MilesBuzz! - Purchased Tickets Not Qualifying for Miles?

I was just perusing the Delta Miles FF rules and it mentions that fares bought through some sites such as Priceline (which they mention specifically) may not qualify for earning miles. Is this something common to all FF programs and has anyone ever discovered after the fact that their apparently ill-gotten fares didn't qualify for miles due to this bylaw? So does this mean you should call the airline everytime prior to purchasing a cheaper ticket through one of these travel sites in order to make sure they will qualify for miles?

Most sites not PL, will before you actually purchase the tkt have a way for you to view the fare basis of the segments. Then all you need to do is to go onto whatever Carriers site it is you want to credit the flights to and see if those fares qualify

Not all fares qualify for mileage credit even some fares that the Carrriers themselves sell on their own website. Yes probably good if crediting to that Carrier but maybe not if you wanted to credit to a another Carrier that its in the same alliance with.

So a fare on DL might get you 100% miles and Elite miles on DL but not on CO. Often I find Orbitz has a fare to Europe with say Czech Air for 1/2 the fare that Czech is selling its flight for. when I checked on CO I found the fare basis to PRG was not gonna earn any miles or EQMs, the way back would have. other times both ways would earn miles and EQMs and it was alot cheaper then what Czech Air was selling it for on its site or Czech Air didnt even hav ethe same flights available.

As for PL, the rule is No miles no way no how, no upgrades no nothin. Yet YMMV , it does for some reason slip thru the cracks some times and credit gets issued

Not all fares qualify for mileage credit even some fares that the Carrriers themselves sell on their own website. Yes probably good if crediting to that Carrier but maybe not if you wanted to credit to a another Carrier that its in the same alliance with.


Though not common, it's worse than that. For a while, Northwest didn't
give miles on its "cyberfares". Now Air New Zealand has significant discounts
on fares that offer no miles. I had Star Alliance award tickets for my
wife and daughter to New Zealand this year and I had to call United about a
schedule change. After the new flights were all confirmed, I asked how much
a ticket would be for myself on the same itinerary. Here, we had just
been dealing with award tickets, and the agent didn't bother to mention
that the price she quoted me had no miles on the ANZ portions (maybe she didn't know.)

A number of QF fares do not accrue miles on AA (not sure if they would accrue miles on QF) and it seems many programs have at least one partner which has some fares that earn only 25% or 50%.