SAS EuroBonus - Miles on UA or US seperately, not in codeshare..stupid!

being a Eurobonus member you will earn miles on flights with UA or US.

However, If you are flying a UA metal with US codeshare, you will not get anything (regardless of ticket class). This is in my opinion really stupid.:mad:

According to EB customer service this is something that US has decided, but I find it rather strange as in UA and US own FF programs, the codeshare flights are still honored with miles.

Who is to blame? SK, UA or US for this crazy rule??

I thought my MP rule of "metal for credit; code, forget it" broadly applied to *A, but 773189 indicates that EuroBonus is in fact picky about codeshares. Still, there are no flight ranges excluded on on http://www.flysas.com/en/EuroBonus/EuroBonus_Partner/Eurobonus_Partners2/Star_Alliance_Partner/US_Airways/ or http://www.flysas.com/en/EuroBonus/EuroBonus_Partner/Eurobonus_Partners2/Star_Alliance_Partner/United/ , so maybe the agent was confused?

Either way, it is something peculiar to EB, and not a Star Alliance rule.

I agree with choster - it would appear to be a EB issue.
My host scheme decrees that the points earned on a codeshare flight will use the earn rate applicable to the carrier operating the flight.
In this case, as my scheme allows 100% earn with both US and UA, a UA code operated by US gets me the 100% earn.

thanks for the replies.

I did actually check SK website and did notice that they do not mention any flights being excluded. However a fellow Flyertalker did mention that on SAS Salesinfo there is a note about flights that are excluded, and which the member service confirmed.

Great price for a great trip. Have fun! Hawaii is a wonderful place.

I don't know how hard they actually enforce it, but I noted that some of the flights were operated by United. According to salesinfo the following US coded flights are ineligble for EuroBonus points:

Flights not valid for accrual and redemption
As from 21MAY06 the following flight ranges are not valid for accrual and redemption.
US 1300-1399
US 5500-8819
US 8960-8979
US 9010-9999
HP 6900-6999

Maybe the system will code them as UA flights and there it should be no problem.

Moving to SK site as it seems more appropriate there.


Markie - Co-Mod *A

Really silly definitely. All programs really should should credit per purchased carrier, as these are the ones you are giving your money to.

I agree this is really silly and undermines the purpose of having an alliance. However, for clarification, it seems to me that you do get points if you fly a US metal on a UA number, but not the other way round (perhaps someone could correct me if I am wrong).

I agree this is really silly and undermines the purpose of having an alliance. However, for clarification, it seems to me that you do get points if you fly a US metal on a UA number, but not the other way round (perhaps someone could correct me if I am wrong).

Correct. UA does not have any flight numbers excluded, neither has LH nor AC nor TG (for example). So in these cases the operating carriers code will be valid.

There are a few carriers operating flights on behalf of LH that are not part of EuroBonuns and in these cases wyou will not earn any points.

It seems that the original * members this opearting thing works out but for all the new carriers there is a major s***w up.

Maybe the alliance is growing somewhat to fast.

My pet peeve has always been that the I as a customer should get points according to the marketing carrier as that is what I can affect by giving my money to.

I as a customer should get points according to the marketing carrier as that is what I can affect by giving my money to.
I believe the exact opposite. The operating carrier is the one who should dictate mileage earning, and the marketing partner should not make any difference. Why should the exact same flight earn different miles depending on what label is on it?

Why should the exact same flight earn different miles depending on what label is on it?

Because it's less confusing and more straightforward for the consumer. There's no need to apply different rules whether you happen to book a code share flight or not. Booking class B on UA will always yield the same (percentage of) miles regardless whether it is on LH, US, AC etc. metal where it is mapped to some other booking class user for the mileage credit calculations. This mapping information is NOT available for the end user at all - making planning very difficult.

In this age of 25% and 50% mileage credit nonsense trying to determine miles for a given flight is already too complex without the code shares, thanks to the tendency of booking engines to hide the booking class - and adding another set of rules and twisted mappings due to code shares just makes it far too complicated for no apparent gain.

I believe the exact opposite. The operating carrier is the one who should dictate mileage earning, and the marketing partner should not make any difference. Why should the exact same flight earn different miles depending on what label is on it?

There are many examples why I think the marketing carrier should give the points.

You can buy a SK-coded ticket on SU (Aeroflot). This will give you nothing as Aeroflot is not part of EuroBonus. But I gave my money to SK not to SU.

Buying a SK V-class ticket may mean 100% when flying on LH metal but only 25% on LX metal because on LX the V-class is coded as T (for example). I bought a V-class ticket from SK to get 100% but have no idea how this class is mapped on different carriers.

Some SQ flights are operated by MH (Malaysian). How should I as a customer know until it is to late.

Flying LX operated by SK will give me no EB points even though this flight is operated by "my own" airline.

In short: When I do my booking I have the main influence over the marketing carrier and its booking class. This is where my loyalty to the airline (or alliance) is shown. This is what should dictate my earnings.

In short: When I do my booking I have the main influence over the marketing carrier and its booking class. This is where my loyalty to the airline (or alliance) is shown. This is what should dictate my earnings.

Excellent post!

I have been flying for some time and I think I know already a little bit more than average passenger but I still get confused with these complicated rules about when you earn and how much. Or more like I tend to forget because there is so many rules and exceptions that it is impossible for me to remember all the little exceptions.

Good thing is that I gave up and stopped worrying about those. I will get the points if I get them and I just try to remember to deposit them to some frequent flyer program if possible. But if I would be caring about the points like couple of years ago, I would be going nuts while trying to track these. It is so easy to end up in the situation where you think that you would be earning something but then because of some tricky rule, you will not get anything.