Hello everyone.

I hope this is the correct spot to post this inquiry, and some of you extremely knowledgeable frequent flyers will have the answer to my question.

I recently flew to AKL via Air Tahiti-Nui ["TN"] on one of those incredible fares that came across the boards a couple of months ago. Although TN is not a true partner with any other major for frequent flyer mileage ["FFM"] accrual purposes [although apparently AAdvantage members can book travel on TN using their AAdvantage miles], some of its flights are code shared with other majors.

In particular three of my legs of travel were code shared with Qantas ["QF"], and one was code shared with Air France ["AF"]. As you know, QF is an American Airlines AAdvantage partner. I think AF is a Delta Airlines Sky Miles partner.

My tickets were issued by ZUJI [a Singapore agent] and referenced the TN rather than QF flight numbers. When I inquired at check-in about securing AAdvantage mileage credit I was informed by the agent that had my tickets referenced the QF code shared flight numbers rather than TN flight numbers I would be entitled to FFM credit. So bottom line, my AAdvantage number was not inserted into my record.

Notwithstanding, shouldn't I be able to secure AAdvantage mileage credit because the same flights were QF code shared? Stated differently, when a flight is code shared with a domestic major's "partner," when is the major obligated to accept the partner's code shared flight travel for FFM purposes?

I understand this question applies specifically to AAdvantage and Sky Miles FFMs but I think it is generic enough to apply to all domestic majors' "partners."

So can anyone out there help me in securing FFM credit? Thanks so much in advance.

I am not the most well-versed in all these arcane FF rules, and I am sure other, more seasoned FT'oids will chime in, but as I see it:

Although the flights were codeshared with QF, which is a AA partner, the seat that you bought was purchased from AA by TN. So, in effect, you were flying in a 'TN seat' even though it was a 'QF flight'.

And I think the general rule is, in the instance of codeshares, you get the FFM (or lack thereof) according the airline 'seat' that you buy, irrespective of the airline flight you fly.

It seems that yours is an unusual situation, because most codeshares now are between airlines whose FF programs are also linked: US/UA, CO/DL/NW.

My conclusion is: It's a bummer, but I am not sure you can get the miles. But I give way to wiser heads than mine.

P.S. I got burned in a similar fashion going to Europe. 'Once burned, twice learned.' Now, if I see a flight on a 'non-FF' airline, I check to see if perhaps it's a codeshare. And then book through the codeshare to get the miles (provided the $$ difference is not too great, if I'm paying).

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Da DOK

If I fly UA, I can put the miles in my LH M&M account.

If I fly UA codeshare, US metal, I do not think I can put my miles into LH M&M. That is a US checkin, and they cannot enter the M&M number into their computer.

Although I do not not all the ins and outs of the AA program with the program I am most familar with, worldperks, you will not earn miles for flying a code-share of a partner. It must be a code share of NW.

If the AA program is the same as other programs that I am familar with it would matter if those individual TN flights were also AA codeshares and not just partner codeshares.

I saw an example of this...I wanted to buy a Delta Ticket from IAH-CDG non-stop. It was a delta ticket..but an Air France plane. I was told that I couldn't get CO miles for this flight...so I didn't buy it. It appears that it needed to be both a delta ticket and a delta plane...so much for this 'wonderful' new CO DL FF partnership

With the new DL arrangement referred to above, you can't get miles for flying on the partner of a partner.

If your ticket has airline XX's code on it, that governs which FF schemes you can get credit for. It'll be XX and its partners. Any other airline's code carried on that flight is as irrelevant as if they were being operated by separate aircraft.

Not so for *A and oneworld... check the rules - the detail is there. It usually revolves around the phrase "marketed and operated" by a partner.

There are two scenarios...

DIRECT PARTNER: You have an FFP card with X airline's programme. You can earn miles on all (qualifying) fares that have X's code on the ticket, regardless of whether X or Y operates the metal. (Where X is in an alliance and Y is non-alliance partner).

PARTNER OF A PARTNER: You have an FFP card from airline Z which is in the alliance. You have tickets with X (in the same alliance) - you will earn miles if X operates the metal. You will not, if Y (which is not in the alliance) operates the metal.

Sorry, at cross-purposes there.

GoldCircle is absolutely right that you must look at the rules of the scheme in which you want to earn the miles, to see whether that particular XX "flight" will qualify to earn or not, which may depend on whether it's operated by XX, or by another alliance partner, or a non-alliance partner.

But once you have found that out, it doesn't matter one jot whether the aircraft you are on is also operating "YY" or "ZZ" codes. Because neither YY or ZZ are on your ticket, they don't affect whether or not you earn miles on your "XX" ticket.

Does anyone know if the check-in procedure affects this as well? We had United tickets
on a United flight number, code-shared on
Air Dolomiti. But we checked in at
Lufthansa and had a very difficult time getting our United miles.

Timely topic. An AA-coded HA-operated flight only earns 500 basic miles and 250 PLT bonus (posted as 100 - 650). Not a huge amount but it seems to reflect the 250 miles for HA interisland flights.