Asiana Club - Flights that do not accrue mileage?!?

Not regarding Asiana Club, but Asiana flights, and I think this might be the place to provide some enlightenment:

Was flying FRA-ICN-CRK, MNL-ICN-FRA last December/January. All miles were supposed to be credited to LH Miles & More. FRA-ICN and ICN-FRA showed up automatically, ICN-CRK and MNL-ICN did not... oh well, sent in boarding passes and e-ticket receipt to M&M Germany, not the first time something like that happens of course. ICN-CRK is credited, this was flight OZ 707. Nothing posted for MNL-ICN (flight OZ 7043 on January 3rd 2009), so I ask again. Answer from M&M: no miles can be credited for OZ 7043, because this flight number is excluded from accruing miles.

Obviously I'm annoyed, and I complained (no answer yet, and not much hope). Couldn't find anywhere on M&M web anything about excluded Asiana flights. The flight seemed like a totally normal Asiana flight, operated by Asiana.

Ah and I am even more annoyed because I paid some 100 Euros or so extra for the entire itinerary, in order to receive full miles and not 50%. Was booked in V class.

Does anybody know anything about such "special" (in a bad way) Asiana flights? With that experience, I am tempted to avoid them in the future, although they are otherwise a fine airline for me. But I see myself otherwise shelling out 2000 Euros or so for a C ticket, only to be told "sorry, this flight does not accrue miles".

I've taken several of the flights between ICN and the Philippines on OZ and never had any problems with them crediting to my FF accounts (not M&M). But I've never taken one of those 4-digit flights before. I'm always very leery of 4-digit flights because with many airlines those flights are either code-share, charter flights or other special flights that may not earn miles. For both OZ's FFP and M&M, they state the flights must be regularly scheduled flights in order to accrue miles. These flights may appear to be regularly scheduled flights, but if you look at the current OZ schedule, they aren't currently available. They only add them during the peak seasons it would appear. So my best guess is that they might not be considered regularly scheduled flights. Or else they are but M&M's computers are tagging them as non-regular flights due to their four digits, rather than three. I'd contact OZ to see if they are considered regular flights by OZ or not and if so press the issue further with M&M, perhaps mentioning the difference between three and four digits and that maybe their computers aren't programmed properly to credit these OZ flights.

Welcome to the OZ forum, gluino! As A_Lee said, this has more to do with M&M than with OZ. According to the M&M website (http://www.miles-and-more.com/online/portal/mam/de/earn/flight/offer?nodeid=2508439&l=en&cid=18002), "you can earn miles on all scheduled flights operated by Asiana Airlines. You earn award and status miles on every flight".

Besides this text in the English version of the M&M website being strange, the question is, was this a scheduled flight operated by OZ?

High flight numbers like OZ7043 are a bit suspicious because many airlines use them for code share flights, flights operated by small subsidiaries or charter flights. So was this flight actually operated on OZ metal? It is listed in Amadeus but it is not coming up in Sabre and in other GDS'.

So when you talk to M&M point out that it was a scheduled flight and I think you will get the miles for it.

You can have the same issue with all other airlines who earn miles on M&M, not just OZ. Each will have some flight which are excluded based on them not being scheduled flights or not operated on the main lines metal.

Thanks. Indeed it seems at first sight a M&M issue. The thing is, they keep saying (got my second answer from them by now): This flight is excluded from accruing mileage by our partner (i.e. Asiana). My suspicion is also that there might be some mistake in the system, like: 4 digit flight number -> code share. It was definitely not a codeshare, and the flight was operated by Asiana on Asiana metal. And indeed, OZ 7043 still shows up in the current Asiana schedule.

Well, I am sufficiently annoyed that I just sent them another mail. This was my first flight in 2009 for a fast SEN renewal. I am always careful what I book and what the benefits are. Haven't had anything like that since, hmmm, about the year 2000 with US Air, who have never seen me again :)

I bet OZ just uses the high number for extra sections during peak periods for some reason. Perhaps because the flight has to be classified as a 'charter' by the Korean or Philippino governments given its in excess of the carriers traffic rights?

That said, if it was just sold as a regular flight, I think that's pretty rotten that OZ/LH would block it...