MilesBuzz! - RT travel - can I earn CO miles one way and NW on return?

I am 750 miles short of 50,000 on CO, and rarely have the opportunity to fly them anymore. I have found their miles to be... unhelpful, but with a full year's advance notice, I might be able to use them.

Due to a change in home city, I may be able to shoot for NW Silver aka 'Tin' Elite this year.

On a AS flight from PDX-LAX (835 miles each way), can I earn CO miles down (thus putting me over the 50,000, and relieving me of the burden of having to fly with them again), and earn NW miles on the return (thus accruing EQMs toward Silve Elite)?

Thank you for any/all info!

Well both CO and NW are partners, so it shouldn't be a problem. It's too bad you didn't put another stop in there, so you could get the 500 mile minimum flight segment, and then post all other mileage to NW. AS is pretty slow to post, however. 3-4 weeks.

I'd just book the flight and put the CO number in, and then change at checkin on the way back.

I'd be interested in hearing how this all works out. My bet is that you can only earn the miles in one program for the round-trip flight. Please let us know once you give it a shot.

You can designate each leg to a different partner if you want. Just go up to the gate agent and have him/her change your frequent flyer number before each flight.

This is not a not a big deal, but Mrs OB one got shut out this way once on a BOS AMS leg on NW where they never had anyone appear at the gate desk. (Her CO onepass number was on her ticket, but she wanted WP miles) When the agents appeared, they went right to boarding so it was pretty tough to say "would you mind changing my ff number?" as they collected boarding passes. It was one of the most disorganaized boardings I ever saw. We all waited in the jetway for about 15 minutes while catering finished.

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by OB one:
You can designate each leg to a different partner if you want. Just go up to the gate agent and have him/her change your frequent flyer number before each flight.</font>

That's correct. You should have no problems crediting your outbound leg to CO and the return to NW. On your return, at check-in or at the gate, ask an agent to credit the return segment to your WorldPerks account. Piece of cake.

The other option is to not put any number in the res and simply file for missing credit to the appropriate program with the boarding cards you have collected. I agree with others that the change of program numbers on each leg works - but i've also had an occasional glitch in that assumption, so be well advised to keep all documents (including original ticket/e-ticket receipt) until the correct posting of your miles.

I'm not sure about AS or CO, but at least with NW if you use the self-service check-in kiosk, there is always an option on the screen to change frequent flyer number, at which point you can enter not just a NW number but also a partner airline's number. You have the option to enter a frequent flyer number every time you check in, so you can change it for each leg of your RT, provided that AS has this option at their kiosks. This may be another option if it's not convenient to find an agent to change the number in the system for you. Good luck!


[This message has been edited by txhem (edited Jan 21, 2004).]

Here's an alternate point of view. Consider:

- You need only 750 miles on CO to reach your desired threshold, but have no interest in Elite status.

- You want Elite status on NW, which occurs only by earning miles for flights on NW with your Worldperks.

Why not put both segments on your NW accout and earn those Elite miles, so you can get closer to Silver?

As for the 750 CO miles you want, you can use non-airline methods: send flowers, shop though CO's milage mall, gat an AT&T bonus, iDine, or any other partner list on CO's website. You don't seem to be in a rush to use those CO miles, so there's no need to be in a rush to accrue them.




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I enjoy travel, From here to there.