Sal Monella

I am planning a trip to Asia and have seen some amazingly (low) fares. I am a member of AAdvantage and United Mileage Plus and would like to fly on one of their partner airlines. It seems that none of the low fares award frequent flyer miles. Singapore Airlines seems to be the only airline that gives a fare that will give award miles. The others say no mileage credit given and don't seem to offer a higher fare option. My first choice is Thai Airlines, because they have the best schedules. I think that Air China gives 50% of the miles with their website fares. It sure would be nice if the airlines published the class of service with their fares. I fly economy class. Also, if the airlines don't offer miles in what way are they "partners?" Sounds like partners in crime.

Adam1222

Many airlines do not give mileage credit (or significantly reduced mileage credit) on all of their *own* fares. If you want to buy a higher class fare and earn miles, a travel agent should be able to help you do it. There is no crime involved. In exchange for a cheap fare, you are earning less or no miles.

aBroadAbroad

You can definitely book mileage-eligible fares on the airlines' websites. Or, you can book extremely low, discounted fares on those sites. However, generally speaking, the more "amazing" the price, the more likely it is that you will earn fewer or no miles. This is especially true of special promotional fares.

It sounds like you probably need to select one of the higher priced, less restricted fares when searching the airline websites. Cathay and JAL offer a variety of fare types in their search results. You can sometimes find good oneworld partner fares at AA.com, too. For earning UA miles, don't overlook EVA Air, which often has great fares, and lists multiple fares in its search results, as well.

Finally, be sure to check the credited program's website (e.g., UA or AA) for the correct partner earning rules for each fare class — the info posted on the operating partner airline's website is not always accurate.

LondonElite

You are fortunate in that most US-airlines make it pretty easy to see what fare bucket you are buying, before you do so. My suggestion is to print out the list of fares that earn miles on the airlines you are considering booking travel on, and checking against the fares you are seeing on the website.

Some European airlines make it more convoluted for you to see the fare class, so you can be caught out not earning as much as you thought you might.

JPG3392

What you need to check is what credit AA or UA gives for the particular fare class (not just economy--there are lots of different economy fares) on the partner airline you intend to fly. That may or may not be the same as what the partner airline offers its own FF members.

BearX220

I don't see a criminal aspect at all to the practice of withholding miles when the cheapest discount fares are booked. Many customers don't belong to FF programs and/or don't care about miles. They shouldn't have to pay for them if they don't want them.

A travel agent can tell you what fare class you're considering booking into, and you can see for yourself what fare classes earn miles by referring to the UA and AA websites.

Some inexpensive consolidator or bulk fares offered via third parties do not ever earn miles. Which seems fair enough to me.