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One or multi-stop, single flight numbers: through / direct flights (master thd)

Old Mar 6, 2013, 10:37 am
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Last edit by: JDiver
[B]Through / direct with same flight number on multiple segments credit as single non-stop

Through or direct flights are those that use one flight number but may not be nonstop. Takeaway: all nonstop flights are direct; direct flights might not be non-stop. When speaking to agents and you want a nonstop flight, specify nonstop.

A direct (or through) flight in the aviation industry is any flight between two points by an airline with no change in flight numbers, which includes one or more stops at an intermediate point(s).
AAdvantage Terms and Conditions (link):

For any flights that earn mileage credit based on a percentage of distance flown, the distance is determined on the basis of nonstop distances between the airports where your flight originates and terminates. On connecting flights with different flight numbers, the distance of each segment will be used. On single-plane, through, or change of gauge flights, the nonstop origin-destination distance will be used and credit for a single elite qualifying segment will be given.
[*]AAdvantage flight mileage credit is determined on the basis of nonstop distances between the airports where your flight originates and terminates. On connecting flights with different flight numbers, you'll receive mileage credit for each segment of your trip; on single-plane, through, or change of gauge flights, you'll receive the nonstop origin-destination mileage credit and credit for a single elite qualifying segment. On American Airlines and other AAdvantage airline participants, you'll receive AAdvantage mileage credit only for the class of service on which your fare is based when you are ticketed. American Airlines is the final authority on the methodology used to calculate mileage and the amount of flight credit for a particular flight or routing. American Airlines is the final authority on qualification for mileage credit and reserves the right to deny or revoke mileage credit at any time if American Airlines determines that mileage credit was improperly given.
If one takes a through / direct flight consisting of two or more segments operated as one flight number, the miles earned are as if the flight was a nonstop. E.g. AA111 FCO-ORD (772) and AA111 ORD-LAX (738) would render miles and segment credits as if you had flown nonstop FCO-LAX, even if you had a change of aircraft, terminals and gates in ORD.

It's not uncommon to have different aircraft carry out different segments, even different "gauges" (narrow and wide bodied) and different terminals. Normally, passengers flying both segments must disembark with cabin / hand baggage at the intermediate stops.

The exception is for round trips using same flight numbers, e.g. a mileage run using AA 123 SMF-DFW-SMF would credit separately and properly.

Seat selection will normally be for seats offered on all segments (as opposed to being able to select different seats on different segments.

Upgrades must normally clear on all segments to clear.

There are other peculiarities (affecting upgrade requests, Five Star Services, etc.) discussed in this thread. Booking through / direct flights can cause challenges one doesnt experience on connections ting flights with different flight numbers or nonstop flights.
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One or multi-stop, single flight numbers: through / direct flights (master thd)

Old Sep 10, 2013, 8:42 am
  #76  
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Originally Posted by Shareholder
UA is notorious for scamming of mileage this way, either with transcons connecting to overseas flights with the same flight numbers (and thus point to point vs actual segment by segment mileage) as well as many of its NRT connections onward to Asian cities.
Why not just interline to NH once in NRT?
Most of the time, this is possible on UA.
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Old Sep 10, 2013, 10:40 am
  #77  
 
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I am seeing AA do flights like this recently:

AA 209 LAX-SFO
returns as
AA 209 SFO-LAX

Ugh.
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Old Sep 10, 2013, 11:14 am
  #78  
 
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Originally Posted by Shareholder
UA is notorious for scamming of mileage this way, either with transcons connecting to overseas flights with the same flight numbers (and thus point to point vs actual segment by segment mileage) as well as many of its NRT connections onward to Asian cities.
AA is no AAngel here. Look up AA 68 and AA 931.

AA 68 flies SFO-MIA-MAD and AA 931 flies SFO-MIA-EZE. Both have a change of aircraft.

Flying 931 though deprives 540 miles while 68 is is really bad, depriving 1198 miles. In addition, because there is change in aircraft, there is no seat selection at all until the airport and you can miss the connection of your "direct" flight.

Last edited by Xero; Sep 10, 2013 at 11:19 am
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Old Dec 16, 2013, 8:44 pm
  #79  
 
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Impact on upgrades?

When the two segments are domestic and an international, does this prevent one from applying for 500 mile/sticker upgrades on the domestic segment (when flying both segments), e.g. LAS-JFK-CDG?
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Old Mar 11, 2014, 5:54 am
  #80  
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international flight number ques.

Flight 44 (just as an actual example), runs las-jfk-cdg. At jfk they use a different plane* and the "connection time" is about 4 hours. It looks "nice" that you can fly on a "direct" flight from las to cdg...but this is just a "numbers" game. There are lots of other similar flights to and from las--why this charade?
*las-jfk is a 737 (and in its seat configuration) would not be useful for transatlantic service.
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Old Mar 11, 2014, 6:58 am
  #81  
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Originally Posted by nrr
why this charade?
Many of these came about as AA reduced the overall number of flight numbers in use to make room for US codeshares.

--------------------

I'm going to go ahead and merge this into a recent thread that also discussed this topic.

