actually, I forgot to mention a time it happened to me legally:

Flew America West last year in a multi-legged trip when they partnered with Continental.
Amer west was aweful and got stuck a lot in the whole trip.

We wrote letters to complain but not after finally being put on an AA flight to get home. I told CO and Amer West that I flew CO to GET miles with them and NOW I would not get these because they made me fly AA home, thereby losing out on earnings possibilities. I mentioned they should drop Amer West because they were aweful.

Co appologized and later DID drop Amer West (I always like to think it was because I asked them to-hee hee) and they credited me the miles eventhough I did not fly home with them or their partners.

AA credited me the miles too (since it was them who I flew on) and when I asked CO about this they said not to worry due to all the probs I had to suffer thru.

Fine! Got miles on both. I use AA anyway!
Got 3k on BOTH airlines for a return trip home cross country!

On that flight home, I convinced my friend to join AA and he did so on his cell phone the second the flight landed. The CS guy said this trip would credit since he was actually a member BEFORE the flight was completed! They even awarded him double miles because his method of joining made a great story inside AA's CS department! Now THAT's a double-dip!!!
Now my friend has 40k AA miles and he joined last feb. Not bad.


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If speed is not your thing, distance may as well be. Enjoy and embrace it all!