Vegitto

What I've noticed is, that you seem to be able to file retro claims for aegean earlier than 14 days after the flight. So if you open the page and in the airline dropdown it still says "aegean" you are able to select earlier dates but as soone as you change it to the actual airline you flew, the selected date becomes unavailable

gandalftm

I had the same experience with LH discounted PE: all my other segments were credited within 2 days to A3, with the exception of the "N" segment. I've never had any other issues with crediting LH miles to A3, including E and G segments recently. Is there a mistake in the system? Was anyone successful so far with LH N without retro-claiming?

ARNYYZ

Had the same experience for a trip on jan 3. The first segment OSL-FRA in Y posted promptly whereas the second segment in N did not post. Retro claimed as soon as it was possible and miles posted 3 days after the retro claim. We got free gate upgrades to C (747 upper deck!) and I don't know if that complicated the matter further.

KLouis

This only an (un)educated guess: As the N fare class is only entitled to earn miles when flown in International (i.e. long haul, not Europaen) flights, and this only after last October, it's either the LH system that has not been updated accordingly when "sending" the info to B+M or the B+M system that hasn't been updated when "receiving" the info. As long as one can successfully retro-credit, though, not much harm.

NWIFlyer

Gandalftm, welcome to FT and the A3 forum, it's good to see you here - and thank you for the further data point you've provided in your post.

Unfortunately I haven't flown with LH for some years thanks to their decimation of service from the UK to anywhere particularly useful, and stingy earnings, but I know you'll find plenty of expertise here - so I hope you'll stick around and be able to contribute to some of our other threads.

gandalftm

Thank you, NWIFlyer!
You're right, the amount of expertise here seems to be impressive!
I'll report back after I get my miles credited (either way). I'm just flying again with LH in a few hours in E, let's see how it goes this time.

AVSA

Just to report that the correct miles were credited a week after I made a phone call to complain. The rep told me that their software sometimes has incorrect earning data and their technical department needs to change it.

Now I have a problem with U class on LO which should earn 25% but I got 0. First I made a retro claim which was denied. I called and a rep agreed that I should have received 25%. That was almost 2 weeks ago - still no credit.

realgoose

KLouis - I agree with your thinking. The pattern seems to be that the request to LH is sent on the business day after the claim. The confirmation from LH is sent on the following business day and A3 updates the account with the new miles. So my SWAG is that the problem is LH not sending the miles rather than A3 not accepting the miles.

When LH originally created N fares they did not credit to partners and perhaps they don't feel they have compelling business reason to update their processes to send credit to other airlines. I am waiting for the 14 days to expire after my last N segment to make a retro claim.

gandalftm

Short update after my last two flights in PE with LH:
- N fare was not credited automatically, so I've retro-claimed the miles after two weeks
- surprisingly, my E fare was not credited either (at least within one week after the flight)
- all my other flights (even the ones from this week) were credited promptly

I think realgoose is right, LH doesn't seem to send the confirmations for previously not earning fare buckets (I believe "E" was in the same situation before Oct 2015)...

realgoose

Same pattern: 2nd business day after the retro request LH N credit received.

theworld

Just to confirm my retro claims done without any additional query. Outbound took about 2-3 days, inbound to about 3-4 days.

gandalftm

My retro claim for the N segment was approved after 5 days. I still need to create one for the E segment as well, which was not credited automatically either.

oliver2002

LH doesn't 'send' anything: after completion of the flight it reports that pax xyz with ffp# abc took a flight and adds the information from the ticket database about that coupon (fare paid, cabin flown etc). It's upto the FFP to pull that data periodically and credit it into their database. If the 'pulling' FFP is not applying the right queries to the recent 'catch' then credit doesn't take place. With 29 *A partners you have constant changes and updates to what credits how.
When you do a retrocredit the FFP just takes a look at what is in the common database. If it matches what you claim they do a manual credit. If it doesn't a ticket is opened with the operating carrier for clarification.

Op-up create a mismatch between the paid fare class and the operated fare class, which confuses the queries which have to validate if you paid anything for your ticket

realgoose

Thanks oliver2002 for the process detail. KLouis correctly postulated that the issue could be a failure at A3 to update their processes. Perhaps A3 will tire of the manual effort and update their data pull parameters to include E & N fares for international flights.

KLouis

I won't obviously go into a discussion on how exactly the system functions; the only thing that I can say is that usually (I really mean usually and not always) it is the airline one flies with that screws up and not the FF program actually receiving/crediting the miles. I base this statement not on any inside info but on reading tens and tens of complains in FT concerning many programs in both *A and ST (never bothered to read ant posts relating to OW!).