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An example of how silly the discount economy miles thievery is...

An example of how silly the discount economy miles thievery is...

Old May 8, 2003, 8:49 am
  #1  
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An example of how silly the discount economy miles thievery is...

I need to go to Madrid for a weekend in August.

I go onto the bmi website, and punch in my dates. I get a price including taxes of £100.90 (that includes my £10 web discount). I then call the bmi DC and they tell me that one of the segments will get me 0.5 miles, and the other 0.25 miles. According to webflyer's mileage calculator this is 1548 miles each way, or 3096 all together. So I'd earn (1548x0.5)+(1548x0.25) = 1161 status miles. Don't forget my 25% bonus on the destinations miles = 1451 of those.

OR I could book EXACTLY THE SAME FLIGHTS on a SpanAir codeshare. I could do this directly on their site, or I could do it at Travelocity (which helpfully gives me the fare class I'm booked into - in this case W - 100% miles). So that's 3096 status miles and 3870 destinations miles. The cost? £108.90. Are 1935 status miles and 2419 destinations miles worth the eight quid? Well, at 0.4p per status mile and 0.3p per destination mile, I'd have thought so.

So who loses out here? Certainly not us. I don't know enough about how the financial mechanics at the back of the airline industry works, so maybe someone else can help out.

Spanair obviously give the lion's share of the cash to bmi for the flight. But they keep some, surely, for the "marketing" cost as it's on their codeshare. Anyone know how much this is?

Spanair also "buy" the miles of BD.

The question is, I suppose, does the former outweight the latter?

Answers on a postcard please...

(PS - anyone ever tried to use a gold upgrade voucher on bmi metal on a codeshare?)

[This message has been edited by Wingnut (edited 05-08-2003).]
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Old May 8, 2003, 9:23 am
  #2  
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I just flew LHR-AMS this past weekend and when I booked the flight, I swore it was in W. At the airport, they told me it was T. Now I have to send my BPs to AC to credit. *sigh*
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Old May 8, 2003, 10:10 am
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I off to MAD on the very W fare you mentioned late next month. Booked under the BD flight number, I'm getting 1250 status miles each way... on my LH M&M card.
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Old May 8, 2003, 1:14 pm
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<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">posted by YOWkid:
I just flew LHR-AMS this past weekend and when I booked the flight, I swore it was in W. At the airport, they told me it was T. </font>
I had this exact same problem last month on an LHR-EDI sector. I had never even heard of T fares until DC wrote me a letter saying the BP was 'ineligible'. I let it go because for 10 points I couldn't be bothered to argue but the ticket receipt has a fare basis that begins with a W.

And it it not possible check to see how my most recent W class flights have credited for mileage because the site doesn't show transactions for APR even though the site has been down since before the flights were taken on 29APR and 30APR.

*further sigh*
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Old May 8, 2003, 2:55 pm
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AJ... how do you check the fare basis on an e-ticket? i've just booked 2 seperate EDI-LHR tickets today for may and june and assumed (probably wrongly) that they were at least getting some points. they did send and email confirming price and routing but under "class", it merely says "cheapest". (fair enough!).

Ta!
G
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Old May 8, 2003, 4:39 pm
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Well, until they display the fare class on the booking pages of the website the only way to find out is to call DC or res and ask them to tell you, quoting the dates, times and fares in question.

Nowadays when you check in for the outbound sector you get an itinerary receipt (printed on a boarding pass) which gives a full breakdown of fares, fares calculations, etc...but obviously this is too late to be of any use.
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Old May 8, 2003, 5:36 pm
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Actually, on the price listings in the booking engine (after you have entered your city pairs), if you put your mouse on top of a price, you'll see the fare basis at the bottom of the brower in the status bar.
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Old May 8, 2003, 7:10 pm
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True, but it doesn't work for x-MAN-ORD or x-MAN-IAD, which is where the mileage 'thievery' really makes a difference.
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Old May 9, 2003, 4:37 am
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<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by ajamieson:
True, but it doesn't work for x-MAN-ORD or x-MAN-IAD, which is where the mileage 'thievery' really makes a difference.</font>
Agreed.
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