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Can you earn miles, MQM, etc on partner award tickets?

Can you earn miles, MQM, etc on partner award tickets?

Old Nov 9, 2018, 1:30 am
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Can you earn miles, MQM, etc on partner award tickets?

I'm pretty sure you can. If you book an AF/KL/VS award for domestic DL flying, I think you can (as in, its possible) earn credit to DL (or AF, KL, or VS) FFPs - despite it not being explicitly stated. Please advise, as I'm contemplating an AF/KL/VS reward booking that I intend to cross-credit to a different program (i.e., credit the AF reward flight on DL metal to KL's FFP, or similar).

The flight is exclusively domestic within the US.

Thanks for your shared wisdom!
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Old Nov 9, 2018, 1:58 am
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Definitely not.
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Old Nov 9, 2018, 2:12 am
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LOL. No.
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Old Nov 9, 2018, 2:41 am
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Originally Posted by aacar
Definitely not.
Surely you are not serious? "Definitely" not is categorically false -- there is an abundance of anecdotes on our forums of folks earning FFP credit for award tickets (be it via IROPS, cross-crediting, computer error, etc.). While I agree with (what I assume to be) your sentiment that it is unlikely, my question focused on the instance of using DL's European partners' award for the sake of FFP credit to DL (or perhaps one of their European JV partners).

Originally Posted by sydneyracquelle
LOL. No.
You must be kidding - it has happened before per the DL forums. My question centers around how likely it is (and to the extent possible, what methods to use) to earn FFP credit/currency on a JV-ticketed DL domestic flight. My apologies if the question appeared insincere, but it was asked with genuine curiosity hoping to elicit the experiences of others and the wisdom of FT.

Cheers, @sydneyracquelle and @aacar pardon this young bloke for asking what apparently seems like an absurd question. I've seen more than a handful of stories about earning and/or cross-crediting award flights for credit, so felt it was worth asking. As they say, there's no such thing as a stupid question?

(Shouldn't have to say it, but I will as people are literally laughing at the prospect -- of course leave Alitalia out of the equation as they cannot manage their books and are on the verge of insolvency. <-- this is an acceptable LOL, rather than the scope of my sincere question haha).
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Old Nov 9, 2018, 4:21 am
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Okay, you want a more complete answer. Partner awards are booked into fare classes which DL recognizes as award classes and thus ineligible for earning. There may be anecdotal cases of getting credit in other programs, but I have yet to hear of one happening on DL (and I've been here for quite some time). If you've come across an anecdotal example with DL, perhaps you could provide a link? A couple years back DL switched the S fare class from a revenue fare class to an award class for C+ awards. There may have been a window where some Skyteam programs other than Skymiles still considered it to be a revenue fare class and awarded miles. But I doubt that window is still open. I have of not heard of any recent changes to award classes in other Skyteam airlines.

Last edited by xliioper; Nov 9, 2018 at 4:46 am
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Old Nov 9, 2018, 5:14 am
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Originally Posted by VX N281VA
Surely you are not serious? "Definitely" not is categorically false -- there is an abundance of anecdotes on our forums of folks earning FFP credit for award tickets (be it via IROPS, cross-crediting, computer error, etc.). While I agree with (what I assume to be) your sentiment that it is unlikely, my question focused on the instance of using DL's European partners' award for the sake of FFP credit to DL (or perhaps one of their European JV partners).



You must be kidding - it has happened before per the DL forums. My question centers around how likely it is (and to the extent possible, what methods to use) to earn FFP credit/currency on a JV-ticketed DL domestic flight. My apologies if the question appeared insincere, but it was asked with genuine curiosity hoping to elicit the experiences of others and the wisdom of FT.

Cheers, @sydneyracquelle and @aacar pardon this young bloke for asking what apparently seems like an absurd question. I've seen more than a handful of stories about earning and/or cross-crediting award flights for credit, so felt it was worth asking. As they say, there's no such thing as a stupid question?

(Shouldn't have to say it, but I will as people are literally laughing at the prospect -- of course leave Alitalia out of the equation as they cannot manage their books and are on the verge of insolvency. <-- this is an acceptable LOL, rather than the scope of my sincere question haha).
LBJ was too kind to give you a serious answer.
Instead I would have told you to stop wasting everyone's time since you disparage those who are trying to answer your question..
You seem to already know the answer, so get your award tickets and wait for the miles to pile up,
I'm sure we'll never hear the results.
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Old Nov 9, 2018, 5:30 am
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OP needs to be familiar with the language of mileage earning. From SkyMiles on AF earning:

Air France-marketed flights in the following fare classes are eligible for accrual based on the percentages in the table below, multiplied by the flight distance (as determined in Delta or the partner carrier’s sole discretion).1
(table deleted)
MILEAGE EARN ON/AFTER JAN. 1, 2018

Class Exclusions: If a class is not listed, no miles are earned. No miles are earned for Award Travel.


