This thread touches on a topic that I've wondered about for a number of years: Inconsistent mileage earnings between Star Alliance partners.

You would think that any given Star Alliance airline would consider their specific fares as fully-mileage earning, partial-mileage earning, or non-mileage earning for all other Star Alliance Partners. Yet, this is not the case. They seem to have individual agreements with each partner airline. Why?

As an example, United's G,L,S,T, and W fares are non-earning for THAI ROP members. But for members of Lufthansa's Miles & More, those same fares are all partial mileage earning fares.

On the other hand, United's Q, S, K, and V fares are full (100%) mileage earning fares on THAI ROP, but only 25% or 50% (partial) earning for Lufthansa Miles & More. Why?

Does anybody know the specific process of how these earn rates are determined? And which airline is determining it? Does the partner airline just pay out the same fixed dollar amount to all other Star partners, and the receiving carrier (in our case, THAI) is establishing the "currency exchange rate" into their program's "miles" (or if it should be non-earning or partial-earning?) Or is the partner airline determining that?

As for the OP, there are very few Business and First fares that are not mileage earning with Star Alliance partners. But your example is a reminder to everyone here to always check the specific fare types when flying on partners, no matter what class of service you are flying.