US Airways Dividend Miles (Pre-FlightFund Merger) - buying a ticket from Air Canada...advice?

I'm planning a trip to London, Ontario (YXU), and would like to get DM credit for it...so it looks like I'll be flying AC, since I don't feel like taking US to YYZ and then driving 2.5 hours.

The AC ticket is not available from the US website, so it looks like I'll have to buy the ticket directly from them.

Has anyone had experience getting US credit on AC flights? My only *A experience is on UA, and the UA/US partnership is older than US membership in *A.

Advice welcome (though "avoid Air Canada" is probably not useful).

in peace,
Michael

You should not have a problem. But hold on to your Boarding stubs and all.

Air Canada SHOULD be on-line to give you credit towards US Airways. Calling them would not hurt to find out.

T

I booked an AC flight on the UA website, and called UA afterwards to add my DM# to the reservation. My boarding pass printed out with my DM# & *G, no problem. I had no trouble accessing the 3 Maple Leaf Lounges. The AC people seemed to be well aware that US is now a member of the *A. The miles posted like clockwork.

Note: The reason why I booked o UA ticket instead of an AC ticket is because the UA flight was cheaper, so definitely check on the UA website.

I took a look at UA website too. There is the option to book there and under your profile you can add various frequent flyer plans as plan 1 plan 2, plan 3, etc. However, as far as I can tell the default plan 1 is UA Mileage Plus, I don't know what happens when you do a booking if you can specify US Airways if you had previously listed it in your profile as airline number 2..

Good luck, but hold on to the boarding passes. On the AC website there are about 12 Star partner airlines but not USairways. Of course I always wondered what would happen if you selected AC or UA and listed your usairways number with the letters US in front of the number. It seems to be that way that the LH system handles the dividend miles numbers.

Maybe someone knows..

Also something I noticed on the AC website (check to make sure you are getting the best currency transaction deal) If you book in canadian dollars, you may have to pay your credit card an extra fee. There might be an option to book in US dollars which may or may not be advantageous. On the main page (air canada) there are three links English, francais and USA travelers.

****It seems that fares are quoting in US dollars on the "canada edition" as well, so I can't figure that out but it is clear that they have two sites well three including french language.


I booked an AC flight on the UA website, and called UA afterwards to add my DM# to the reservation. My boarding pass printed out with my DM# & *G, no problem. I had no trouble accessing the 3 Maple Leaf Lounges. The AC people seemed to be well aware that US is now a member of the *A. The miles posted like clockwork.

Note: The reason why I booked o UA ticket instead of an AC ticket is because the UA flight was cheaper, so definitely check on the UA website.

The following classes of service on Air Canada do not earn miles in the US DM program:

D, E, N, T, W, X and Z.

These include most Tango and some Fun fares from the website so do make sure you are on a qualifying fare. To find out which class of service each fare is, select the fare for the flight you are interested in and then hit Continue. The fare class will be displayed on the right hand side of the screen. Each catagory (tango, fun, etc.) has more than one class of service so ensure you confirm that both segments (I assume you are doing a round trip) qualify. Unfortunately the $59 fares do not qualify. I believe that you would earn 50% mileage if you went ahead and booked those fares and credited them to UA, but double check that.

If you are transferring from a US flight in YYZ give yourself plenty of time. You will need to clear customs and immigration, pick up your bags and then take a landside transfer bus from Terminal 3 to Terminal 1 (if you are arriving in YYZ on UA or AC then the procedure is similar except you would arrive in Terminal 2). US is the only Star Carrier in YYZ that doesn't share terminal space with AC. On the return, don't forget to add enough time for pre-clearance of US customs and immigration.

If your schedule allows, you may be better off transiting in Ottawa (YOW), although there is only one non-stop flight daily to YXU or even doing xxx-YOW/YUL-YYZ-YXU for the extra segment (qualifying and eligible for COS bonus).

or is it just miles. Based on the preceeding post, I may not be getting anything. Ii think it is an e fare.Bummer. I am THISSSSS close to CP.

or is it just miles. Based on the preceeding post, I may not be getting anything. Ii think it is an e fare.Bummer. I am THISSSSS close to CP.

My educated guess is that you would receive 50% non-status miles (250 mile minimum) on both the transborder segment and the Canadian domestic segment for an E fare. For more information, check this thread on the AC forum:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=22809

I know that you don't want to hear it, but NW flies into YXU (and CO codeshares on the flights). Transiting DTW will be much easier, clearing Canadian customs at YXU will be a breeze. Clearing US customs at DTW on the return is MUCH better than clearing US customs at YYZ PFI (which is more of a PITA since you will need to clear customs at YYZ in between connecting flights, and this entails collecting your luggage and re-checking post customs). Not to mention that you will have to change terminals at YYZ as AC transborder arrives at T2 and AC domestic operates out of T1. 50% non-status miles doesn't seem worth it. On the plus side, I'd bet that AC has better frequency to YXU, and you'd get to see the brand new domestic terminal at YYZ.

My educated guess is that you would receive 50% non-status miles (250 mile minimum) on both the transborder segment and the Canadian domestic segment for an E fare. For more information, check this thread on the AC forum:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=22809

The way that miles are awarded to aeroplan vs US when flying on AC is different. As I noted above, some classes of service do not earn any miles when crediting to US. All others receive 100% or 125% depending on the cabin (these ARE preferred miles), plus your standard non-preferred miles bonus for being a preferred member. Do NOT confuse the way AC miles credit to aeroplan (AC's FFP) or any other Star partner for that matter - they are totally different when crediting to US.

I got credit for the first Air Canada leg- 1 segment and 500 qualifying miles. I hope this one today gets credited too. If all goes well I will be CP by the end of next week.
YEAH!

I got 500 miles/1 seg credit for each of the Air Canada Jazz flights I took in July. I was expecting 250 miles each, so I was pleasantly surprised.