Every ticket booked in the last 30 years has an inventory fare bucket, YBMHKQ... (There might be 13 coach fare buckets aboard an all-coach 50-seat CRJ-200.) Fare bucket + applicable fare rule = price. Delta knows when you're on a partner award ticket - they exclude those classes from earning.

Can one, in IROPs, be rebooked into an earning fare class? Yes, I guess. I haven't seen it happen in more than a decade across Delta and American programs. The probability approaches zero.
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Old Nov 9, 2018, 6:07 am
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This is same user that posted this beauty - Change flight to "connect" via final destination

While shouldn't waste time with an answer, note AF/KL prohibit changing the FF# on award tickets. Ran into an issue early this year with a DL SM award on KLM INTRA-EU. My SM number didn't transfer over. Thus system wasn't giving correct baggage allowance. Agent couldn't get system to accept my DL FF#. Apparently AF/KL changed system to prevent it from being changed on awards. Agent was told to manually override the bag fees, no way to enter the SM#. Regardless the system knows what fare classes are awards. Even if get rebooked into a regular fare class in IRROPS, system will generally see that was originally an award fare class paid for.

Cheers, @sydneyracquelle and @aacar pardon this young bloke for asking what apparently seems like an absurd question. I've seen more than a handful of stories about earning and/or cross-crediting award flights for credit, so felt it was worth asking. As they say, there's no such thing as a stupid question?
Yes, yes sadly there is. Let's assume you really and truly believe this is a reasonable question. You then blow any of that assumption away with your response. You then argue that it is perfectly reasonable question. If you know your answer, why even ask the questiin?
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Last edited by flyerCO; Nov 9, 2018 at 6:19 am
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Old Nov 9, 2018, 6:32 am
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Originally Posted by VX N281VA
I'm pretty sure you can. If you book an AF/KL/VS award for domestic DL flying, I think you can (as in, its possible) earn credit to DL (or AF, KL, or VS) FFPs - despite it not being explicitly stated. Please advise, as I'm contemplating an AF/KL/VS reward booking that I intend to cross-credit to a different program (i.e., credit the AF reward flight on DL metal to KL's FFP, or similar).

The flight is exclusively domestic within the US.

Thanks for your shared wisdom!
Has it happened? Sure, there have been cases where someone has fat-fingered an irrops rebooking, or some other weird edge case that resulted in someone earning on an award ticket.

Is there a predictable way for you to do it (this is what you're asking when you say you're "contemplating")? As others have said in this thread already, "lol no".

Another thread where you get the answer to your question and then you proceed to argue with people and waste their time.
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Old Nov 9, 2018, 6:38 am
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Probability zero.

OTOH some of the "free" tickets booked using credit card points (not airline miles/points) directly are purchased tickets in normal revenue classes so they would earn normally, while others are treated like bulk or consolidator fares.
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Old Nov 9, 2018, 6:51 am
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Originally Posted by pvn

Another thread where you get the answer to your question and then you proceed to argue with people and waste their time.
Excuse you?
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Old Nov 9, 2018, 7:35 am
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Many, many years ago I earned NW miles for an award ticket on KL. Many, many, many years ago
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Old Nov 9, 2018, 9:11 am
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Pay with miles has allowed me to earn many MQMs (but not SM) by using SM to pay for my personal flights at 1 cent each. But these are not award tickets and cannot be cancelled/redeposited by PM/DM members before T-72 without a penalty. But I believe that the PWM option is only available on DL metal and not codeshares.

Last edited by sydneyracquelle; Nov 9, 2018 at 11:24 am
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Old Nov 9, 2018, 11:17 am
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As far as earning in the event of IROPs, it's possible to earn in limited circumstances. Typically it's only possible if you're rebooked to another (non-JV or non-alliance) airline. For instance, your DL flight is cancelled and you get them to rebook you on AA (on a revenue ticket). Decent chance you'd be able to retroactively claim mileage credit for the AA flight (with AAdvantage or another OW FFP, not DL obviously).

This still wouldn't garner any MQM or SkyMiles of course. But if you want to believe that you can earn SkyMiles on DL award flights, go right ahead.
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Old Nov 9, 2018, 11:24 am
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Can we lock this one?
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