sdsearch

Yes, but in reverse that means that if you buy a United or Delta ticket through one of their partner airlines, you also get United or Delta to give you real flight miles in that case.

So you don't have to choose a new program just to use this trick.

Delta or United only earn price-based miles if you buy the ticket on Delta or United "ticket stock", because only then are they fully informed about the price.

Also, if you buy the ticket in a package, such as a vacation package, from Delta Vacations or United Vacations itself, where they don't want to reveal how much of the price was for the flight versus the hotels and/or rental car in the same package, then you also earn real flight miles.

Just go to the Delta or United sites and look up "earn miles" and the details and you'll see all this documented.

xliioper

Not exactly. DL awards based on ticket price for both DL ticketed and DL coded flights (even if the DL coded flights are ticketed by another carrier). So it's possible to have some flights credit based on price and others based on mileage even if they are on the same ticket.

Further, cheap tickets on other carriers may earn as little as 25% of actual mileage flown. So can you still call them miles when you are only awarded a percentage, but not actual miles flown?

GrayAnderson

Well, and let's also not forget the farce that is a number of non-travel credit cards offering "miles" which are neither related to travel spend or distance (ok, the airlines do this as well with their credit cards) nor part of any airline mileage program (you redeem them for a credit for ticket costs). Before Delta, etc. get in hot water for their program morphing over time someone ought to ding the CCs in question for calling their program a "miles" program.

Ram Trucks

Miles should mean miles.

bbombb

Miles, points, call 'em whatever you want. I call my AA miles tracks (long story) and my UA miles skids (also a long story).