gattboy

So all my segments have been on UA or US. I have about 30k miles at this point. After doing this for two years now, I am confident in saying that that all my segments that required using the retroclaim process, have been on the UA Express carrier Skywest. Regardless of whether my A3 # is on the boarding pass or not, the segments to or from RDM (my base airport) are always on Skywest and always require retroclaims.

Does anyone else have experiences like this or have an idea of what the proper venue is for alerting customer service (and who?)

And on a sidenote, is it really true that I don't need to re-qualify with new miles every year!?! I've planning my schedule around making sure I get 16k (or maybe 20k ) new miles by november to keep my *G status, but now I'm reading posts here that imply that isn't necessary...

cvarming

One of the great things about this program. Perhaps you should read the sticky FAQ threads, they explain it pretty well.

gattboy

ps- another weird issue I have been having, is that I'm on the second A3 FF card, that my home airport staff claim is "invalid," and in fact claim when I force them to manually enter the number, that the whole account is "invalid"

First it was a blue card, and now the gold card. This has happened twice, both times when my FFP # didn't make it onto the reservation and I try to manually add it during check in and for baggage fees. Both times of course, with Skywest (UA express) staff, who are all we have at homey little RDM. The second time the agent kept saying the ONLY thing that would work was a Chase MPE credit card, which was sadly funny because that doesn't even mesh with *A policy regarding elites, let alone UA policy regarding elites. Also in this second instance, I noticed after the fact, that my connecting flights had correctly printed the FFP # and the Premier Access info, but the originating one didn't, so neither I or the agent ever figured it out

Now I know the answer isn't really that the account is invalid, because as long as its in the reservation before checkin, there is no problem ever. And obviously we ALL know there are other ways to get the free bag check besides holding the Chase CC...(duh)

So I'm just wondering how I should handle this, in order to actually get a response or get it dealt with. I don't really think bothering A3 is appropriate, because obviously my acct is valid and manually entering the numbers SHOULD work (and yes I did tell the agent about the A3 code, to no avail)... the question is, should I tell Skywest, UA, or *A? Or all 3? I talked to some mainline UA agents at SFO during my connection and they said they couldn't even do anything to verify the card let alone rectify whatever problem was occurring.

I'm really inclined to believe this is a training issue with Skywest, they use the same staff to handle their UA, DL, and AA regional flights at this airport (which are the ONLY UA, DL, and AA flights that operate at RDM)

KLouis

Several possibilities:

i) move to Athens, Greece.
ii) "transfer" to Skyteam.
iii) buy the airline and fire the employees.
iv) give up flying.

And several more of the same kind. My guess is that the third might prove more successful (though extremely expensive).

cvarming

I have never had a problem entering my A3 number at online check-in. You can check in online and then go to the check-in kiosks to print your boarding pass. You can check your *A gold status before the bag drop counter and with *A gold on your boarding pass you should be fine.

TheTransitTourist

UA is usually good with retro-ing via the website. Another SA partner you can try is ANA. Their website retro-ing is excellent, and they allow overlap earning. So if you have kept all of your boarding passes, bank them also at ANA (ana.co.jp).

PVDtoDEL

The following UA flight numbers are eligible for mileage accrual or status benefits:My guess is that the flights to RDM are probably not on that list. If they aren't, then they are not Star Alliance flights, so Star Alliance rules do not apply.

These issues are backend UA contract issues with its vendors (SkyWest in this case), so you may be able to get your benefits honored as a customer service gesture by contacting UA customer service.

BThumme

You know, I just looked at some of the skywest flights (the only united flights) from MBS, and their numbers are 5370,5354, and 5382. Which in this case, would mean none of them were eligible.

Today, from RDM, here is a list of (skywest) flights
2675(lax)
4555(slc)
5325(sfo)
5476(pdx)
5331(pdx)
It looks like the only flights that would earn miles here are to LAX and SLC

gattboy

First off, Skywest flights RDM-LAX and RDM-SLC are American Eagle and Delta Connection respectively. So I certainly hope they aren't earning *A miles to A3... and if they are I think we might have figured out whole new vector for earnings (lol)... anyways this is why the UA flight number restrictions for earning to A3 are so weird, because in my experience the same routes have different flight numbers every time I fly them, even within a week or two... but then other routes have the same flight number for months straight


More to the point, I have a (sort of) answer to my earlier issue re: Skywest. Got an email from A3 saying that my RDM-SFO leg couldn't credit because it was a "codeshare" (ie: a Skywest flight not a United Express flight)... no reference to the dozens of other exact same route and carrier segments that have credited over the last two years...

However not surprisingly this raises more questions than it answers. Because I have other UA "codeshares" that have credited more recently, but were operated by other regional partners (specifically Shuttle America)... so A3 tells me they aren't crediting codeshares anymore, however this patently isn't the case when I look at my statement.

I'm starting to chalk this up to the flight number blackouts, as referenced above, however I still can't understand why A3 doesn't say that directly, and why not all United Express flights are in the same boat.

And I guess I should be nervous, because my home airport only has regional partner service... however if I don't have any requalification requirement I guess I don't really care, I am in it for the perks not the redemptions, and I guess resubmitting the excluded segments to my old and almost dead UA acct will allow me to keep the 40k miles I was just going to use to buy a suitcase or something

Still, Im just not sure how A3 is actually in the star alliance if they *really* won't accept regional flights anymore... love to hear if this is happening to people who claim other *A carrier flights to their A3 acct (LH or AC regional partners for example?)

PVDtoDEL

The flight numbers are blacked out because they are (erroneously) listed as codeshares on non-Star Alliance partners.
The same flight number restrictions apply to all Star Alliance programs - the only airline which will give you miles for those flights is UA. Most regional routes do not fall in those flight number ranges.

GoldCircle

A similar problem was experienced through bmi diamond club - and the response, when queried at the time, was that some flight number ranges were blacked out because the operating airlines had negotiated different deals on certain routes, to their own financial benefit, or for tax reasons.

Effectively they were filed as codeshares, even if exclusively sold by UA or whoever. Skywest and Colgan were two names that came up repeatedly, Mesa occasionally, and a small number of routes were notorious.

There may be more 'truth' behind this than is obvious to us armchair CEOs.

BThumme

Just wanted to echo again what PVDtoDEL mentioned. I flew 2 weeks ago CLD-LAX-ORD-MBS. The CLD-LAX and ORD-MBS segments on skywest flights that were not in this range, and indeed they did NOT post on A3's site. No problem with status being recognized though.