I thought I'd post about a recent experience, and I may try to do this more in the future.

I was using a free United ticket from a time when I got bumped. I was on my return leg, which was BNA to PIT, changing planes at ORD.

My return flight was oversold and they asked for volunteers. I gave up my seat, and since it was the last flight of the day, and all of the other airlines were completely full as well, they were going to have to book me the following day. I asked that they put me on the direct USAirways flight, which they did.

Lo and behold, on my most recent statement I see that I was credited miles for this flight, which would not have happened on UA since it was a free ticket! And since it was apparently considered a full fare ticket, I got 750 miles instead of the 500! And of course I got another free ticket because I was bumpled!

This was a good day to (not) fly!

I will have to try this again in the future--zero cents/mile.

Nothing new here...

You can always "double dip" no matter the cost of the original ticket. Free or revenue; the ticket on another airline is not "free" and does accumulate miles.

William

Too many times for me to count, I take a Bump off my paid flight on ABC and get reaccomadated on XYZ. I give XYZ my Acct# with them or one of their partners and get credit for the flight I take, and then of cause I get the credit from ABC for the flight that I took a Bump off of.

So not Only do I score a free tkt or a Voucher off future travel but I also get the miles on 2 different programs for actually flying 1 carrier between AAA & BBB.

Now thats SWEET

I've found that I have even gotten miles on the same airline when they rebook me following a bump using a reward ticket.

I've also found that when they booked me on an airline without a frequent flyer program or a limited one such as SU that they would reward miles that I would have recieved if we hadn't been bumped.

It isn't uncommon to get put into F or J on another airlines and I've recieved those higher bonuses as well.

There are lots of reasons to take bumps.

If anyone knows the mechanics of how they code your reservation to not recieve FF miles even though your number is in the reservation I'd like to hear it.

Is it not just the booking class that determines miles earning rights?

Yes, but the booking class can be manually overriden or changed by the airline agent attempting to reaccomodate you. And the more rushed they are, the more likely you will be booked in a higher fare inventory since it's generally faster and easier than hunting and pecking for space in the originally booked inventory.

Some airlines are "good" (at least to the customers redeeming miles) while others are "bad" in this regard. BA is "bad" here: they try very hard to make sure that reaccomodations don't result in additional miles/tier points.

NW tacks on something onto the end of the frequent flyer number (such as a letter). That, however, can apparently be taken out manually. I know that for CAPPS/CAPPSII (aka Secure Flight) this became a bit of an issue.

FWIW, the same thing holds true on award flights. My family flew US Airways PHL-MCO last summer on award tix. On the outbound they had mechanicals so they rebooked us on NW thru DTW. I had all of our WP #'s on my PC so I called NW and got our WP #'s into the records. Original booking class on US was X (award), on NW it was Y.

On the way back they were oversold by 4 and offered 2 free RT's per pax. We got 8 RT vouchers and reaccomodated on NW through MEM. Again got our WP numbers into the PNRs.

All in all, we only got about 60% of the legs credited. So NW must have had some way of knowing they were not normal Y tix. I did not call to complain as I decided 60% of the miles was better than none.

I have to say I was very impressed with how US handled the two incidents, when flying on an award they do not have to reaccomodate you by buying a ticket on another airline. Then again, I am top tier and give them a lot of biz.

its happened to me quite a few times on award travel....

the last 1 was nov 04...i had a 15k award dfw-mem which the return was was canceled & i was rerouted thru ord with a run to the gate...i was credited w/ the mi's & put in front ord dfw...

Maybe this is a subsect of the mileage run, but I look for crowded flights when booking awards. I am always the first to the front to volunteer for the bump. And I get the miles for the flights that day and vouchers for miles for another day.

FWIW or not worth, when flying from or within the EU on any carriers -- including US -- the airlines have to reaccomodate you on the first available flight -- including on another carrier -- since mileage award ticket passengers may not be discriminated against on the basis of having a mileage ticket. Just something to keep in mind if this would ever happen to anyone here.

I've also gotten miles without even having to get bumped to another flight. Flew NW on a DL award ticket- after booking, put in my NW FF # so that I could take advantage of elite benefits. For the leg that I was upgraded to F for, received miles, but none for the return leg in coach.

AA Plat, ExPlats and BA Golds using miles for award flights on BA flights in coach can earn miles if the ticketed segment is booked in the extra coach award inventory available to AA Plats/ExPlats and BA Golds. (25% of actual miles travelled as it's discount coach.) This is very consistent.

I was on a DTW-KIX-ICN free flight on NW/KE...NW oversold the DTW-KIX segment and offered me a nice $750 voucher and upgraded me C class DTW-NRT-ICN all NW. i got the miles posted on my account and the C class bonus and the elite bonus. after about a month, the mileage was withdrawn! i guess someone at NW realized that the C class flight wasn't a paid one. oh well...sometimes you get lucky and other times you don't.

The best case of miles for an award ticket I heard was for a previous boss of mine. He used his VS miles to fly his girlfriend from HKG to LHR with him. Not only did they credit him for her flight (don't ask me why, he didn't question it ) but they also forgot to take the miles from his account!