In many cases, people who you know may fly to where you live, you go pick them up, and they forgot to apply the miles they should earn for their flights! (GASP!)

When I bring these unknowing, innocent but silly souls back to the airport to see them off, I am certain to squeaze up to the counter beside them and kindly inform the desk agent of their FF numbers. It gets entered... for THAT end of the trip. You could also call the airline at any time and ask them to add it on, but it's always a good idea to double check this on check in anyway. That being said, it's very common to have a partner airline neglect to properly credit your miles on the other carrier. I have always been successful and in a few instances, I have convinced friends who did not yet even have a FF account on a certain airline actually JOIN UP during their stay so that technically, they had been a member BEFORE the trip was complete. Whatever your case may be--a flying friend, yourself, a spouse, etc... be sure to keep records of things you do and save everything until you see every last mile post to that account! If you don't, you are kinda bumming unless you enlist the services of a graphic designer friend and ask someone on the plane to toss ya a boarding card so your friend can fix you a new one to copy and fax in. I don't recommend this practice and I have yet to do it, but unless they need originals, I bet it would work!

I have never done that to illegally obtained any miles and I always send the orginals and save my copies of flight related stuff. In fact, I keep it in an old box in the basement and I have some old ones like even from old People's Express flights, just cuz!

1) save all boarding cards, itineraries, copies of any paperwork involving the entire trip, invoices, travel agent papers, etc. Save everything. Save everything. Even save the luggage tags!!!!!

2) Call the airline's miles department to find out who deals with this stuff and do it NOW. Don't wait too long or you may lose because of time constraints that may apply depending on whatever airline policies you come up against. Write a letter. It could look something like the one I pasted in below when writing on behalf of a friend from overseas (my friend and her boyfriend flew to the States on US Air but they wanted their miles on United. I wrote this for them and they just signed it and mailed it after I wrote it for them--or, you could send it unsigned too)

3) include copies of your passport if international. Why? Because the more paperwork you send, the more you look like you are being serious.

4) if possible, go back to the partner airline desk who you flew on and ask them to fill out a special form they have that can "interoffice" between airlines. I happened to be back in Logan Airport on another matter and I stopped by the US Air desk, showed them everything from my friends and the lady there filled out a small card and then she even made me a copy of it! (At Logan, there is a copier in the check in area of US Air, FYI--and that's really good to know!) It was not busy at that US Air desk and so it was pretty easy to get this done even if I didnt need it, but this US Air==>UAL communicae probably helped push things forward.

5) explain the situation in your letter and be sure to have all the facts, flight info, etc for the airline to read. If they deny you--and often times, if you are missing a piece here and there, UAL for one will deny you, just write in AGAIN and repeat everything!

6) note that the entire process takes several weeks--maybe 1.5 months or so, but in the end, you should see your miles. be sure to keep all correspondences and take any names, ID numbers, manager's info and phone line extentions you receive in this upward battle.

I STRONGLY SUGGEST ALWAYS MAILING THIS STUFF OR FAXING IT OVER EMAILING IT!!!!!!!!

7) In the case of the letter I have copy/pasted in below, the girlfriend/boyfriend couple in question only actually had some of their boarding cards available. People throw things away and they really should not. You should not even toss 'em on a non-partner flight until you SEE ALL your miles!. The key piece of info in all these things will be the ticket number! If you ever end up in a situation where you may not be able to copy your tickets, etc, then take a digital picture of them and then have it printed out later when your trip is over. be sure to always keep copies of everything for yourself. SAVE EVERYTHING!

[B]Remember this: As Judge Wapner http://www.nndb.com/people/744/000022678/ once said on the original People's Court: "The person with the most paperwork wins!"[/B]

Be that person... be the second mouse.

*******

From:
Dutch Girl from overseas writing on behalf of both herself and her boyfriend with copies of stuff from their UA accounts

To:
United Mileage Plus
P.O. Box 6124
Rapid City, SD 57709-6124

September 13, 2006

To: Customer Service
RE: Missing flight credits from partner, US Air (4,487 to be credited to two United accounts)

Below is information currently in your system on both passengers named herein.

girl's UAL Account Number: 0XXXXXXXXX
boyfriend's UAL Account Number: 0XXXXXXXXX

Both passengers are experiencing the same exact problem and we flew together expecting to receive miles for both ends of our round trip flight, but our current redeemable miles in our accounts are only: 7,237 each. The flight activity below only shows the RETURN trip do AMSTERDAM, but this ticket originated in that city so we are missing credits for AMS-PHL-BOS and we estimate these miles would total to the same thing as the return, thereby bringing both our accounts up by another 4,487 miles in each. But here’s what our online accounts at UA MP say right now:

Year to date Elite Qualifying Miles (EQM) 4,487
Year to date Elite Qualifying Segments (EQS) 2.50
Lifetime United flight miles 0


Date Activity Total
21-Aug-06 US 0283 Y Class BOS to PHL 500
21-Aug-06 US 0042 Q Class PHL to AMS 3,737
24-Aug-06 MEMBER-GET-A-MEMBER BONUS 3,000

(subtotal August ’06: 7,237)

The originating flight is missing in both cases. We have enclosed copies of some boarding cards, receipt cards of the ticket that should show you the necessary ticket number for everything, and a copy of a Dutch travel agency’s itinerary. We originated in Amsterdam for this flight and we flew do Boston thru Philly on US Airways’ Flight #43 AMS-BOS on August 8, and then on US Airways’ #49 PHL-BOS also on August 8. We have also included copies of our passports for your records, and also, please note that we had called United before flying from Boston on Aug 21 to be certain they apply all miles, yet it seems only half the trip got credited.

Please adjust each of our accounts accordingly at this time,

Thank you!

-girl.
girl's Email: [email protected]