PhDflyer

Hi guys,

Due to a significantly lower price, I booked my usual trip on LH website as opposed to EY. The route is PRG-FRA-AUH operated by LH and then EY.

Let me start by saying I now have 3 booking references. One for LH ticket, one from EY obtained by trying to use the LH reference on their website, and one from Etihad call center. Each shows a different baggage allowance. LH shows standard 1 piece, one Etihad reference shows no checked baggage, and the last one shows 2 pieces due to my Gold status. Besides this, my LH ticket didn't allow for entering EY membership number but I successfully added my EY number through the EY website and their booking reference.

I have more or less become used to the mess when flying EY ticket with the connecting flight handled by Czech Airlines. OK is their partner airline and LH is not so this presents a new challenge. This brings me to my questions if anyone has experience with these situations.

1) Will I get EY miles for the EY-operated leg? And LH M&M on the short segment?
2) Is 1 piece the most likely baggage allowance?
3) Would there be any chance of an upgrade with miles? Does anyone have experience about the cost (in miles) of an upgrade at FRA check-in?

With regards to the second question, I received an email from EY Gold support stating that it doesn't matter that ticket is bought via different airline - gold privileges apply on the EY leg. I wonder though, how would one be able to fly the first leg and then get second baggage checked in in Frankfurt?

BTW: I am not able to select seats under either EY or LH. I know this is the price one pays for using a different airline to pay for the ticket but somehow EY makes this even worse than it typically is.

I would also enjoy hearing I am not the only one thinking the European connections with Etihad are a nightmare as the spectrum ranges from very integrated partners (Air Serbia) to codeshares like LH.

Cheers!

thibaultFR

Hi there !
Not the same case but pretty much.
Bought my flight AF coded but EY operated.
Got all the EY Gold perks, even if my flight was coded AF...
Got miles on Air France Flying Blue but not Etihad.
Had 4 PNR, could not choose my seat either on AF or EY Website but my status was well recognized on each of them.
I was able to check in 2 luggage with the extra 15kgs, no issues.
EY Call Centre was clueless and could not help me on anything.

funkbandit

The concept of the most significant carrier (usually the one that operates the longest flight of an itinerary) should apply. This would be EY in your case.

ohitsascythe

How did this work out in the end?!

I am looking at AUH-MUC (or FRA)-TLS return in business. It is nearly 20% cheaper booking through LH than through EY.

I'm not too fussed about the baggage allowance, though I would appreciate some clarity. I am pretty curious about the miles and the chauffeur. Etihad Guest Miles would be my preference.

I live 10 minutes from AUH so the chauffeur is not worth very much to me. I can't imagine it is worth paying an extra 20%...

PhDflyer

Hey!

Well, after some delay, here are the answers.

1) No EY miles from any of the flights. Perhaps LH would credit MM miles but I am not interested in those. Also, no tier segment! Apparently EY tier segment you get if and only if your flight is sold as EY and operated by Etihad (except maybe Air Serbia and Alitalia).
2) 1 piece only, was not allowed 2nd bag (I had it ready but didn't really need it that much so I didn't push)
3) Not possible.

BTW, EY found a new level of incompetence. On the return flight I had AUH-ZRH-PRG, sold as LX and operated first by Etihad and then Swiss. Upon check-in at AUH (and this was First Class check-in) staff told me that the ticket is only to ZRH and that I must have bought the tickets separately and it is my responsibility to pick up the baggage from the belt and check-in again. The scheduled layover was ... 45 minutes! It took close to an hour for them to finally override the system and send the bag to PRG directly. Needless to say, I missed the connection in at ZRH because it is not doable in 45 minutes. Horrible experience with rebooking on a later flight and, of course, no compensation under EU law. I wonder if EY can get any worse?
@ohitsascythe I would book LH due to the price.

ohitsascythe

Thanks for getting back to us. I did book the flights with LH in the end. So far, I have only the LH reference, and I was planning on trying to keep it that way! I have already chosen seats - I assume that will work.
No real surprises on the miles and the upgrades, but the baggage does sound confusing. I am expecting lounge access based on the airline operator - i.e. EY lounge in AUH, even though it is a LH ticket; I assume that is correct...

I have done this journey several times now (AUH-TLS via FRA, CDG, FCO and BRU) and it is always hit and miss for EY to issue the onward ticket - never had any problems having the bags checked all the way through though, and I have always had a long enough connection that it hasn't been a hassle to collect a ticket. Missing the connection sounds like a problem with the itinerary more than anything else - though I suppose EY shouldn't sell unachievable journeys

The other apparent advantage to booking the tickets through LH was the number of options. You would imagine, and a look at ITA matrix confirms, that there are a lot of options for a AUH-TLS with one stop, but the EY website shows only 2 or 3 a day. The LH website shows more, which is counter-intuitive.

Anyway, I am hoping it works out with LH - I will probably end up doing this journey quite often and it would be useful to find "the way" of doing it, both for my own sanity and to try and get some useful points.

Thanks again for getting back to us.

ohitsascythe

I booked two sets of flights with LH in the end, and have flown the first trip. It was pretty pleasant actually.
We had about 40kg each (two bags each) of bags, which wasn't a problem though I still don't know which allowance applied. We used the EY lounge in AUH and the LH lounge in FRA - no problem. I didn't even try with the chauffeur so I'm still not 100% sure of that.

The only thing is the miles! I have a dormant LH MM account, but have been using a Singapore Airlines KF account instead. That was fine for the short LH-operated connections, but they wouldn't accept the EY-operated flights. Nor would Etihad. Is LH MM the only option?

I have booked a repeat of the journey in May, but time and a pandemic will tell whether that will happen. Not sure if the LH miles are worth it for 2-4 round trips a year. Any ideas?