Originally Posted by
UnitedSkies
I don't think this is true - there have been reports that non-UA metal still earns 500 miles minimum. Anyone can confirm this?
Folks, it's right there on united.com:
http://www.united.com/page/article/0,6722,1177,00.html
Originally Posted by .bomb MP Airline earning page
New minimum flight mileage policy
Effective for all flights flown on or after July 1, 2008, flight segments of less than 500 miles on United®, United Express®, TedSM, as well as select Star Alliance and partner airlines will accrue the actual number of miles flown.
I realize the AC page at .bomb does still mention minimums; I believe that is a simple lack of update of those individual airline pages on united.com. I believe that the intent of this change by United was to remove the minimum miles benefit from the Mileage Plus Program as a whole, rather than just remove it from United Airlines. The latter would be stupidly self-defeating for United if it made other airlines more attractive than United to United's own customers.
Nonetheless, even if AC does still earn minimum miles, the OP was seriously confused about the impact of codeshare on miles, and had the misconception that if booking code "A" on metal "B" that UA credited according to the rules for airline "A". That is NOT the way UA MP works. I've been attempting to clarify that for the OP's benefit. If the OP wants to earn UA miles for flights operated on AC metal he/she needs to book one flights that are operated by AC aircraft, in AC booking classes that earn UA miles according to UA's rules for AC.
edit: further proof from united.com
http://www.united.com/page/article/0...programchanges
Originally Posted by united.com Program changes page
Mileage Plus accrual policy for flights less than 500 miles
To ensure that Mileage Plus miles earned toward award travel on United and elite status are aligned with actual miles flown, we are revising our base accrual policy. Effective July 1, 2008, all travel on United, United Express, Ted, Star Alliance and partner airline* flights credited to the Mileage Plus Program will accrue actual miles, with no minimum. This change affects only those flights that are less than 500 miles. Flights greater than 500 miles have always accrued actual miles, and are not affected by this policy change.
This new mileage structure applies to travel on or after July 1, 2008, regardless of when the flight was ticketed. (Flights of less than 500 miles flown on or before June 30, 2008, will fall under the previous accrual policy.)
*Note: Select partner carriers may set a base mileage accrual for specific flights which may not reflect the actual mileage flown
My emphasis in bold. Also note that this clarifies what the other "select partners" comment means - that the other partner might have a base mileage accrual that does not reflect actual mileage - such as SK's 30% or NZ's 70% rules or whatever. It doesn't mean that a "select partner" still gets the 500 mile minimum, because the main policy clearly says the 500 mile minimum is gone.
I realize I've been verbose here, but if this doesn't clear it up I give up. There is NO 500 Mile Minimum in the MP PROGRAM anymore. It doesn't exist no matter how you book any flight on any carrier. If you want a 500 mile minimum it's time to switch to NW/DL whose (DL's) SkyMiles program head recently reaffirmed they don't think it's a good idea to get rid of the 500 mile minimum (see the RealDLInsider post in the the Delta forum). It is GONE GONE GONE from the USA-based Star Alliance programs, for ALL airlines which you can earn miles in those programs.
Maybe CO will keep it when they join *A, but I seriously doubt that UA and US will allow CO to keep a program feature that makes CO OP more attractive than MP or DM. Anyway CO in *A is at least 18 months from now.