Originally Posted by
BigFlyer
Re KLM Light fares from US to Europe:
- KLM operated: You have to pay for seats - or free for Silver and above.
- DL operated: No free seat, DL treats it as a basic economy fare.
- Extra luggage per Elite rules.
Marketing carrier is irrelevant to the above, it is based on operating carrier. I believe earning miles is based on marketing carrier.
Earning miles is absolutely based on marketing, not operating, carrier. The DL website will almost always sell both DL and partner metal as DL marketed flights (unlike AF/KL websites which sells DL metal non-stops as DL marketed). If they are DL E class marketed flights, they will earn no miles no matter who operates flight or how the class is labeled (KL/AF flights will be labeled as "Economy Light" on delta.com with BE fares, but will earn no miles due to DL coded flight number with E booking class).
