helvettica

Not sure if anyone ran into this problem before. I recently took a mileagerun with AC from DCA-YOW-YUL-PVG, PVG-YUL-DCA, all in K class, which I booked with an OTA specialized in student fare. I added my united mileageplus number during checking in but never got mile credits. I waited 7 days and claimed missing miles on united.com but failed with "Denied. The ticket number you entered is for travel that is not eligible for MileagePlus mileage credit or Premier qualifying credit". I emailed [email protected], they said they checked with Air Canada that my ticket was "booked on a special Net fare (USA to ASIA Student contract) which does not allow the accumulation of miles. " I was NOT informed this special fare does not allow the accumulation of miles during my interactions with the travel agency or Air Canada or United Airlines. I cannot find related statement or rules that such restrictions exist even today. I understand that Air Canada can make lower fares available to certain customers who are willing give up frequent flyer miles and credits. Some US airlines do so by selling Basic Economy class tickets. However, they are very careful marketing those tickets and always make sure that the restrictions are fully disclosed to customers. I never had an issue getting miles credits from a revenue ticket with any airlines. I feel am totally screwed this time.

jazzsax

Re-read your initial post.

You booked a mileage run with an OTA that specializes in student fares.

It's obvious you had a special fare with special restrictions. Go back to your initial booking, check all the terms (which should be buried in the docs / terms on the fare class it was booked on) and realize you're screwed here. That class has specific restrictions, and really your issue isn't with the airline but should be with the OTA who booked the special fare for you.

After all.... you wanted to be cheap. So you get the cheap mileage (aka none)

helvettica

It is perfectly reasonable to book with cheapest OTA to cut down CPM cost especially you are doing a mileage run, as long as it earns miles. Of course, I checked all the terms I could found before and after booking the tickets. All it says is the fare class is K and a bunch of cancellation/change policies. It is also perfectly reasonable to believe that my K class fare should earn the same mileage credit as your K class fare. There is no mention that certain K classes may be excluded on either aeroplan.com or united.com. I even googled Air Canada student fare policy, all I found was the ' student pass ' tickets on aircanada.com which also earn mile.

D582

The fare you booked is a negotiated fare between your travel agent and Air Canada, of which one of the terms is no mileage accrual. Your complaint is with your travel agent if they did not adequately disclose this to you.

flyquiet

Would this inquiry not be best located in the United forum? This is not an AC issue. The denial of miles was by UAMP not AC. It is related to United MP system and whatever mileage, if any, it gives for AC K class.

The Lev

This should probably be moved to the Mileage Plus Forum where people may have more info on that program. In my mind the mileage plus website says you earn 25% for domestic Canadian K flight and 50% for others, so that is what you should get. If AC or UA didn't want to offer the miles they should have booked you in a fare class that doesn't earn. I would take it up a notch with MP, pointing out their own rules.
https://www.united.com/ual/en/us/fly...ir-canada.html

If you don't get anywhere with an appeal to MP, maybe you should set up an account with Aeroplan and see if they will credit the miles - according to the Aeroplan web site K class should earn 50% for the international portion.

Domestically AC has recently become a real cluster to try to interpret earnings because the same K fare class can appear in four different fare buckets earning 0%, 25%, 100% or 115%.

https://www.aeroplan.com/earn_miles/...tner=AirCanada

RangerNS

If you did not book with Air Canada, you are not Air Canada's customer.

Talk to whom you are the customer of.

Kacee

This is an AC fare and AC makes the mileage determination here, not UA.

That said, regardless of program, it is not at all uncommon for "speciality" and "bulk" fares not to accrue miles. I don't think that this is typically disclosed at sale. It's really a caveat emptor situation. Which unfortunately is sometimes learned the hard way.

mr8

This is part of the reason why I always try to book directly with the airline even if it's a couple of dollars more.

khkchan

Some TA fares do not give miles even though the published booking class says otherwise. Learn your lesson and moves on .

helvettica

I am an Air Canada customer as long as I fly with them.

helvettica

The response from UAMP left me the impression that it is AC that denied the credit.

helvettica

Even if you book with the airline, ie AC, it is not guaranteed that you get mileage credit with UAMP. The only reference that we have on hand is "(Any) AC K class earns PQM " with the UAMP program per united.com/air. AC can always declare it a special fare that does not earn PQM with UA after you fly.

khkchan

If you book directly with airlines, you will earn the miles as published in each of the program. You ran into a case where a special endorsement was made to your ticket by your TA that no miles will be granted in exchange for a fare discount. I can tell you that this is very rare but unfortunately this is the case of your ticket.

nothing will change since you have flown the no miles ticket. If you have not flown, you can probably up fare to ensure you get miles.

Btw, if you need to do such long distance mileage run, you probably don't fly enough that needs status. Some credit card give you lounge access and priority boarding / luggages can be bought. Forget about upgrades because in these days, there are just too many people flying that it just won't happen. My honest advise.

MSPeconomist

Virtually every FF program says somewhere in the T&C that the usual credit (especially for status) is given only for published fares, implying that the fares must be available to the general public and not just students or some other group. Your student travel agency is selling tickets that overwhelmingly use bulk or nonpublished fares. [Tytpically there may be some charter flights sold too, plus they might do group bookings for school groups.] You can't expect to earn status miles on such tickets.