SK/UA codeshare issue
 

I just flew ARN-EWR-SFO and ran into an unexpected situation. I discovered that SK and UA don't agree on what S booking class means:

- On SK, S means Full Flex Economy Extra
- On UA, S means Discount Economy

Since my reservation confirmation says
RESERVATION CONFIRMED - S PREMIUM ECONOMY
for each segment, I was expecting to get a Economy Plus seat on UA, but they told me I had to pay $59 for it. The SAS VIP Hotline and the SAS ticket sales counter at EWR both confirmed "It should be Premium Economy" but they couldn't do anything about it since they don't control UA seating and there were no *A upgrades available. United says that they don't have any "Premium Economy" and that "Economy Plus" is an add-on option to an Economy ticket, not a cabin.

Sigh.

In the end, the gate agent gave me a Economy Plus seat anyway, which was nice.

That is correct.

I have experienced the same and since Economy Plus with UA is not a class in it's own you cannot book it as such - you can do that online on united.com afterwards though, but it will cost those 59,- (depending on route). It is well worth to purchase though if you have a significant leg length.

There's the same problem the other way around. I had a CPH-EWR booked in UA B, operated by SK and that was regular Economy, not Extra.

As for the SFO-FRA leg in B on UA, it was also regular Economy. Again, the CI agent said that due to my *G she can allow me to sit in Economy Plus for free.

Very nice of the agent who made a mistake/was nice to you. Only CO and UA elites (no need to be * Gold) gain free access to Economy Plus. Everyone else has to pay

Does anyone know what UA booking classes V and Q translates to with EuroBonus on SK-operated intercontinental flights? I.e. V-class on UA 9391, operated by SK 943.

Codeshare and Star Alliance is a nightmare.

I can't say this is the definite truth, but I had a UA codeshare ticket for a SK-operated CPH-EWR and IAD-CPH. Both of them were V class with UA and both of them turned out to be V on SK (so 100% points). It could be a coincidence though; one never knows with codeshares.

I have experienced that UA V earns 100% points as well. On the EuroBonus section of SK's website it lists that all the following UA fare classes are considered ECONOMY, not LOW economy, thus earning a min of 600 pts:

Z**, Y, B, H, K, M, Q,
R, V, E, U

I assume that this means one would earn 100% points on all UA flights in these fare classes as 600 pts is the minimum SK offers for regular economy fares.

You can view this info here: http://www.flysas.com/en/EuroBonus/S...liance/United/

K class is an "ultra-low" fare class on UA that they use for international. That's a mistake by SAS. I have seen K class IAD-NRT for $800 including tax.

The "ultra-low" fare classes, where significantly we cannot use our UA SWUs for international, are S, T, L and K. (I don't think they use L or T for international.)

I sometimes like to take the non-stop IAD-CPH when I go to Scandinavia but normally prefer to take the ARN-FRA-IAD on the way back, which departs ARN at 1 pm.

If I want to book Economy Extra for the CPH leg then I need to book with SAS even though UA will offer a ticket at the same exact price. Also, when I return on UA in Y or B class ticket (purchased from SAS) then I get the +50% EQM bonus on the UA transatlantic, which is nice. I can also upgrade the UA Y/B class flight with only 10,000 miles. I have never booked an S class ticket from SAS; I am sure that it could screw things up, i.e. no EQM bonus and maybe not even eligible for using a SWU to upgrade to business on UA.