VirtuallyThere

I have a booking made with Air Berlin TXL-AUH-BOM-AUH-TXL. All AB flight numbers, TXL-AUH and AUH-TXL are operated by Air Berlin, the AUH-BOM leg is operated by 9W, BOM-AUH is operated by Etihad.

My primary OW FFP is BA and I'd like to credit TXL-AUH and the return leg to BA, where I will get 140 TP each way, renewing my gold for next year.

I assume I would not get credit on the AUH-BOM and BOM-AUH legs with BA, so I would like to credit them to topbonus. As far as I understand, I should be bonus miles only for the 9W flight, and bonus and status miles for the Etihad flight.

Long intro... Now my question is, how do I manage to credit the two segments to two different FFPs? I know I can change the FFP in my booking using the Finnair site, but I assume when I check in, it will check me in for both legs, and will only apply a single FFP to both legs. Do I have to have the FFP changed for the second leg in AUH? I only have a short connection there, so not sure if there's time. Can they do it at the gate? Any better way?

Thanks for any advice!

irishguy28

Leave your BA number in the booking.

Complete all travel without doing anything further - do NOT tamper with the FFP number in your reservation, or ask any agent to change the number for you.

When the legs that earn Avios and TPs post to your BA account, then do a retro-claim for the remaining legs via your other topbonus account. As some of the legs have already posted to BA at that stage, you will only get the miles for the legs that could not be posted to BA.

ralfkrippner

If booked by a travel agent, they can input a frequent flyer number specifically for each airline in your itinerary.

For your example it should be something like

AB FQTR BA1234567
9W FQTR AB7654321
EY FQTR AB7654321

(not sure about the specific code but your TA should know).

irishguy28

having different FFPs in the booking can lead to unexpected and unintended results.

The simplest and safest thing to do is: leave the BA number in the booking.

Let the miles post to BA.

Once all Avios/TPs are posted to your BA account, retroclaim the remaining flights via topbonus.

VirtuallyThere

Thank you, that sounds like a surprisingly easy solution!

So topbonus will have no problem with a BA FF number appearing on the boarding pass? I guess I probably don't even have to submit the boarding passes (haven't done any retro claims with Airberlin yet).

irishguy28

You shouldn't have to submit the boarding passes - but make sure to keep them all carefully until all miles have been successfully claimed.

Just fill in the retro claim form here but don't set any retro-claiming in motion until after all the BA Avios have posted.

TheDandishNerd

Newbie question, since my experience is a bit different, on two occasions with two different carriers:

(1) In 2016 I have successfully done what VirtuallyThere wants to do twice on the same flight with four legs (AMS-FCO-PEG-FCO-AMS) and booking, by asking (a) on the way out, the lounge agent in AMS to change the FF# on leg FCO-PEG - I was booked on KL and wanted to credit to AZ the FCO-PEG because that leg not qualifying on KL while it is on AZ; the booking became AMS-FCO on FB FF#; the other three legs with AZ (b) on the way in, I asked the gate agent in FCO (last leg) to switch the FF# back to FB from AZ to get the last leg credited to FB.

(2) In 2014 I tried to retro-credit to Emirates after crediting to Qantas on A DXB-MEL flight and I was told by EK that the points had already posted so it was not possible to do that. It was a co-share flight EK/QF.

Wouldn't VirtuallyThere be better off and safer doing something similar to (1)?

Olek

VirtuallyThere

I did as suggested by IrishGuy28 already. I will follow up here how it goes. So far only the first leg has credited to BA.

BTW, had massive (unrelated) problems with checking in for my flight back, will post that in the Etihad forum in the next few days. They insisted I had already used my ticket (coupon showed as "Used"), which made no sense. Finally managed to get checked in with just minutes to spare before boarding. Somehow have my doubts the miles will credit automatically.

irishguy28

The board is littered with threads [see below] where people try to do something similar to (1), only for the results to end up differently than expected. This can be because of human error or because for some airlines/systems [predominantly in Star Alliance, it would seem!] some numbers prove very sticky and/or unerasible, and miles end up posting in the wrong or unintended account, even when the boarding pass looks as expected and everything possible has been done to effect the desired outcome.