~Moderator
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Old Mar 11, 2014, 10:45 am
  #82  
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Originally Posted by nrr
Flight 44 (just as an actual example), runs las-jfk-cdg. At jfk they use a different plane* and the "connection time" is about 4 hours. It looks "nice" that you can fly on a "direct" flight from las to cdg...but this is just a "numbers" game. There are lots of other similar flights to and from las--why this charade?
*las-jfk is a 737 (and in its seat configuration) would not be useful for transatlantic service.
The benefit of this to an award traveler is that one could have a free "gateway" stopover at LAS, en route to CDG (assuming that award space could be found on all necessary flights). Ex.: OGG-LAX-LAS (stopover) - CDG, all for as low as 20,000 AA miles in Coach during the off-peak award season.
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Old Mar 13, 2014, 3:41 pm
  #83  
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Originally Posted by guv1976
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The benefit of this to an award traveler is that one could have a free "gateway" stopover at LAS, en route to CDG (assuming that award space could be found on all necessary flights). Ex.: OGG-LAX-LAS (stopover) - CDG, all for as low as 20,000 AA miles in Coach during the off-peak award season.
(1)Besides FTers, do others know about such niceties?
(2)Why is AA being so nice?
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Old Mar 13, 2014, 4:15 pm
  #84  
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Wirelessly posted (BlackBerry: BlackBerry8530/5.0.0.601 Profile/MIDP-2.1 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/417)

Originally Posted by nrr
Originally Posted by guv1976
Wirelessly posted (BlackBerry: BlackBerry8530/5.0.0.601 Profile/MIDP-2.1 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/417)



The benefit of this to an award traveler is that one could have a free "gateway" stopover at LAS, en route to CDG (assuming that award space could be found on all necessary flights). Ex.: OGG-LAX-LAS (stopover) - CDG, all for as low as 20,000 AA miles in Coach during the off-peak award season.
(1)Besides FTers, do others know about such niceties?
(2)Why is AA being so nice?
On aa.com, it looks like even JFK-LAS (stopover) - CDG now prices as a single award -- for as low as 20K AA miles in Coach -- as long as one utilizes the through-flights from LAS to CDG!
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Old Jun 2, 2014, 7:37 am
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National and INT flight sharing same code = less miles?

Hi all,
I just flew SFO-MIA-EZE on flights 931, SFO-MIA on 931 on the a 763 and MIA-EZE on a 777 when I checked my miles today instead of the 6990 that I usually get when I flight SFO-MIA-EZE I got 6450 b/c they computed all as 1 straight flight SFO-EZE... is this normal?
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Old Jun 2, 2014, 8:04 am
  #86  
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Originally Posted by ZeoS
I just flew SFO-MIA-EZE on flights 931, SFO-MIA on 931 on the a 763 and MIA-EZE on a 777 when I checked my miles today instead of the 6990 that I usually get when I flight SFO-MIA-EZE I got 6450 b/c they computed all as 1 straight flight SFO-EZE... is this normal?
As AAdvantage is still operating as a distinct programme, this question is being moved over to the relevant thread in the pre-merger American Airlines forum.

Please note the sticky at the top of the consolidated thread which is titled Welcome to the New American Airlines Forum! PLEASE READ BEFORE POSTING. With all of the changes about, it is important to know where to post, and reading that thread before posting (as the title suggests ) will help get you in the right place.

~Moderator
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Old Jan 30, 2015, 9:16 pm
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Miles earned on direct flights?

Hi folks--I'm an [ex-CO] UA defector and just getting to know the ropes of the AA program as I ramp up some flying over here.
Direct flights in the AA world seem a bit fuzzy for me. Search of the forum didn't produce anything, and here is what I've figured out: The US program guide notes that direct earns the nonstop's distance, and US website returns me flights that are shown as direct with a stop. On the other hand, I can't find anything on how the AA program treats direct flights. My US flights searched on AA display the exact same as a connecting flight and not in the 'traditional' display format of a direct flight (one flight number displayed once with the stop as a footnote).
Also a totally unrelated question: what is AA's track record for changing up earnings on partners? I've got some travel on BA booked for the summer/fall in deep discount Y (Q&O?).
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Old Jan 30, 2015, 9:34 pm
  #88  
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If you are booked on a direct service from A-B via C , then you will earn the miles as per distance from A-B

if you fly A-B on 1 flight and then B-C on a different flight number, then you will earn the mileage of A-B plus B-C
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Old Jan 30, 2015, 9:56 pm
  #89  
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Dave Noble is correct.

It's the flight number that's meaningful.

aA 48 was billed as SFO-DFW-ZRH, and though we inevitably changed terminals, gates and aircraft, we earned as if flying nonstop SFO-ZRH. This was true for DFW-ORD-LHR flights with the same number - but an MD-80'on the short leg and a Boeing 777-200 on the long.

Where this doesn't hold true is when a return flight holds the same flight number as the outbound; mileage runners etc. will get full credit (unless the flight has stops en rou - that will once again count as a non-stop for earning miles and points).
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Old Jan 30, 2015, 10:19 pm
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Thanks guys! I tried to split segments on US but it wanted 100 more since it priced each segment fully. Good news here is that it appears IAH-PHX-YYC as a single # on most days so I might be able to avoid it if I want to by changing dates around a little bit and paying the few extra $ in taxes.
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