flytoeat

Agreed. Worrisome.

milypan

I personally don't view it as my employer's responsibility to pay extra in order for me to earn more mileage, just as I don't view it as their right to partake in the mileage that I do earn.

I've never had problems with IRROPS or compensation when booking codeshares, but maybe I just don't take them frequently enough.

CIVET FIVE

Troubling response, as they contradict themselves in the same sentence:

"Thank you for submitting your request. You earn miles by who operates the flight , not who sold you the flight. The flight BA #2279 is operates by Finair flight #AY5455 which is not eligible. Please view the link below. "

They explicitly say that its credited based on who operates the flight, then say that I cannot earn because he juxtaposes who sold and who operates the two flight numbers.

Does anyone have a suggestion for an alternative means of contacting MileagePlan to get this resolved? Try calling?

ucdtim17

Can't they just google BA2279 and see that it is obviously a BA-operated flight?

rustykettel

Yeah, I'd call and talk to a live agent. Maybe hopefully the original denial was the same way, thinking the AY flight was the operating flight and when looked up, is in the ineligible range. When calling in, I'd focus on calling it BA2279 that you want credit for and that when it entering it, it seems to have been entered as AY5455.

jamespvg

Obviously I have no inside information about the contract negotiations, but why should we assume Alaska is told to go begging in every case? The fact that Alaska has this problem with all of its major partners suggests to me that Mileage Plan is the one driving these unusual flight-number-by-flight-number accrual rules...

(The CX/UA example is not on point. Most major airlines can sell each others' flights, but United and Cathay are not partners, and have never awarded reciprocal points. I would never expect CX points in Mileage Plus; the plating carrier is irrelevant.)

Aliquot

Why would you expect UA milage for a CX flight? Would you expect AS milage on a UA flight booked on an AS ticket?

eponymous_coward

Not really. So why do we expect AS mileage on a BA flight on an AY ticket? "Well, Alaska ignores the clear language on their website in our collective experience"? Doesn't sound like a firm place to stand.

keitherson

You realize you can ticket a whole bunch of carriers on UA ticket stock without it even being closely related to UA at all right?

You can even ticket DL flights on 016 tickets. Does that mean UA should credit you for DL flights? What do you think?

eponymous_coward

Yeah, I am aware of it. Which is my point. You can have tickets that won't accrue mileage with the right combination of plating carrier and operating carrier.

All AS partner pages say some version of this:

"Qualify for mileage accrual

Flights must fall within the eligible flight number range below, and your flight must be marketed and operated by British Airways."

This implies that there are tickets where you fly a partner and get nothing. "But a bunch of Flyertalkers said I could turn in a boarding pass" isn't necessarily going to cut it. The only way to be sure you get credit is to avoid a codeshare and buy a BA ticket and fly a BA flight. Everything else is a dice roll.

CIVET FIVE

The biggest leg to stand on is the quote I posted from the CS agent, where he clearly stated that its the operating carrier that matters, not the flight number.

Good news! They posted it to my account today after the back and forth, where they acknowledged again that operating carrier is what matters, and confirming that BA2279 is a BA operated flight. So let's all acknowledge that:
1) the language was not in my favor
2) that they themselves contradict their own language and claim that operating carrier is what matters
3) that this inconsistency is what leads to spirited topics like this
4) maybe they should fix that. making everything an exception is no way to run things

ashill

^ Good to hear an anecdote sigfesting that AY really is like any other partner in this regard.

+1

The consistency with which AS awards miles based on the operating carrier's chart even when the marketing carrier is a different partner makes it impossible for me to believe that eponymous_coward is correct in their description of how the money is exchanged between AS and their partners.

The suggestion that a flight marketed by one partner but operated by another is the same as a flight marketed and operated by a non-partner but ticketed by AS or a partner strikes me as false. I would simply like to see AS codify their practice (when customers email boarding passes in): flights operated by one carrier but marketed. Y another accrue following the operating carrier's chart. (Well, I'd like even more for them to switch to marketing carrier like oneworld and SkyTeam, but I can live with this.)

channa

This can't be how it works. The operating carrier is a partner of the crediting carrier, and that's what they see.


CX is not a UA partner. AY and BA are both AS partners. Big difference.

If you fly a codeshare of a partner that's also a partner, every other program gives you credit for it. That amount may vary, but eligibility is never in question.


Sounds like they read it backwards. They probably saw the unusually high number for a BA longhaul flight and assumed it was a codeshare.

Glad it was ultimately sorted in your favor.


Is it clear language, or is AS not in a position to keep up-to-date mappings of all codeshare arrangements of partners of partners? My understanding from speaking with MP is that it's an internal procedure to award the credit if you fly on appropriate partner metal.

True, it's unpublished, but that doesn't mean the uncredited miles are intentional. Remember when AA added some flight number ranges and AS was denying some Eagle flights? Some people argued that those were out of range, shouldn't flown those Eagle flights, then a few months later, AS caught up and had them correctly included.

AS has a lot of anomalies in their flight number ranges. So many that it's obvious that it's not intentional.

Example:

15AUG
11:00 AM BA8472 FLR LCY (Operated by BA Connect) is valid for Credit
7:00 PM BA3280 FLR LCY (Operated by BA Connect) is NOT valid for Credit

Makes no sense other than the fact that maybe BA added that 32xx range recently but didn't get around to telling AS (or AS didn't get around to updating it). It's not like these are Vueling-operated flights with a BA code, they're both BA Connect.


Agreed.

That said, it's nice to have the letter of the law on your site. If you can book through an OTA and get the properly coded flights, it may make sense to do so, even if it's a few bucks more. I've personally gone through some heroics myself to ensure I book multi-carrier tickets appropriately (e.g., AA with some BA legs all coded with the native flight numbers). I had to really massage the website once at AF once to book an AF leg connecting to a KL leg, and coding them as their respective operating carriers, all whilst being nested inside a longer transatlantic trip with AF out and KL back (coded as native as well). It CAN be done, but takes some effort.

But there are reasons you may want to book with the codeshare (e.g., an AA ticket is much easier to use than a BA ticket for someone who is U.S. based in the event you need to cancel your trip and apply the funds to another trip)


Except that the fare buckets don't match, so they wouldn't be able to necessarily articulate how much you'll get. They can't even get flight number ranges right half the time.

eponymous_coward

Enjoy the mileage awarded that seems to contradict AS's own website. I guess.

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

CDKing

Nearly every case has contradicted what is on the website. I think AS just uses poor wording, what they don't want to credit is partner operated by a non-partner. Maybe EK is one exception where they added the "Ticket has to be on Emirates ticket stock to qualify" wording.