Hello everybody

I've been having trouble getting points for a ORD-LAS flight I took in October. Booked over the phone with SAS - all 4 flights (CPH-ORD-LAS-ORD-CPH) in V-class.

After claiming missing points I've now been credited 400 points (25%) and a phone call with EB memberservice has led to a reply from EB Bangkok (see below).

The answer makes no sense to me. The claim is (as far as I can see) that a V-class SK-flight on UA metal only gives 25%. That leaves me with 3 questions:

Is that correct?
If so, how do I avoid ending up in the same mess again?
And is the rule published anywhere on any SK site?

Any input greatly appreciated


Cheers


Regarding to your enquiry for flight UA1567 Chicago-Las Vegas on XXOct 2008, please be confirmed that the points have been correctly credited to your account as 400 points.

The mention flight is a codeshare flight with SK marketing flight number (SK8807) but operated by UA flight (UA1567) in V class. The specific booking class in "USA domestic routes" with codeshare SK/UA can generated only 25% of Economy class points according to an airlines agreement between SAS and United Airlines under codeshare flight.

In the other hand, due to your flight UA1522 Las Vegas-Chicago on XXOct 2008 [my retur flight] was booked directly with UA flights number on V-class ,So you can earn 100 % as original booking.

Most probably, yes.

By not booking cross *A codeshares unless you absolutely have to.

No, it's not.

This is the biggest problem of *A in general regarding code share flights (certainly both EB and M&M suffer from the same problem): code share flights are credited as if they were flown by the operating carrier, not by the ticketed/marketing carrier. That wouldn't be so bad if the booking classes were directly aligned (i.e. SK V = UA V), but as you just witnessed, they are not. SK V on an UA metal maps to a lower fare bucket, which turns out to be 25% mileage earning. To add insult to injury, this mapping information is not public, and it looks like even SK agents (and EB staff) do not know it and cannot access it. The only way is trial and error - I'm sure you won't be booking any V class SK on UA flights any more..

Unfortunately there's no easy way out of it, apart from avoiding code shares in the first place.

I wish they would do it like they do on OW - an AA flight in V is credited as an AA flight in V, no matter whether it is on actual AA metal, an AS (i.e. non-OW) code share or an BA codeshare (i.e. OW).

A few years ago I took part in an almost identical thread after flying ORD-LAS with UA in V (mapped on as "S" on UA if I remember correctly). Then I wrote a letter to SAS Customer Service (not retro-registration) explaining the very confused situation and, guess what, they gave me 1500 extra points as compensation (the difference was actually 1200 basic points). May be worth a try!

Thank you for your input FlyingFinn and ErasmusEBS.

I guess, I was bound to fall in the code share trap sooner or later ...

What really makes me angry is that I pay 475DKK extra in fees for making the booking over the phone, specifically ask for a ticket, that will earn me 100% on all flight, and 5 months later end up with this mess.

Not to mention the stupidity in paying 8094DKK for an economy CPH-LAS-CPH flight and not earning 100%.

I'll try customer service.


Cheers

Two questions:
1. Did you call SAS when booking the ticket?
2. Did you specifically ask for a booking class that would secure you 100% earnings for the trip?

If yes to both of these questions, you most definitely have a chance by contacting SAS CR - even though proving the content of the phone conversation will be difficult I've had the same problems myself when booking on the phone with SAS, but I made sure to double check afterwards, only to call SAS back when discovering that the SAS travel agent had misinformed me.

The whole code share thing is such a mess. When the airlines' own people can't get the rules right, something has to be done.

Yes indeed to both.

Couldn't agree more.

I just emailed customer service - we'll see what happens. I have another identical flight booked in May. This time the eticket - booked over the phone to ensure 100% earning - says

CPH-ORD: SK943
ORD-LAS: UA110
LAS-ORD: UA417
ORD-CPH: SK944

I guess that shouldn't get me into trouble ...?


Cheers

I have the exact same routing (ARN-CPH-ORD-LAS R/T) on two upcoming trips to LAS in March. Booked over the phone and was ensured that V would give me 100 %.

Perhaps one should call again and tape the phone call just to be on the safe side.

Heard from customer service today.

They maintain that I will only earn 25% for the flight in question, but will compensate me with 1000 points (so the flight will get me 400 + 1000 instead of 1600) for the ... misunderstanding ?

They also remind me to ask to be booked on the operation carriers flightnumber when I book over the phone in the future. This whole 25% thing is getting very complicated ...

Cheers

That's good service, at least some of the damage was repaired. Of course if you were after basic (status) points this doesn't help you - I guess these kind of points are extra points (unless you try to specifically ask for them).

Yeah. I can't understand why is it so hard - there are two basic things that they could do that would make life a lot easier for all: first publish the code sharing class mappings table on the web page (and do keep it updated!) and secondly modify the web booking engine and whatever tools the agents use to book flights to calculate and show the mileage earnings for the selected fare and itinerary and have it work correctly on code shares etc. (the old one was pretty useless for non SK flights). This isn't rocket science - unless of course you are talking about SAS IT...

At least the neighbours got something right - AY has a full OW booking class earning table accessible online. Helped me a lot, when booking MA - the price difference between 50% and 100% earning classes are sometimes very low (even just 20-30 euros)

Of course, the problem you'd have here is actually getting the miles from MA in the first place

I wouldn't expect SK to give us a *A earning table when they won't even tell us what fare we're booking into on their own metal, on their own website...

These days MA flights - quite surprisingly - post in a week. Of course the bigger question is how long you can take MA flights at all...

Hasn't SK made some amendments re booking class visibility?

Well, you do get this information from the SK web pages as well, although there's no single concise view, you will have to look it up per carrier. The problem is the code shares, as a V on on SK flight number operated by UA does not post as SK V (100%) or UA V (also 100%) but some other class, resulting in 25% points.

OW (and thus AY) does not suffer from this problem since flights are credited according to the ticketed flight number, not the actual metal.