Mileage Plus Select Visa bonus miles earning question
 

Select visa says:
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Earn triple miles for every dollar spent on United purchases
Earn double miles on gas, home improvement purchases, groceries, dining and Star Alliance® purchases
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Do I earn triple miles on United tickets regardless of whether purchased through .bomb or operator/reservations call center?

How do I get double miles on Star Alliance purchases? I must purchase on the *A airline's website? Or, do I need to call United and purchase through them? (If I get 2x miles through *A airline's website, could I get 3x by calling united to buy that same *A ticket?)

Yes.

Just buy the ticket. The sales channel doesn't matter.

No, because 3x is only for United purchases.

Thank you for the info. A clarification question. If I purchase *A ticket through a place like Expedia or Orbitz, how will Chase/UA know that it was a *A purchase?

All airline purchases should have the airline and ticket number on your credit card statement. (Though it's been a long time since I've purchased from a third-party site.)

I've purchased through Orbitz within the last year, and it shows on your statement just as if you had bought the ticket through the airline directly. At least for UA & US it does.

It may very depending on what agency you use and how they process it. Most of the big ones process using the issuing airline's merchant account. That's why "United Airlines" (or whoever the issuing carrier is) is listed on your CC statement. If the agency name shows up instead, it means the agency itself is doing the processing, and you won't get the 2 x or 3 x miles. The latter will probably be the case if booking with a consolidator, and I suspect also if you book using a blind purchase (i.e. Like on Priceline for tickets where you don't know the carrier until after the purchase).

As it turns out, I did get 2x on a lufthansa purchase made on expedia. So, that confirms the helpful advice I got from posts above.


However, I didn't get 2x miles on a purchase made directly with Asiana. The credit card transaction entry is like this:
02/09/2011 Sale Asiana Airlines-ASIANA(Travel)

There is some disclaimer with Chase that says they're not responsible for incorrect merchant categorization.

Anyone successfully had the 2x miles credited for *A purchases that didn't get the 2x miles?

Looks like their "double miles for Star Alliance purchases" isn't working for Ethiopian airlines... I had to send a Secure Message to ask them to deposit a few thousand based on recent purchases.

Contacted ChaseSupport via twitter since Secure Message was down. Miles deposited within 1 day.