hugolover

A good J fare on the Premium Fares forum with LO on SOF-SIN credits 150% to M&M but absolutely nada with A3. I know F is a new fare bucket for LOT but it seems A3 still credit nothing for it. What could be the reason?

A3 is very popular with Polish flyers as cheap Gold. Could it be a retaliation like M&M did with TK fares or is it just taking a while for this fare to be updated by A3.

Its interesting to note how nicely F credits to M&M. It's LO's cheapest possible fare and is 150% vs 100% for LH group P Class, lowest J fare.

East_and_West

One reason could be that there may have been some change, but A3 have not yet updated their list. If they do not do that before the date of your flight, unfortunately it is nada that you are to going to earn, even if they do that at some later point. I know the hard way. When I first switched from EB to M&B, I was taken aback to see that my (then usual) ARN-EWR-SFO or CPH-EWR-LAX routes on discounted business with UA earned nothing on M&B, although I was earning a fair amount on EB (75% or 100%, I can't remember for sure). After a while A3 fixed this (now it earns 100%) but my four long-haul return trips would give nothing on M&B then. (At least after I found out I credited the three remaining on EB and at least saved the day).

It is true that A3G is among the relatively "cheap" *AGs, but it is not as "cheap" as it may may appear at a first glance, at least if you do not fly A3 regularly. First, the 4 segments one needs to fly on A3 to be eligible for the low mileage accrual requirement can be quite a hassle, especially for non-European residents, or even for Europeans living in cities where A3 does not have good/regular connections. In some cases it may take significant planning effort, and you may need to waste at least a day of your life for these four segments, as proved by the discussions in the dedicated thread in this forum.

That aside, what is perhaps more important is that non-A3 flights are heavily discounted, especially with "popular" airlines. With LH for example, low-level (but quite common) K, L, and T fares earn absolutely nothing, even on long-haul flights. UA is another example. Full-fare business J gives just 100%, equal to mid-economy fares (H or Q), although its price may be as high as eightfold in some cases! All SQ Premium Economy fares earn as much as SQ discounted economy (W). And the list goes on...

irishguy28

Two possible reasons:
1) F is a new fare bucket and the table hasn't been updated since 2015.
2) Star Alliance is renowned for being the only alliance for which discount business class fares on various member airlines earn 0% in several of the other member airlines' programmes.

Remember that Lufthansa "P" earns nothing in Miles + Bonus, so don't necessarily expect that LOT "F" will!

ermis177

Same as N fare for Austrian. The new PE class earns no miles at all. I hope they change is as soon as possible.

hugolover

Well, F is shown in the A3 table as non-earning. J is non-earning because I believe the most expensive flex class is C.

A3 is very popular with Polish flyers, A3 fly to WAW and also KRK so its easy for the segments and even the cheapest LO fares in U and O class earn 25%. This seems generous considering the cheapest LH group fares, L & K earn absolutely nothing. I would hope that given the generosity of LO to credit those buckets F might one day be also earning.

Obviously the reason why LH P is non-earning in A3 is the same reason why TK credits so crap to M&M.

yurtripper

LO is considerably less generous with A3 if you go further up the earnings table. A recent 'D' flight from SVQ to WAW via MUC paid me 2000 miles (fixed) on the LH leg but only 604 (distance factor) on the LO leg.

LO/F itself is a new business saver (discounted) fare, created at the start of this year. It's similar to the godforsaken 'P' of LH (actually, nothing could be as bad as that). It also earns zero on TG.

That's no longer true since Jan 20. 'W' now earns only 75% while PE earns either 125% (S,T) or 100% (P). In fact, 'W' was never discounted economy - it paid a full 100% alongside the likes of B and Y. The difference was that W was a sweet spot in the earnings table, you could often find W fares for almost the same price as discounted Y, which used to pay 50% but can now pay as little as 10%.

East_and_West

According to A3's website all PE fares earn 100% on M&B, as much as W (which is indeed considered a "mid-level" Econ fare. By "discounted" I meant "not full-fare", perhaps it was not the right term, thanks for that. Only B,E,Y are considered full-fare on SQ, and as you said, Q is usually much cheaper than those.) But actually discounted / heavily discounted Econ (N,Q / K,V) earn no miles on M&B, while on other FFPs (EB for example) give 50%/10% which can make some nontrivial accrual on long-haul, especially when multiple segments are involved.

irishguy28

The reason TK credits so "crap" to M&M is that Lufthansa's hackles are up for the moves that TK made in the Germany market. LH sees TK as an aggressive competitor, and not one that it wishes to reward its flyers for defecting to (so you'd think they'd make their programme more palatable ).

https://www.eturbonews.com/78840/luf...liance-friends

yurtripper

Sorry, you're right. I was going by the charts for SQ's own metal but I realise you were referring specifically to A3 earnings for that class.

yurtripper

I think LH would regard any competitor in Germany as 'aggressive', at least any competitor who had the clout to put more than a tiny dent in their home market.

KLouis

EB as in WAMOS AIR?

RedChili

I'm not sure if that is true anymore. I've actually seen that you can book business tickets in AF in O class, and that's the award fare class which gives 0 in other SkyTeam programs, and very meagre earnings in Flying Blue. I've seen round trip tickets ARN-TLV for around 500 euros in that fare class.

I'm gonna make a really wild guess that he's not talking about Wamos, but in SAS EuroBonus.

East_and_West

Thanks, indeed. Sorry for the confusion.This abbreviation is widely used in the SK forum (like M&B is here for example) so I thought it was pretty much standard.

FlyerTalker688786

I think the sweet spot for mileage earning with A3 are Air Canada, ANA, Avianca, Croatia, Ethiopian, South African, SAS and UA. With almost all revenue class earning miles and most 100% and above. LOT is not too bad neither but slightly worse than above airlines.

Xandrios

..and Aegean of course! Even the cheapest fares earn 70-100%!