Rookie question--Please help
 

If I want to earn miles on an FF account (e.g. Worldperks) from a partner flight (e.g. Delta), I need to associate the ticket with the account number before the flight flies? I cannot claim FF miles from a partner flight later. Am I right? Thanks!

Welcome to (posting on) FlyerTalk, rbfatality!:)^

Actually, you can retroactively request credit. I'm not sure how it works with WorldPerks, but it should be possible.

Usually you can just send in your stubs, etc. to the address listed on the website. I'm not familiar with DL's policy on this, but I've sent my US Airways stubs into the normal United address and they credited just fine.

I would note that it is much easier and faster if you associate the number in advance. It can take a long time (weeks) to credit via mail and in the meantime, I'm always worried about the mail getting lost. Also, as far as I can tell, it seems impossible for most FF programs to transfer points once they're in a program to another related program, so make sure you're consistent about which program you're accumulating.

Retroactive Miles
 

If you forget putting your FFlyer number into the system, you can call their 800# and if it's an e-ticket, if you tell them the number, they can credit your account much quicker.

If you have a PAPER ticket, then you will have to get all your ticket stubs etc and send it in WITHIN 6 MONTHS.

Now, very important, if you give them your card on the second leg because you forgot to do it the first leg, it is NOT going to pick up the first leg. Also, if you give your number AFTER you're checked in, ask to REPRINT your boarding pass so it registers. It should always have something on your boarding pass to show your FFlyer number.

Happy Travels!
UG

Also, save your boarding passes. You may need those, besides tickets and/or ticket numbers, to prove you didn't refund the ticket or credit it to a different flight. Some airlines insist that you send them a real, physical, paper boarding pass to give retroactive credit - supposedly to prevent you from claiming credit for the same flight with two airlines, though how it helps in this regard when some airlines don't have this policy escapes me.

Also, know that you cannot get credit in most cases for both the flying carrier and partner airline. Only one credit per trip.

Wirelessly posted (BlackBerry8830/4.2.2 Profile/MIDP-2.0 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/105)

You can aslo fax a copy of your boarding passes to partner airlines for credit which is faster than mailing them.

Check the individual airline's rules before you do this. Accepting faxed, scanned and e-mailed, or otherwise non-original versions is not a universal practice. bmi is one airline that requires original boarding passes, period.