Where to credit
 

Hi Folks,

I am a not so experienced points traveller, and I have the following question.

I booked an Iberia ticketstock ticket, operated by American Airlines metal, with both Iberia and BA flight numbers on my tickets.
Am I eligible to credit my miles to any one of the FF programs of AA/BA/IB? How about to credit these miles to Finnair, as with Finnair I will credit the most miles.

I had a look on wheretocredit.com, but I wasn't sure if I should select the operating airline, or the airline of the FF program.


Thanx! Stan

You can credit to one FF program. If and how they will credit, depends on who is marketing the flight (i.e. the booked flight number) and who is operating the flight.

In any case, there's generally no point in spreading your miles across multiple programs within the same alliance (unless you generate a lot of miles anyway, there is a double/tripple miles offer on one program, or if you plan to change anyway). If you only earn a couple of miles and spread them across 2, 3, or even more programs, you'll have small amounts sitting around and going to waste because you don't have enough in each program to redeem them.

Alternatively to using wheretocredit, you can check out how much miles you get by going to the website of your FFP.

Yes to AA/BA/IB ffp. And you could credit to the AY ffp
With Oneworld the marketing carrier (flight number), if eligbale, determines the earning.
The booking fare class is important. Some fare class can earn a small % or nil, depending on the ffp.

FF miles/points/avois are not equal to earn or burn. Frequent miles in a ff program that you can use are worth more than ff miles in an orphan ffp you will never use, even in the earning rate is better.

Hey WorldLux,

Thanx for your reply, however I had to clarify my question. :p

I am aware that I should save my points in preferably one of the programs, however my question is if I can credit them to any one of the One World programs, or am I limited to FF program of the ticketed/marketed/operated carrier?

Also, on wheretocredit.com, which carrier should I select before selecting the fare code? The operating carrier, or the carrier of the FF program?

Any OW ffp. That's what alliances are about.

WtoC does not handle codeshare, but look at marketing carrier (flight number)
But WtoC is a general guide only. Better to look at your airline ffp web site

For OW marketed and operated flights (e.g. AA codeshare operated by BA) yes. There may be limits if the flights is marketed by an OW partner airline (i.e. not your FFP's airline) but operated by a non-OW partner airline (E.g. You want to credit to BAEC. A flight marketed by Iberia but operated by Alitalia will not earn any Avios or TP, whereas a flight marketed by British Airways but operated by Alitalia will earn avios and TP with BAEC).

But as is the way with ffp's there are exceptions.
Example:- QF marketed EK operated flights earn BA avios & AA miles, are there are specific rules for these flights in the AA.BA ffp t&c's.

Thanx so much for the replies guys.

So I am travelling on IB & BA flightnumbers, operated by AA metal, but also in conjunction with Finnair flightnumbers.
Finnair would give me most miles, like double than IB/BA.
Residing in Amsterdam, Finnair could be good for me for award travel towards Asia. But am I right that Finnair charges insanely high amount of miles for Award tickets to Asia?

Your description is confusing.
If you purchase a ticket, it designates only one flight number. In this case, IB or BA or AA or FI.
You can't chose a flight number of the same flight after purchasing.

Wasabi Tofu,

My outbound flight is an IB flight number operated by AA.
My inbound flight is an BA flight number operated by AA.
Both flights are also marketed as FI flight number (but not published as such on my ticket)

So I think I can only credit all flights to either only IB/BB/AA, not Finnair? Is that what you're saying? :)

No. No & No. As posts above you can credit the flights to any Oneworld airline freq flyer program.
That the flights also have Finnair AY codeshare numbers means nothing for you.

What is the fare booking class?

FF miles/points/avois are not equal to earn or burn. Frequent miles in a ff program that you can use are worth more than ff miles in an orphan ffp you will never use, even in the earning rate is better.

10,000 frequent flyer miles in 1 ffp may get you a longer award flight than 15,000 frequent flyer miles in another ffp. Each airline ffp has different rules for using (burning) those miles/points for awards and different copay/surcharge $$ fees. There are cash surcharges on award flights with some ffp’s/routes/airlines. Award surcharge can be/are different. Real taxes on award flights are the same for all airlines for the same route and class. A surcharge can trigger additional real taxes if the flight changes from a non revenue flight to a revenue flight.

What ffp's are you a member of now?

Be mindful of expiry Miles/Points that Do and Don't Expire. Click to open the wiki.

wheretocredit.com is useful to see where you will earn the most points. You need to know the fare code of your ticket to use it.

Let's say, you purchased IB1234.
IB1234 is codeshare of AA2345/FI3456

You can credit IB1234 to IB FFP, or AA FFP, or BA FFP, or any Oneworld FFP.
(As other posters write, earning ratios are different)
You can't credit AA2345 to any FFP instead of IB1234. (You didn't purchase AA2345, so you can't credit it)
You can't credit FI3456 to any FFP instead of IB1234. (You didn't purchase FI3456, so you can't credit it)

If you have a oneworld-operated (whose plane you are flying) & oneworld marketed (whose code shows up on your ticket) flight, you can credit to any oneworld FFP.
Check your ticket for fare / booking class. Check the FFP you are crediting to -> choose the marketing carrier (oneworld FFP credits based on the marketing carrier) -> see if that fare code credits you anything. In WheretoCredit, choose the marketing carrier -> respective fare class on your ticket.

e.g. A flight operated by AA coded as IB9997 (your ticket says this), booked in "V" class (your ticket should also show this). You want to credit it to AY. You look here: https://www.wheretocredit.com/iberia/v
It says "V" class on Iberia gives 50% on Finnair. So you can credit this.

Sometimes, a very low economy booking class does not earn anything in your program of choice. e.g. "O" class on CX (Cathay Pacific) does not earn anything (0%) on AA FFP. So if you are flying a "O"-coded oneworld flight marketed by CX, it might be worth it to credit it to somewhere else. But this tends to be the exception, so generally you should choose one FFP and stick with it. The choice of FFP depends on what flights you usually fly (e.g. if you often fly AA-marketed flights, choose the AA FFP) & status, redemption value etc. But once you choose it you should use that and only that for oneworld flights so you don't distribute small amounts of miles everywhere.

Wow thank you so much for this explanation guys!

- I was an Asia Miles/Marco Polo Club silver member, but crushed all my miles on a business class ticket recently. So I want to start a clean sheet with a new FFP.
- I live in Amsterdam, like to earn miles for award travel towards Asia. (but any destination for award travel will do in the end)
- I don't have a specific Alliance I fly with, I rather always choose the cheapest Business class fare available for longhaul travel about 4 times a year.
- My Itinerary as screenshot below
AMS-DFW on IBxxxx / Fare code N (op. by AA)
DFW-RNO on IBxxxx / Fare code N (op by AA)
RNO-DFW on BAxxxx / Fare code O (op by AA)
DFW-AMS on BAxxxx / Fare code O (op by AA)

- As you can see, FI earns the most, but looking at their award chart, they charge insanely amount of miles for award travel?
Any recommendations on which FFP I should start my clean sheet with?


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