Now so many coach fares on Skyteam airline partners don't earn SkyMiles
 

Under the new "better" Delta SkyMiles program, so many SkyTeam Airline Partner coach fares now don't earn SkyMiles. It is terrible and a devaluation of Delta SkyMiles program!! All partners now have many non earning coach fares. One has to be very careful now before purchasing a SkyTeam airline ticket because one can be earning NO miles at all or miles on flights going but not on the return flights depending on the booking codes of each flight segment. The difference between a fare earning SkyMiles and a fare not earning Skymiles can be as little as $100.
Often one doesn't get to see the booking codes of each flight when one is booking online. I find the only certain way now is to use a travel agent to determine what code my flights are booked in and what are the cheapest fare earning miles and those not earning miles. Delta SkyMiles has become too complicated with pitfalls.

Here are just a few samples from the small print in Delta's SkyMile Airline Partner page. Check before you buy a SkyTeam ticket.

Air France: Mileage credit is not applicable for fares booked in A, L, N, O, G, or X class,

KLM: Mileage credit is not applicable for fares booked in D, G, E, V, N or W class.

Aeroflot: Mileage credit is not applicable for fares booked in O, X, L, N, or E class

Korean: Mileage credit is not applicable for fares booked in B, G, N, Q, A, D, U, X, or V class.

Aren't some of these fare classes award buckets?

For KLM, D and W are Award Ticket buckets. D is also the bucket that upgrades to the front cabin using miles draw from, but those have always earned miles based on the paid fare basis.

I don't know for sure about the other airlines.

I think the A fare for AF will have to change.. isn't that Prem Econ?

I don't like how delta.dumb has footnotes for each partner that you have to click or scroll to the bottom to see exemptions or which earn 150%... nwa.com had it all in one clear/straightforward place. :td:

+1...

and OP You forgot China Southern..which is also notrious for not offering miles on many (most i guess) of its Y fairs.

No. Definately no. Some are published fares that could be purchased on Air Frances own website. I was looking at a NYC-Lisbon round trip for Nov. 2009 on Air France with my travel agent. The cheapest published fare was $771.80 with "V" going earning miles and "N" return not earning miles. My agent changed the return booking code to "V" and the fare earning all miles was $882.

There are published fares not earning miles. One has to be careful now.

I think this has more to do with the partner airline not wanting to pay DL for the miles.

The fares I have come across are not award or bucket booking codes.
I was formerly a travel agent and have recently tried working up different economy coach published fares on all these SkyTeam partners at a friend's travel agency using agency computers. The fares I got were the same that one would get if one purchased them on the airline's website execpt I could see all the booking codes and fare base codes immediately. These are economy coach fares booking codes that are published fares. Many of the economy fares that one got SkyMiles before, now don't qualify for miles with the new program.

O/X are award booking classes.
A is included in-error (it used to be the F award class).
N is one of the lowest.
O/G are most likely group/non-rev classes.

D/W are award booking classes.
V/N/E are some of the lowest.
G is most likely a group class.

O/X are award booking classes.
L is one of the lowest.
N is the group/charter class.
E is most likely a non-revenue class.

A/D/U are award booking classes.
B/G/N/Q/X/V not sure.

(http://Help.KVSTool.com/#Classes)

Hi KVS,

Not anymore ...

A is now the Alize or discount Premium Voyageur. (Since AF doesn't do standard F awards any more, only flex awards, they re-used the A fare class for premium economy).

Cheers,

GenevaFlyer

Updated -- thanks for the info!

One is pretty quick with the devaluation accusation. KVS picks apart the argument thoroughly. One had to be careful before the FF program merger, too, as there were lots of exceptions to earning both in SkyMiles and WorldPerks.

What airline & classes used to be mileage earning before 10/1/09 that no longer are?

These fares don't even earn credit on Aeroflot so why would they earn credit on Delta?

Indeed, one must be careful but it is our responsibility to know this stuff, right? That's my take anyway...

KL V is probably the only one we care about.