Mileage claim denied for *A codeshare - options?
 

Hi All,

I frequently fly between NZ and the US on *A, and typically when I'm flying for leisure I buy NZ metal UA marketed to get more miles in *A programs.

Now, I've noticed that recently Aegean has started claiming that I can't get miles for these flights, and I'm not sure why.

I have always booked the right fare earning inventory classes (typically always V or W on UA marketed and *A operated) to earn 50-75% miles flown in economy.

For example, I just flew UA6754 (AKL-SFO, NZ 8 operated) a few weeks ago in V fare bucket, and the online mileage claim form on the aegean website is now saying the following:

924-Your request has been rejected. Please check the details, request again or contact us. When I contact customer service they say that NZ 8 in fare class V is not mileage earning, which is confusing because it's the UA table they should be looking at, and even if they looked at the NZ table, which they shouldn't be, V is still 70% mileage earning for NZ on the AKL-SFO route. I tried HUCA three times, twice got the same person, last time the second person put me on hold and came back with the same response. Seriously confused.

So, Flyertalk pros, what should I do? Is there any email address I can reach out to that will review mileage claims more seriously and correctly, rather than spout incorrect advice?

Cheers!

*A mileage accrual is by operating carrier, not marketing carrier. UA V may not map to NZ V. It may map to L, G, S, K, P, F, I, R, X, N -- classes which don't earn anything. This may be being communicated to you poorly. So step 1 is figuring out what UA V on that flight maps to. If it does map to NZ V, your next step is asking someone in A3 to look at their own chart

Gotcha. But I've had these fares deposit normally in past years? I guess maybe Aegean are suddenly looking at the operating carrier's mapped fare. Will follow up! Thanks!

Exact answer! This is one of the most irritating organizational failures of *A. The problem is that even if you call the airline your flights is supposed to credit to (here, A3 for M+B) agents are usually not aware of the fare class mapping details. A similar thing happened to my son a couple of years ago when he was flying home from Sydney...

The science behind mapping booking classes is a mystery that only the very few initiated will understand fully. It is entirely possible that the V-class previously mapped into a class which earns miles, such as H, but now UA and NZ have made changes so that it maps into a class which doesn't earn any miles, such as K. Aegean probably doesn't even know what class you're booked in. UA doesn't report that, since they're not operating the flight. NZ reports to Aegean, and NZ will report what class you're actually flying in.

I had a similar thing on a UA marketed TK flight. The booking confirmation said 'L' class, which earns 50% on both UA and TK, but the claim webform returns the 'your request has been rejected message'. I sent an e-mail off to Aegean and they said that they'd investigate and get back to me within 30 days. Fortunately, I don't need the miles for status.

This is indeed a very frustrating trait of Star Alliance and I don't understand why they don't do something about it. How many people have they annoyed with this!?

With oneworld it's so easy, what you book is what you get.

I have also had a similar experience with *A that I have posted about (#1775 in the sticky forum).

While not bombproof, I found good correspondence between fare classes when looking on the matrix. ITA will show you the same flights as different itineraries when booked as codeshares. Find the flight you want and look at the various options in the time bars view, and hover over each segment with the mouse pointer. Flights with the same (or similar) price (especially on JV routes) will be displayed with the operating carrier fare class and with the marketing carrier fare class. I'm on mobile right now so I can't attach a screenshot, but it should be relatively straightforward.

If the system is telling the A3 agent that you were booked into a particular class that isn't creditable then they can't help you.

You can try emailing United and NZ's customer services asking them if they can check what class it is meant to cross consider as, or the transformation table UA - NZ in general, but the likelihood of getting a good answer, or quickly is slim.
Probably start with NZ first as the operating carrier they are ultimately responsible for the mileage earning.

While it is not a fool-proof method of checking, a typical UA V-fare basis specified that the corresponding NZ-booking class is K or V. The same for a UA W-fare is K or W.