris as suggested in the FB website.
I received a letter today, stating that mileage accrual was not possible. There was no other reason given.

Any ideas why I was not grated any miles?

https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-eBuQppAqnpY/UBvEfwXtjWI/AAAAAAAAEOs/iN2Ut67NLJ0/s512/fb_KE.jpg

M sometimes appears on boarding passes as a generic class indicator for Economy, regardless of the actual class flown. Are you 100% sure that all flights were in class M?

Air Calin is a bit of a weird one. At least nominally, it's a Flying Blue airline, but I'm not sure if it actually counts as a SkyTeam airline. The only time I've flown them, it was on AF codeshares so I was lucky in that miles and level segments were awarded.

But looking at the requirements for FB earning on KE (http://partnersearch.ehn.klm.com/uk_en/partner.jsp?pid=275255&q=korean&o=0&l=5&p=0&eb=all):


You can earn Miles on all flights marketed KE, AF, KL or SkyTeam and operated by Korean Air.

Perhaps the very fact that the flights, although coded KE, were not operated by KE is enough that they don't earn - even if, in this case, they were operated by a Flying Blue airline.

I'm just wondering if anyone else who has flown a KE-coded flight operated by another FB or Skyteam airline can weigh in and let us know if they received miles?

To read that requirement in the strictest sense, any KE-coded flight that's not on KE metal won't count for anything as regards Flying Blue.

M sometimes appears on boarding passes as a generic class indicator for Economy, regardless of the actual class flown. Are you 100% sure that all flights were in class M?

Air Calin is a bit of a weird one. At least nominally, it's a Flying Blue airline, but I'm not sure if it actually counts as a SkyTeam airline. The only time I've flown them, it was on AF codeshares so I was lucky in that miles and level segments were awarded.

But looking at the requirements for FB earning on KE (http://partnersearch.ehn.klm.com/uk_en/partner.jsp?pid=275255&q=korean&o=0&l=5&p=0&eb=all):



Perhaps the very fact that the flights, although coded KE, were not operated by KE is enough that they don't earn - even if, in this case, they were operated by a Flying Blue airline.

I'm just wondering if anyone else who has flown a KE-coded flight operated by another FB or Skyteam airline can weigh in and let us know if they received miles?

To read that requirement in the strictest sense, any KE-coded flight that's not on KE metal won't count for anything as regards Flying Blue.

SB is not part of Skyteam and even though FB is the airline's FFP, SB flights do not count as level flights/miles. So KE operated by SB means Skyteam operated by non-Skyteam which in turn means no level miles.

Are you 100% sure that all flights were in class M?

I constructed the flight on ITA and ended up booking through cheapoair.com. Class M appeared on ITA as fare base. I remember, because SB listed 60% accrual, whereas KE listed 75% in M. Since it was a codeshare flight I simply assumed KE would be the relevant carrier.

although coded KE, were not operated by KE is enough that they don't earn - even if, in this case, they were operated by a Flying Blue airline

I see where you are going and it makes perfect sense, but how should people not lose track?
I mean, a flight operated by a Flying Blue airline, but offered by a SkyTeam member does not earn miles with Flying Blue, the frequent-flyer program of several SkyTeam members....:confused:

Anybody with similar experiences?

So KE operated by SB means Skyteam operated by non-Skyteam which in turn means no level miles.

And no level miles mean no award miles?

Lucky enough, you were able to get the RGN fare...;)

Lucky enough, you were able to get the RGN fare...;)
:p ;)

The general rules are quite straight-forward:

- AF and KL-coded flights give you level and award miles, no matter who operates them,
- flights with Skyteam code other than AF/KL give you level and award miles when operated by a Skyteam airline,
- flights coded and operated by the same non-Skyteam FB partner give you level miles
- all other flights: no miles.

These rules can be found by looking up the relevant airlines on the FB website. So if you look up the Air Calin and KE pages in the FB partner search and read the rules there, you will come to the same conclusion.

(On top of these general rules, some additional airline-specific restrictions apply which can be found on the FB partner search sides, too.)

Ok. Thanks for your replies!

Just noticed I made a typo above:

It should have read "flights coded and operated by the same non-Skyteam FB partner airline give you AWARD miles".
(I wrote "level miles" instead.)