That is why I recommend being sensible. In the OP's case, the OP is predominantly interested in earning BA Avios on those sectors where they can earn. Therefore, it makes sense only to put that number in the booking, earn the Avios there, and then retroclaim everything else.

Your scenario (2) is not comparable. QF and EK have reciprocal earning across all of each others' flights [the correct word is "codeshare" - they share codes - not "co-share", by the way]. You cannot earn miles into one programme, and then afterwards, ask for miles to be uncredited and earned into a different programme. [Well, it is technically possible, but you will almost certainly never get any agent to spend the time and legwork to do this]. In the present example, there is no possibility of miles flown on Jet Airways/Etihad ending up giving Avios in a BA account - so there is no restriction to retroclaiming miles for the sectors for which no miles were earned.


When more than one mileage programme number touches a reservation, the outcome can be unpredictable and different than expected. Because it worked in the past, or because it worked in one scenario, does not mean that it will work again in the future, or in a slightly different configuration. That is why it makes more sense to be more pragmatic and find a better solution that is guaranteed to give the desired outcome.


http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/lufth...g-account.html
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/unite...-solution.html
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/star-...es-happen.html
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/ameri...g-account.html
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/lufth...g-account.html
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/unite...g-account.html
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/air-f...g-account.html
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/ameri...g-account.html
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/briti...g-account.html
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/north...g-account.html
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/singa...ount-help.html
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/briti...r-account.html
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/us-ai...g-account.html
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/air-c...-possible.html
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/delta...f-account.html
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/aegea...solidated.html
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/singa...d-onepass.html
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/us-ai...ding-pass.html
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/lufth...ing-fixed.html
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/bmi-d...wrong-ffp.html
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/us-ai...e-program.html
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/delta...g-account.html
etc etc etc...

By the way, here's a personal example from last year.

I collect miles in both Flying Blue (AF/KL) and Alitalia. Sometimes, when you ask to "replace" a number, it merely gets "added".

Here's an old booking of mine, looked-up on the Garuda website (which has a better display functionality), showing that my Flying Blue number remained associated with the booking - (shown as a "KL" number) - together with my Alitalia number also added - but TWICE!!! (AZ) [once as an 8-digit number, and once as a 10-digit number].

Would you like to guess how the miles would post in that situation, when there are "three" equally-valid numbers available for whatever system will auto-post the miles comes to decide what to do????



Here's another example where, on the KLM website I tried to add my AZ number to an existing booking, and although the KLM website each time said the number wasn't recognised, a look at the Garuda website showed that it had been added a total of 4 times - as a 7-digit, 8-digit, 9-digit and 10-digit number



when you "replace" an FFP number, either yourself or via the help of an agent, you actually have no idea how the FFP numbers will appear in the PNR, and how the systems that credit miles will react. They may still see the "original" number, despite this not appearing on your boarding pass - meaning that where the miles ends up can be a bit of a lottery.

Better to come up with a strategy that doesn't involve "adding" numbers.

VirtuallyThere

OK, the other Airberlin leg has posted to BA. Have now submitted the 9W and EY legs to topbonus for retroactive credit. Will keep this thread updated.

If this works, I have to say it is a very elegant solution!

irishguy28

Congrats on maintaining Gold! ^

VirtuallyThere

Thanks. Nice to have this already done, and should have my SEN renewal done next week.

The retroactive credit with AirBerlin is still showing as "in process" - will update here how that goes.

BTW, I also posted about my bad check-in experience now in the Etihad forum (http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/etiha...tihad-bom.html) if anyone here is interested. Did not make me very confident in how well the AirBerlin/Etihad partnership really works. Seemed to be more of a finger pointing/blaming each other kind of setup rather than helping the customer as partners.

VirtuallyThere

Just checked and it is still showing "in process" - any experience how long this usually takes with Airberlin?