James Cridland

So, I've recently moved to Australia, and see Velocity as a good thing, all told. I'm a Star Alliance Gold with TK, but it looks like I will mostly fly with SG, DL and VA from BNE: Velocity seems a good fit (especially with the BP fuel points and other opportunities to earn).

I had a flight to Cleveland OH using VA and DL recently (booked for me). I'd already put my (no status) Delta details in, but turned up at BNE with my nice new Velocity number and asked the VA checkin person to please use my Velocity number instead. She nodded, took my card number, typed it into the computer, verbally told me that was done, and gave me my boarding cards.

Later on the flight (three segments, yuk) I noticed that my Delta number was still written on the BP. And, you've guessed it, 22 hours of travel went on my Delta account rather than my nice new Velocity.

The folks at Virgin Australia have not grasped it was their fault, and are treating it as my error. So far, they've told me that I need to talk to Delta to see if they'll reverse the miles first. It's made more complex by the rather tedious fact that this flight has made me silver with Delta, so I can't see that being a simple change.

Have I just lost this one - and should just chalk it down to experience? Or is there a way for me to get VA to see sense and fix their error?

serfty

One of the basis of Frequent Flying is to ensure your boarding passes has the intended Frequent Flyer information showing - even if it requires a reprint after changing them. But, I can understand it's easy to miss this in many ways.

Anyway, if you are persistent you should be able the get it fixed ... eventually.

You do need to consider is it worth your effort?

Good luck ...

RTWFF

I'd say that unless you can *prove* that the VA operative did as you described eg. somewhere on the PNR she's collected your number, just not put it in the right field - I think you're screwed. It's entirely up to Delta - and who wants to be told that you're being unfaithful to them? It's not as if you're not getting any points at all

I have heard from a friend of mine who's a Qantas Platinum that he's been told that there are actually a primary and a secondary FF field in some booking systems because he's tried (sometimes successfully) to get SC on Qantas but points on AA using that technique. However, that's hearsay on hearsay, so pretty much worthless in your case

cityflyer369

I agree with the previous poster that one has to check the boarding pass. Changing frequent flyer numbers is a major source of problems with most airlines. Regarding your current situation: all you can try is to ask Delta to cancel your miles. If you succeed with this you're fine. Otherwise there is nothing you can do, unfortunately.

wyvern

That's not hearsay - search FQTV and FQTS in FlyerTalk and see what comes up. Some airlines virtually insist on it e.g. Air NZ if you are using one card for lounge access and another to credit miles to. Some airline systems don't handle the codes for this well and given VA's sketchy interoperability with it's partners on points and status (think lack of *A or Skyteam membership and a load of ad hoc arrangements that are not consistent across partner airlines) I can see that a change at the airport may not have stuck.

Always checking the FF number on your BPs, and insisting on a reprint if it is not what you were expecting is sound advice.

@James Cridland - as others have said the key here is to get Delta to reverse the miles credit - which hey may or may not do. If they do, then you should be able to reclaim wit VA. If Delta will not do this - it is within VA's power to manually credit points and SCs if they recognise that they ere in error, but this is very very unlikely. Let us know how you get on.

James Cridland

VA simply wouldn't budge: at one point quoting their terms and conditions to me about double-dipping.

On contacting Delta, they refused to reverse the miles, saying that I'd already earnt them and you can't earn more than once on the same flight. I appealed - since it looked like a copy/paste aimed at people trying to double-dip too - and DL have now reversed the miles. Which I'm frankly amazed at. But that's nice.

The ball is now back in VA's court. I've sent them DL's response; a screenshot of my SkyMiles balance (where the flights have simply disappeared from the system); and - rather sniffily - a screengrab of my TripIt, showing that I've travelled 70,000 miles in 2015 and have travelled 550,000 miles over the past ten years.

The lesson learnt is to never trust them, I suppose - which is a sad lesson to learn.

PS: wyvern: "BA Silver, former BD *G" - you've done well to retain silver! My, what a difficult FF for the economy flyer. My BD*G went very quickly after the BA takeover!

James Cridland

...and final resolution is that VA have credited me. So, the lesson learnt there is to keep at it.

serfty

Well done - careful persistence can indeed work ...

cityflyer369

Congratulations!😄🎉🎶🍻