Originally Posted by
sundinkc
Last year I booked a trip to Germany via the Delta website. The flights there were operated by Air France. The flights home were operated via KLM. I received mileage credit for all flights. I just had to submit my receipt of purchase and my boarding passes to AS and the miles posted in a week or two.
But of course, YMMV.
I second this. And as missy hints, it's probably entirely up to the partner airlines. But you can greatly improve your chances of getting credit by making sure that (1) the partner's flight number is eligible for AS accrual, and (2) the partner's fare class is eligible for AS accrual.
The fare class is particularly tricky to deal with, as those super-low-fares on KL/AF are probably N class, which will earn exactly 0 miles on AS. But once you book your ticket you can call Delta (who handles KL/AF tickets in the US) and ask them to upgrade you to the lowest AF/KL fare class that earns miles, which I believe is T (note: for the Delta segments, N works fine). As long as you do this within 24h of booking, there will be no charge for the change, and if it's too much you can just cancel the ticket and get a full refund. This is what I did last year for two flights to Europe with connections (one on KL, one on AF), and it worked perfectly and I got 100% mileage credit. The difference was about $25 each way for me. I originally booked on klm.com, not delta.com, but I have done the reverse as well (KL flights booked under DL codes) and still received credit. But as everyone will tell you, YMMV, so don't count on it 100%.