newflyer27

Hi All,

Sorry if the question was asked before, i looked through the website but not luck.
i am trying to book an internal flight in italy from Milan to Olbia in Y. the price shows as classic fare with luggage but the fare class is "O" which earns nothing on FB. do you think is it possible to call and book into a different fare class like R to earn qualifying segments?

Thanks

Agremeister

You can, but you'll likely have to pay a change fee or cancellation fee. Worth a try though, worst that happens is they say no.

newflyer27

i have not booked yet so no modification fee yet.
i called them and strangely enough they couldn't find booking class fare "R" because they said it is a lower class than "O" while when i see FB mileage accrual table for AZ domestic flights it says "R" is higher than "O" and earns 25%. they could find class W which is not even a booking class for domestic flights.
is a flight from Milan to Sardinia considered as an european flight for mileage accrual rather than domestic flight?

thanks

irishguy28

Milan to Sardinia is a domestic flight. (How could it be otherwise?)

Alitalia considers O and R identical in terms of earning. Only FB makes a distinction: O earns when longhaul or European; O does not earn for domestic. Conversely, R doesn't earn for longhaul or European; R only earns for domestic.

newflyer27

I tried following up with flying blue. the ticket i want is now more expensive and fare class is W (which does not even exist on their accrual table and which is more than double the price on O class). They said that (after further analysis of my question ) for fare class W, i ll have nothing and that it was Alitalia who told them not to consider this fare class for accrual ...

They clearly need to update their Alitalia mileage accrual table which still has fare class A which does not exist anymore.

irishguy28

The convention in Flying Blue has always been that any fare classes not shown in the earning table are excluded from earning. They show all the fare classes that earn - anything else, by convention, does not earn. A fare class does not have to be explicitly listed amongst the non-earning fare classes, meaning that where they list non-earning fare classes, this list may not be exhaustive.

A is Premium Economy on Longhaul; indeed, Alitalia no longer has a domestic "A" class, but this does not invalidate FB's notation that domestic "A" doesn't earn.

newflyer27

This does not change the fact that their table is outdated, last updated on march 2014... "W" fare class must be considered earning, there is no doubt about that. if you consider R as earning in domestic then "W" which is more expensive should be earning too otherwise this is not logic at all.

irishguy28

Price has no direct impact on mileage earning.

Alitalia themselves consider these domestic classes to be equivalent in terms of miles, all earning 25%: W, L, O, G, R, F

Whether or not W is always more expensive than R, Flying Blue has decided to give 25% miles only for R.

There is not always reason and logic to mileage earning. It is increasingly common for paid business class flights to not earn in some partner programmes. (for example: Lufthansa "Discount Business" P class earns 0% in 8 Star Alliance partner programmes). For a long time, Flying Blue didn't give any credit for Aeroflot Z (business class) or Aeroflot A (premium economy)..

newflyer27

I am aware some "discount business class fares" do not earn miles in some other FFPs but there is always a price logic within each class, i.e. the lower the fare class within business classis certainly the cheaper of them. i was mentioning price only for economy class, i know that miles earning is not price based as it is for Delta for example but unless i am wrong and this is valid for any airline, if you pay more for a ticket then you fare class is higher( W for my example) than someone who bought a cheaper ticket than you (R for my example) and it makes no sens to omit one fare class with no apparent reason.

if i take their reasoning, then the lucky individual who buys a ticket in "R" 50% cheaper than "W" gets qualifying flight but nothing for the individaual who bought W?

i am aware we are in economy and the price difference is not signficant but imagine we are in business and ALitalia creates a new fare class for domestic business class called "P" higher than E (150%) and I D C J (200%), if FB adopts the same "logic" and omits P from its earning table for AZ then it would mean paying more for 0 miles & qualfying flight!!

irishguy28

Can you show me an example of a domestic Alitalia "R" booking?

I've been looking using ITA to search for fares while restricting to particular booking classes, but I can't find any Alitalia "R" tickets on the route that I think you were enquiring about - I can find "W" on Alitalia, but the only "R" I can find on this route is a Business "R" fare on BA.

(I no longer have a paid expertflyer account so I can't look up the fare bases to see what "R" fares Alitalia may have filed on any domestic routes)

irishguy28

Again, I'd like to see an R domestic priced up!

If and when AZ changes its fare structure, then its partners would be notified and they would then decide when to change it. Changes are not always instantaneous. BA and AA, for instance, only modified their tables to recognise Qatar Airways' new "R" discount business class as and from 1 May, although it was introduced by QR some weeks/months back. Not sure if all of the other oneworld partners are honouring QR "R" yet. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/qatar...t-r-class.html

newflyer27

i can't find any R fare for domestic flights either, neither F or G. it seems the cheapest i can find all the time is O.

irishguy28

Perhaps then "W" is not more expensive than "R". If there are no "R" tickets then there is no "R" price to compare it against!

newflyer27

R comes before W in the earning table of Alitalia so i am sure it is lower.
i have witnessed my ticket moving from O to L to W and now to X so the order is as indicated in alitalia website for domestic flights.