Retroactive Miles
 

Do any mile collection programs allow you to claim retroactive points?

I flew at the beginning of March from Toronto to Tokyo with a 3 week stopover in San Francisco on a United ticket. Are there any programs that I can sign up to now that will let me claim the points from this past flight?

I'm new to this mileage thing... :confused: ...actually just found out that you don't always need to fly on the same airline to collect points. Normally I live in Toronto, but I'll be in Japan for at least a year. I'm hoping to tour around south-east Asia so any insight you have on cheaply flying around the region from the Tokyo area would also be appreciated.

Looking forward to browsing this site!

Welcome to FT! You surely are coming to the right place for info. ^

Do you still have all the boarding passes and ticket receipt for the flights? I recalled the airliners wouldn't allow you to claim miles before your joined their FF programs. However, I also remember someone saying you could, if your flights were recent enough (not sure it's 30-day, 3 month, or 6 months), and you have all the copies of your boarding passes and receipts. It won't hurt to try. But don't sign up yet! Otherwise you would miss another new member bonuses. Read on...

Since you flew UA, if you haven't signed up with Mileage Plus, you surely don't want to miss out the member-get-a-member referral bonus. I can definitely refer you so you will get another 3K new bonus miles and I get 2K. Send me a pm or email if you want to proceed with the referral. :D

Here's the terms of the promo I am aware of for elite members to earn referral bonuses. Your flights in March if sucessfully claimed will definitely earn both of us bonuses.
Introduce your friends, family members or business associates to the Mileage Plus program. When each person enrolls in Mileage Plus and flies a paid, qualifying roundtrip on United®, United Express® or Ted(SM) between February 1, 2006 and June 30, 2006, you will earn 2,000 bonus miles and each person you refer will earn 3,000 bonus miles.

Most programs have a bit of leeway for people who find out about the program during a flight to get credit for it if they sign up soon enough after. Specifics vary. In this case, since you've already taken the flight, only the policies of UA and its Star Alliance partners matter. Check their Web sites and their forums on FT, focusing on those that serve the places you expect to fly from Japan and later from Toronto, to see which (if any) will give credit for flights taken up to 60 or more days ago. If you can get credit in more than one program, consider also the class of service and/or fare you usually expect to buy, since some programs are more heavily weighted toward high-fare travellers than others.

If you don't have any luck with United, at least try one of the Star Alliance partners, e.g., US Airways, Air Canada, etc. They might have a slightly different policy.

Just to continue on this rather than opening a new one:

Do airlines actually check the retroactive online claims against the B/PNR/etkt provided? What if it's on a alliance/non-alliance partner?

Would the PNR/etkt still exist? :confused: