A Real Bonus
 

I know everyone's had problems at one time or another getting miles properly credited. I've certainly gotten into heated correspondence with more than one program. So the one time that the tables were turned and I was on the receiving end of an unearned bonus - I decided it was only justice being served (well over here we all have convict blood in us anyway)
I was once flying BA 1st class (yes they do sometimes let colonials slip past)from Kuala Lumpur to Adelaide (ADL) and when my statement came through (on a partner airline's FF program the name of which I shall keep secret to protect the guilty) I'd been credited with a flight from KL to Aden (ADE) in the Yemen Republic.

What's the big deal about that - there's only a difference of 400 odd miles between the two flights. Well the real bonus came the next day when I flew from Adelaide to Melbourne -and,yes, I was credited with flying Aden - Melbourne, a distance of 7256 miles compared to the 398 I flew. And the 1st class bonus on top of that!! It was at a time before automatic tracking - you had to send in the ticket and boarding passes. So some geographically illiterate person in the FF service centre probably just took a short cut and thought "Adelaide -ADE" for which I'll be eternally grateful. In those days 12500 points were worth a lot more than today.

Put your ff-number in when you fly award tickets too - miracles do happen sometimes (average about 1 out of 10).

Chances for miracles improve if you have "only" upgraded your ticket (from eco to business) and later on changed at the gate to an earlier flight (normally no charge for that on the same day) a good friend of mine guesses that in about 1 out of 5 he will then get credit for the upgraded class ... and he doesn't mind - would YOU?

one of "my good friend's friends" was upgraded a week ago, from an already upgraded business class, to international first (business was oberbooked) flying UA from Düsseldorf to Chicago - and he just got the First Class bonus credited to his UA account.

[This message has been edited by Rudi (edited 03-15-99).]

On my way back from South America we were upgraded on the flight Bogota-Frankfurt despite being on an SAS issued Lufthansa award. I went by the philosophy that I should show my Senator Card to anyone who wanted to look at it and make those who didn't want to, take note as well.
It almost worked in Bangkok for the Thai award flight back to Sydney. I wanted to change the seat assignment that had been issued in FRA and flashed my Senator Card. When the boarding passes came out ther was a little box That had 'D UP' printed in it which i presume was a cue to the check-in agent to consider a Business class upgrade. she looked at the pass, looked at the ticket and then rang a superviser - the conversation was in Thai. when she gave me the passes the 'D UP' had been scribbled out.
It does show though that FF status does count for something across the STAR Alliance partners. No points from the trip though.

Something like this happened to me with Hyatt Hotels and Northwest Airlines back in 1990 when I first started collecting miles and points. Back then, not only did you receive points for the hotel stay but 500 airline miles as well.

I stayed at the Capitol Square Hyatt in Columbus, Ohio. When my Northwest statement arrived the next month, there was no credit for the Hyatt in Columbus but for:

Hyatt Hotel Bonus -- Cap Haitien, Haiti

I had a good laugh, called NW and it was explained to me that even though there is no Hyatt in Haiti, the information is entered by code and someone punched in CAP thinking it was the code for the CAPitol Square Hyatt when it actually was the airport/OAG code for the airport in that Haitian city.

Anyway, the NW rep decided to leave it alone since the actual mileage bonus was correct. She thought it was funny too.

Like Rudi's "friend" I have received miles for award travel when I changed the flight to an earlier one. Free travel and status miles too--a frequent flier's dream!

back in the '80s TWA always gave mileage for award tickets--some quirk intheir system. Since has been fixed, alas.

A related trick, especially if you are flying somewhere unusual, is to have the airport code handy. I recently flew YVR-LHR-RUH (Riyadh, Saudi Arabia) on BA using CP points. The agent did not know how to spell Riyadh, or even where it was, so I just offered the airport code, for which she was grateful. However, I guess she just figured if it's BA, it must be Europe. I got a 1st class ticket from Vancouver to the Middle East, for 100,000, instead of the "normally" required 125,000.

It pays to be more knowledgable than the agent, about all sorts of things. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif

Ken

An American Partner Airline gave me miles on an Award Flight of an European Airline, though it was cleary stated on the passenger receipt ("Award Ticket").

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End this discussion NOW!!! We don't know who is reading these messages!!! These secrets are only useful until someone "in authority" gets word of them and ruins it for us all!!!

An American Partner Airline gave me miles on an Award Flight of an European Airline, though it was cleary stated on the passenger receipt ("Award Ticket").

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"my good friend's friend's" experience is that whenever on United he is bumped to another flight (upgraded with cert. on original flight) or to higher class of service when the flight is overbooked, he gets the class of service bonus.

[This message has been edited by pgupta011 (edited 03-16-99).]

3544quebec -

The "D UP" you saw on your boarding pass does not mean "D Upgrade". It means "DUPE" -which is the airline abbreviation for "DUPLICATE BOARDING PASS".

From knowledge - THAI will only upgrade when the section you are seated in is oversold by the time you had checked in.

If you had connected from a connecting flight and have already been issued a boarding pass, you will not get upgraded because you already hold a seat. Passengers who check in late (that's a clue!) and are GOLD star alliance members will be upgraded as required.

Besides, THAI's business class is nothing to rave about.

Ah, and I was living in hope. Thanks for shattering my illusions!!!!!
I think I was DUPEd

[This message has been edited by 3544quebec (edited 03-18-99).]

Celestar340: please tell me more about that upgrade possibility when checking in late with Thai as a StarAlliance-Gold (UA 1K) member. What do I need to do when flying paid business and hoping for 1st? (do I need any voucher or miles, or just my word and Goldcard and the luck of an empty seat?

Thai did upgrade me last year (october 98) on a preissued eco-boarding pass at Taipeh, going to Bangkok, when I presented my StarAlliance one-way upgrade voucher (the original eco-boarding pass was issued by UA in SFO).