roberino

My wife and I are flying LHR-AKL-WLG (via LAX in class L and H) then AKL-LHR (via HKG in S) in economy. I'm BD*G and she is BD*S. I can't seem to find out how many miles we will earn for this trip. Even Air NZ can't tell me over the phone. Any ideas?

Xiaotung

I am afraid only H class will earn you *A miles.

roberino

Serious? I'm NZ$5000 down and no miles???

Xiaotung

Unfortunately yes that's NZ. You need to be very careful before you book. Below link will tell you as well.

http://www.flybmi.com/bmi/en-gb/loya...s/flights.aspx

FlyingFilmGuy

I've been caught out by this a few times (albeit the other way around). My bugbear is SAS, who I fly with regularly, and on whom most economy seats accrue no points or status with Air NZ. I ended up getting an SAS Eurobonus account just for these flights. The earn rate is very low, to be sure, but it's better than nothing.

Maybe you should sign-up for Airpoints and get a little benefit from your trip? I know it's little consolation, but it's likely the only way to get any points at this stage.

What I'd really love to see, is an alliance-wide agreement that all paid seats (so exclude travel-industry freebies, reward tickets, etc). always accrue status, whether or not there is a redeemable points earn on the ticket. That way, true "frequent flyer status" is at least rewarded to those who are true frequent flyers, whether or not the customer is usually sitting up the front of the plane.

If only wishing could make it so.

ajnz

I'd like this too, but it's unrealistic. In such a scenario, the FFP operator is incurring liabilities and cost with zero revenue. Example: UA member reaches 1P (*G) based on flying NZ on status-but-non-mileage earning fares. UA now has a liability for all the lounge access costs that passenger incurs, but has received zero revenue for that since the passenger a) isn't flying UA, b) UA isn't getting paid for miles by NZ.

I can see the earning of status being feasible only when the operating/marketing airline is also the FFP operating airline.

FlyingFilmGuy

Just random thoughts running through my head, but... what if the FFP only handled mileage, and *A introduced their own, universal status program. So, the FFP becomes a mileage earn and reward program only, while *A looks after status, which is then recognized evenly by all *A airlines, regardless of who you usually fly.

Nah, on second thoughts, that would be a complete *@#$% to manage and maintain, so again, probably never going to happen. Would be very cool, though. Especially for travelers like me who have no one specific *A partner they fly the vast majority of the time.

ajnz

It would be feasible but considering that *G is still not uniformly honored I don't see it happening. What's in it for the airlines? It would also create issues where the airlines have multiple tiers which are also a single Star tier - e.g. UA has GS/1K/1P which are all *G but have differing benefits inside UA, NZ has Gold Elite and Gold, and so on.

SFOSpiff

Is that correct? I thought that was one of the things that determines earning rates... how much the FFP operator gets paid by the one operating the flight. NZ doesn't want to pay their partners for a low fare flight, so those don't earn miles.

If NZ isn't paying UA, then why doesn't NZ let you credit miles to UA on low fares? It doesn't cost NZ anything, apparently. And why would UA accept the financial liability of those miles if NZ doesn't pay them anything?

Maybe I've been woefully misinformed about how alliances and codeshare agreements work, but this doesn't sound right.

roberino

So I don't earn reward miles, but do I earn BD status miles for this trip? I'd rather earnt he status miles if I have to choose between BD status and NZ reward.

Rus925

My suggestion:
1. Open an Air Points account.
2. Fly without an FF number in the reservation. Show your BD cards for benefits but MAKE ABSOLUTE SURE the number is not added to your reservation (check your boarding passes before boarding.)
2. You should be able to retrocredit by segment. After the outbound, retrocredit the H class flight to BMI and the L class flight to Air Points.
3. Now add your Air Points number to the reservation (if possible).
4. Continue to show BMI cards for status privileges on return flight.
5. Retrocredit return flight to Air Points.

Then again, depending on how many miles we're talking about with Air Points, you may just want to add your BD numbers to your reservation and let the other segments go.

A side note: you should consider looking at LH's earning rates for your flights, as well. If they are more generous (for example, on AC Z tickets), you may consider crediting to M&M, knowing that the two programs are merging soon.

SFOSpiff: I think that's what ajnz was saying, that it'd be infeasible to offer status points on non-mile-earning partner tickets since they yield no revenue for the FFP operator. Otherwise, my understanding is that the airlines do exchange money over miles on partner flights, just as they exchange money when you access *G lounges.

One thing I never understood about this, though, is when other FFP's offer more miles for a carrier's flights than the carrier's own program. In Miles & More, for instance, both LH and UA discounted (Z) business flights earn 200%. In Mileage Plus, both LH and UA Z only earn 100%...

roberino

Thanks Rus925.

Does anyone know if earn status miles on these flights? I'm guessing not

Xiaotung

No, with a *A partner airline you need an eligible class to earn both miles and status.

trooper

Not the first time I've heard a comment like that.. but I'm curious...

Just WHERE have folks experienced *G not being uniformly honoured?

Are we talking about actual refusal to provide a published benefit (like lounge access/extra baggage/premium check in etc)..

..or complaints more of the "SQ only gives me access to THAT lounge" sort of stuff...???

FlyingFilmGuy

There are a few things people could be referring to:

Basic *G benefits which staff don't want to provide (e.g. I've been refused priority baggage at check-in) although these are often just due to ignorant staff

Special benefits some airlines give to *G but other airlines don't (LH, LX and a few others give fast track security to all *G members regardless of FFP or booking class. SAS will ONLY give fast track to their own *G or *S members)

Other perks available only to members of the operating airlines FFP (for a long time, LH only provided free internet in the lounge to Miles & More members. Other *G members had to pay. LH now provide free to everyone, though.).

Random "quirks" with regards to certain privileges (lounge access is available to all *G members worldwide, except for domestic only travel in the US)

And then there's the general feeling of being warmly welcomed as a VIP by certain airlines and the complete opposite by others (LH really do look after all *G members, while oftentimes SAS have this amazing ability to make non-Eurobonus *G members feel like they're just getting in the way - though maybe I've just had bad experiences).