ohhhaiherro

I finally used some points to book an Air France Business class flight by transferring MR points to KLM Flying Blue. My preferred rewards program is Delta.
Air France Business ticket is O/U class with fare basis OSF0FB
The entire booking route is EWR > CDG > SIN > KUL

I took a look at the partner chart at the delta site (can't post links yet) but don't know if it included awards bookings? Delta doesn't see what I paid (in cash or in miles) correct? So I'm better off asking them to add my Delta SkyMiles to this itinerary?

xliioper

No, the Delta MQM/MQD earning for awards is only for DL Skymiles awards on Delta metal.

ohhhaiherro

Would I earn anything either on FlyingBlue or Delta Skymiles on this biz award booking? Guessing the answer is no? Am I better off just leaving the rewards program on this ticket as AF/Flying Blue?

bgriff

This is the official rule, but O does appear on the AF earning chart.

I booked a short-haul Europe business class award for myself and my husband this summer on AF using VS miles (separate point: incredibly cheap awards! 9K one way) and I never got credit but he earned as though it was a revenue ticket. I'm not really sure why the difference and I never pursued it because I wasn't officially entitled to anything, but I'm guessing it may have something to do with the fact that my VS FF# was "primary" or something on the reservation, even though I tried to put my SkyMiles number, while there was never a VS FF# for him on the booking.

So, YMMV. I suspect awards booked with SkyMiles are specifically configured not to earn, but booked through other programs could be more complicated.

Second data point, I had another short-haul Europe award booked through FlyingBlue, and IIRC neither of us earned anything (despite putting SkyMiles number on the reservation and SkyMiles status showing on boarding passes).

ohhhaiherro

@bgriff -- yes... the O is on the chart which is why I'm asking about it.

Sounds like it might be worth a shot putting down my delta skymiles number on the ticket, because if I leave it as the flyingblue then i'm guaranteed to get 0 from Air France?

bgriff

It is certainly worth putting down your SkyMiles number.

xliioper

The AF class does not appear on DL's chart because it is an award class that is ineligible for earn. It's possible if there are changes made to flight, it might get re-coded with a revenue class which would make it eligible for earn. Other than that, I would not expect to see any earnings.

bgriff

It does appear on the DL chart, though.

ohhhaiherro

xliioper it does show up on the chart https://imgur.com/a/K2HVAoG
reference - https://www.delta.com/us/en/skymiles...rline-partners

xliioper

Misread and thought you said it doesn't. Pretty sure that O is only used for J routes to India. Don't know why they would use it on an award.

While the first letter of fare basis code on revenue fares is generally the booking class on AF/KL fares, it may not be true for FB awards. DL fare basis codes for awards do not indicate booking class -- fare basis codes for FC begin with 'F', D1 awards begin with 'C', PS awards begin with 'P', main cabin awards begin with 'Y', C+ awards begin with 'W', and BE awards begin with 'E'. But none of these are the same as the booking class for the awards.

jwhuffman

But on that page below the links to the charts it does state the following:
Class Exclusions: If a class is not listed, no miles are earned. No miles are earned for Award Travel.

flyerCO

O is both an award and paid booking class. You will not earn anything for O bookings that are award.

ohhhaiherro

flyerCO - thanks for the clarification. so it doesn't matter which frequent flier program # i attach to the ticket then, right?

flyerCO

Correct. It'll see it was a mileage ticket and won't credit.

bgriff

As I said above, I have a data point that this process is imperfect and occasionally award tickets do incorrectly credit as mileage-earning eligible, so it's worth putting your Skymiles number down just in case, but not expecting anything to happen with it. (If you have Skymiles status, it is also worth doing as a matter of course -- status doesn't get any incremental benefits in business class but could provide you with higher priority rebooking if there any operational disruptions day of.)