Improper Mileage Credit Due To Fare Class Shinanigans
 

Technically this is a United Mileage Plus issue, but since it involves flying on Air Canada metal and booked on Air Canada stock I'm asking it here, especially since it's almost certainly Air Canada's fault, and most people on the United board won't have a clue what I'm talking about. I know WHY this issue occurred, I just don't know who I should contact to attempt to have it fixed.

- In November I booked an L fare (Flex) from YYZ to FLL for flying on Feb 7 for my husband and myself. I am E50 for 2013 and 2014. I had my AP number on my ticket, and my husband had his UA.

- As most of you know, sometime in the interim, AC moved L from Flex to Tango

- On Feb 2 I requested an e-upgrade for both of us. On Feb 4 the e-upgrade with through. (So obviously on AC's systems it still saw this as a Flex fare). Our reservation now shows upgrade R.

- Because I've decided to ditch AP and move to UA (blog post why here), after the upgrade went through I changed the mileage account on my ticket to United

- Flight flown. All is fine. Wine was flowing and cheese lasagne was surprisingly tasty.

- I checked our UA accounts a few days later and we only received 25% of the miles flown. This is in line with the UA earning chart for AC which states that L flown after January 27th only earns 25%. But that makes sense / is fair only for L when purchased as a Tango fare.

So I'm not sure who I should contact to complain. If I call United, they will tell me that AC claims I purchased an L fare (which is true), and according to their chart and the date flown I only am entitled to 25%.

If I call Air Canada they will tell me that my ticket remained Flex as promised, and that they can't control how United is crediting miles.

And most probably it's not worth calling Aeroplan at all since they aren't really part of the story (although I suspect things would have been easier had the miles been incorrect on AP rather than UA)

Sorry for the novel. Any advice on what to do next is appreciated.

Indeed there is a lot of discussion of AC earning for MP over on the United board, just trolled thru 15 pages of it earlier today. Seems these "adjustments" by AC are raising some hackles and a lot of consternation; even a supposedly secure Flex booking can turn Tango overnight without notice or warning, and some are now renouncing AC codeshares for that reason.

Who to complain to I don't know, but I'd guess UA, and see if they take it up with AC; seems at least one poster did just that, and got some results, altho not sure if their situation is identical to yours. In my own case, am scared off AC now; but please take some action and report back to us here, maybe you'll get a good result and also someone else may be spared the same kind of bait-and-switch.

I'd had good luck on getting AC to honor the original terms of the booking conditions in regards to e-upgrades, you'd think that you could get mileage credited to AC at the original level ticketed.

UA may have a different approach- I'd probably aim to credit to Aeroplan as the last attempt and then move elsewhere. . .

I had the same issue (flew an L fare in early Feb). I contacted UA and explained the situation and they agreed to give me 100% miles as a goodwill gesture.

I feel for you. I flew YEG-YUL on January 17th and then a few days later YYZ-YEG on Flex G fares both times and AC tried to only credit me 25% MP and 0 segment.

A call to the MP Gold desk, a discussion with an agent, a personalized e-mail to me acknowledging the issue and promising to take it up with AC saw my MP account properly credited with 100% and proper segment count earlier this week.

Just as a follow-up, I called Mileage Plus and the first agent said that there was nothing she could do. She asked if I wanted to be transferred to her supervisor so I said yes.

The supervisor was very polite and professional, but explained that she could only credit based on the fare class as of the date of flight, not the date of purchase. I tried to explain how AC was supposed to update the fare class to a W fare (and in fact must have since I was able to upgrade to J), but I don't think she quite got it (not that I would expect United agents to be trained on how Air Canada's upgrades work).

In any case, after putting me on hold multiple times (probably for about 30 minutes total), she said that as a one-time exception she would adjust both of our accounts for the proper mileage credit. She requested that I e-mail her the ticket showing her that it was purchased prior to the fare codes changing, which I did.

The adjustments just appeared in our accounts a few minutes ago. The amounts are a bit random though -- about 100 miles more than expected, and the qualifying miles credited are slightly different than the redeemable miles. My husband who is Platinum 75K didn't get his 75% bonus on his miles, so I will probably write that agent back about that (since I now have her United e-mail address).