Accruing miles with tickets booked on Priceline?
 

Hi All,

I'd search this topic because it's probably been discussed before, but the advertisement of "booking buddy" is blocking the search drop down menu, so I'm forced to post a new tpic.

I booked a ticket from SEA -> AUA 9/26-10/3. There's going to be lots of miles on this trip and I want to be able to rack them up on my Alaska Airlines miliage plan. The flight is on Delta.

I booked the tickets via Priceline, and as far as I can tell, you cannot get miles if it's booked via Priceline. Anyone have any ways around this?

Thank you in advance

A direct link to the search engine is here:
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/search.php

AFAIK, there's no way to get miles for a Priceline flight (assuming you booked through their opaque name-your-price engine). I suppose you could take the money you saved and use that to buy the miles... :D

You can get a small amount of miles by using priceline via a variety of shopping portals. See my website http://www.andrewcram.com/frequentflyer.html for the current partners.

Only one. Don't use Priceline.

Many reports of people getting miles they shouldn't have gotten, or more miles than they deserved, when they were rerouted and rebooked. It can be faster for an agent to rebook in the default class for the cabin than to look up the original fare class and enter it.

It's hard to make this happen. If your schedule is flexible, the airline has enough flights on your route, and you checked that they're not full, you might try either getting to the airport early and standing by for an earlier flight, or missing yours by a bit (the "flat tire rule" usually gives you two hours) and standing by for a later one. It might work.

Agents tend to use the default fare class more when they're in a hurry, as when they have to rebook a packed 777. They're more likely to go through the full process when their workload is lighter, as it would be here. Still, it doesn't look like anything else gives you even a remote shot at miles.

All, thanks for the replies. Andrewcx- i already have purchased the tickets so it seems I can't use your links, since i would have had to utilize them while purchasing...

What if I keep my boarding passes and write Alaska Airlines to tell them I 'forgot' to input my FF number and for them to credit my FF account? Would that work?

Nope, it won't work. The FF field is filled with 9999999999 so the agent couldn't enter any FF number.

"Hello, Delta? I'd like to change my Skymiles account number to something that's easier to remember. How about 9999999999?" ;)

Thanks for the info... ugh. hm... ok, looks like there's no way around this.

Any idea as to why Priceline doesn't allow us to have the FF miles?

Cuz FF miles cost money? Instead of paying with money, you pay for your cheap ticket with FF miles at Priceline.

Frequent flyer programs are loyalty programs. They are designed to encourage you to book through a specific airline. When you use Priceline's opaque booking engine, essentially you are saying that you do not care which airline you fly. Hence you are not showing any loyalty to the airline by having Priceline choose a random airline for you.

And note, the restriction does not come from Priceline. It comes from the airlines.

Hmmm...well I had a bit of a different situation, but I got miles for a ticket on AA that I got through LowestFare.com. I wasn't a FF member then, but I think when I checked in at the airport, the person asked if I wanted to sign up, so I said, sure. I got over 1100 miles for the trip. I'd think it's worth it to at least try calling and have them add your FF number.

Unlike PL, LowestFare.com is a internet booking site and most of tickets it sells are published fares thus mileage eligible.

P.S. Is it used to sell discounted TWA tickets (i.e. 20%) that Carl Icahn gotten from the TWA?

T & C of PL clearly states that its tickets are not mileage eligible -
http://www.priceline.com/Customerser.../ShowHelp.asp?

I hope you are happy with $ you saved in lieu of miles.

I am happy with the fare i got... i just wanted to see if i could squeeze the deal to be better :)