Oakshadow

With DL partner carriers like AF and VS, if you book PE with their coded tickets, you generally earn 100% SMs, 150% MQMs and 30% mileage-flown MQDs.

KLM is rolling out their new Premium Economy product dubbed "Premium Comfort." Looks great.

I have the good fortune to be in one of their early rollout markets - LAX-AMS. When I was tooling around for booking an upcoming Europe trip, I noticed that KL codes this Premium Comfort as "A" which translates to DL as "Discount Economy."

KL "A" fares only earn 50% SMs, 100% MQMs and 10% mileage-flown MQDs.

Until either KL, DL or both correct this, watch out when booking Premium Comfort product with KL.

10/8/2022 UPDATE: The DL website now reflects KL Premium Comfort SM/MQMs/MQDs earnings as matching KL's sister brand AF Premium Economy earnings on/after July 26, 2022.

xliioper

Have you actually flown trip yet and gotten credit yet? KL has been selling W/S/A fares for PE seats on DL/AF metal for awhile now (even though they only recently have been deploying their own equipment with PE cabin) as they have shifted these fare classes from economy to PE fare usage. Yes, DL still has not bothered to update online chart for KL to reflect this. They are the same fare classes used by AF for PE cabin. Not sure if there have been any reports yet, but these should credit like AF W/S/A PE fares.

Oakshadow

As KL's PE product is brand new, no. And that's the point. I'd feel very uncomfortable booking a KL coded PE cabin, paying $1500-$2000 (sometimes less, frequently more) when the KL website indicates in writing these are "A" fares when at the same time the DL.com chart for KL indicates very low-mileage earning for "A" fares. I don't want to be a guinea pig.

I'm talking just the scenario a lot of DL flyers use - booking partner coded fares because frequently the MQMs and/or MQDs are higher than booking with DL-coded flights. In this case KL coded "A" fares assigned to the new KL metal "Premium Comfort" is not at all conducive nor equivalent to earning an appropriate amount of DL SMs/MQMs/MQDs earned with many other partner carriers.

It seems DL needs to reassign the "A" fare on their KL chart to reflect the PE product, not "Discount Economy." KL's sister brand AF uses "A" fares for their Premium Economy product and the DL chart for AF appropriately indicates the "A" fare as Premium Economy along with the appropriate MQMs/MQDs earnings.

xliioper

The cabin on KL is new, but that hasn't prevented them from selling PE fares (KL coded flights with KL PE fares) on DL/AF equipment which have had PE cabins for some time (the fares have been showing on EF for over 2 years now). They have been using W/S/A fare classes for these the whole time (just like AF uses for PE). I found a post from Sep 2020 where they will still posting as Economy fares to Skymiles, but can't seem to find any more recent data points and if DL is still crediting them like economy fares.

Oakshadow

Found a "solution" to fly on this product whilst earning actual PE accrual MQMs/MQDs. Booked through AF on an AF-coded ticket (AF "A" fare) on KL metal in their PE/Premium Comfort cabin. Looking forward to trying this product. I'm already certain the seats will be way more comfortable than those awful shell zero-head-recline seats AF currently imposes on the LAX-CDG route.

I just wish if KL PE/Premium Comfort fares earn proper DL MQMs/MQDs the DL website and KL chart would just say it. If someone reports here they earned PE DL mileage as opposed to Economy while flying KL-coded PE product, I'd feel comfortable booking with KL.

Zorak

Until the chart reflects it and/or someone reports success, I like your workaround in the meantime. Otherwise it will probably end up being a frustrating back and forth with CS to get it credited properly.

diniasi

It's frustrating enough I gave up. "Sorry sir, it's coded as A fare, that's discounted economy, so you earn peanuts. Well, sure, but I paid premium and I've had my derriere in a Delta A330-900 Premium Select seat,as you can see in my trip history, so I shouldn't earn discounted economy peanuts, since I paid and flew premium, sorry sir, that's what it's coded to." Sure I could have HUCAd, I just couldn't get myself to do it again.

smartytravel

The updated table is now on site, effective July.

Oakshadow

NOW they do this! To get the AF coded flights, I had to go through AMEX Travel as the AF website did not offer the KL PE itineraries. Would've been preferable to book on KL's website directly.

Wondering if DL acted after someone saw this thread.

xliioper

I sent a complaint back on Wednesday via DL website form (specifically directed to Skymiles service team) noting that the earnings chart is erroneous now that KL is selling W/S/A fares as Premium Economy. Also mentioned that partner AF sells W/S/A fares as PE and KL earnings should match those given by AF. Might be a coincidence, but my guess is that simply complaining to phone agents is unlikely to get anything fixed and it's possible my complaint triggered the update.

MSPeconomist

I wonder whether the confusing fare class codes can lead to any EC 261 downgrade compensation claims. Getting 75% of the fare paid (plus carrier imposed fees) back in money for the segment could be rather nice.

aacar

Looks like they also updated KL-marketed C/D/I/Z classes to 200% MQM earnings? Seems like that might be a mistake, given that only J-class earns 200% MQMs for DL/AF-marketed flights?

xliioper

Good catch. Looks like they are missing a row in the table for those fares. Who wants to complain to DL about it?

Oakshadow

Now that the DL website has been updated to show KL Premium Select earning proper SMs/MQMs/MQDs, you have ammunition for your case of earning better mileage when you call again.

Oakshadow

KL has had some dramatic schedule changes for November and they changed my LAX-AMS flight to much later, causing me to arriving in my connecting city into the evening which didn't work for me. After communication with AF, the only itinerary they said they had that could work for me is on DL metal - LAX-ATL-Italy and I accepted it. While I like DL's PS product, I'm disappointed I won't get to try KL's new Premium Comfort and will have to slum it in C+ for the first segment. Plus I'm on the somewhat less comfortable DL A330-900neo as opposed to KL's 787.

I was booked in AF "A" class. Interestingly when I logged into DL.com to view my DL-metal itinerary, I notice both segments are now coded to KL flight numbers and in "W" class. While that still is an ideal DL MQM/MQDs earning class, I was surprised both that they're KL-coded flights on an AF-purchased ticket and that it's a somewhat lesser class in the pecking order - it's my understanding "A" is the highest PE class.