Originally Posted by
garycal
It seems like the takeaway here is:
(1) If the booking is with a UAL flight number, you get base miles credit as if it is a United flight (although AC metal, regardless of whether you book with a UA flight number, doesn't seem to quality for elite bonus miles). So the W booking class I was worried about in fact earns both base and EQM miles.
(2) If you book with a UAL flight number on AC metal, the "no more 500 mile minimum" rule still applies.
NO NO NO!!! (sorry...
)
ALL that matters is the METAL. Get the "flight number" out of your head. Get anything else out of your head. Ticket stock doesn't matter. Booking location doesn't matter. It's only the METAL. (If I'm yelling it's in part because maybe I should yell at myself for having too much information in my earlier posts.)
1) If the paint on the plane says United or United Express or Ted, you are going to get your Elite bonus RDM. The flight will also count towards your UA "BIS" miles such as for UA lifetime miles, 10,000 mile e500 earnings counter, and if a 1K, your 10,000/quarter CR1 earnings counter. It doesn't matter whether you book as UA or US or AC or BD or LH or LX or whatever; it's operated by United (or United Express) so it posts to United's MP program as a United flight.
2) If the paint on the plane says Air Canada or Jazz, your are NOT getting any United Elite bonus RDM. It doesn't matter whether you book as AC or UA or US or LH or LX or BD on that Air Canada flight; it's operated by Air Canada so it posts to United's MP program as an Air Canada flight.
3) United Mileage Plus will not give anybody a 500 mile minimum for flights on any airplane on any code anymore. The 500 mile minimum is 100% GONE from the United Mileage Plus Frequent Flyer Program as of a few weeks ago. You will NEVER get a 500 mile minimum on a sub-500 mile flight anymore regardless of what you book.
There is still an open question about whether it ever makes sense to book a flight on Air Canada, using my MP number, in order to get around the 500 mile minimum rule change. If the flight is FAT-SFO-YVR and I'll be on United (well, Skywest) metal for the 158 miles FAT-SFO and AC metal for the 800 miles SFO-YVR, I think I would earn 958 base miles if booked on United with United flight numbers, and 1300 base miles if booked on AC with AC flight numbers. If both flights are UA metal, I would earn 158 + 800 base miles and 158 + 800 elite bonus miles. I really hate that these airlines with codeshares have mileage rules that yield different enough results that it is worth doing this kind of analysis before every booking.
Again, thanks for the great feedback.
Again, NO!!! It makes sense to book on Air Canada only if the Air Canada-operated flights or the United-operated flights that you want are cheaper to buy on aircanada.com than they are on united.com. That's it, that's the only reason (not counting certain UA credit cards that give bonuses for buying *A flights at United).
Remember:
YOU WILL NEVER GET A 500 MILE MINIMUM AGAIN *
IT'S THE METAL THAT MATTERS AND ONLY THE METAL THAT MATTERS**
(again, sorry for the emphasis but I don't want to leave you still confused)
*Unless United changes their rules again.
** In 99% of Star Alliance situations and in 100% of UA and AC cases.