greentyce

Hoping someone can help me -- I'm new to the codesharing world and have researched quite a bit, but have now run into an interesting situation.

I am trying to book a flight on a Delta partner airline in order to reap the extra miles, MQMs, etc.

My understanding is: regardless of anything else, the flight CODE listed in the actual flight number is the one that prevails in terms of the miles awarded.

I am trying to book a flight through Air France website. These are the two flights:

AF007 - Premium Economy
Operated by: Air France
Class: A

KL4822 - Premium Economy
Operated by: Virgin Atlantic
Class: A

The first flight is easy. It's AF (Air France) and so that's where the miles will come from. Great.

The second flight is confusing because the host site is AirFrance, the Marketed Code is KLM Airlines, and the Operating airline is Virgin.

Additionally, according to the Delta Partners Mileage Chart for KLM, there is no such thing as "Premium Economy" and the A Class is listed under Discounted Economy, while on the Air France chart (which has identical rewards), Class A is listed as Premium Economy.

So does that mean for that KL flight, even though it says Premium Economy on the website and I'm paying the same price for Premium Economy, I would only earn the mileage equivalent of discounted economy??

For clarity... is KL the same as KLM?

Help, please!!!
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flyerCO

For codeshare flights (excluding those coded as DL) the operating airline must also be a ST airline. VS is not part of ST. Thus you wont earn anything if bought using the KL code. To get credit it must be DL or VS coded.

You are correct that if VS was part of ST, it would earn at the KLM "A" rate.

xliioper

KL has been selling W,S,A PE fares for awhile now (looks like over a year based on ExpertFlyer backdated searches). While these won't be applicable to flights own their metal which don't have a PE cabin, they can be applied to code-shared partner metal flights like AF/AZ/DL/VS which do. It's quite possible that DL hasn't yet updated it's earning page for KL and these flights will earn the same as AF coded W,S,A fares. On the other hand, I wouldn't be too surprised if DL is still using the old earnings rates. As noted above, the earnings pages all note that earnings are only provided if a Skyteam marketed flight is also operated by a fellow Skyteam member and VS is not a Skyteam member.

greentyce

Another user elsewhere wrote this:
" A KLM-marketed ticket only earns miles/MQMs/MQDs if it's operated by a Skyteam member. Virgin Atlantic is not a Skyteam member, so that flight will earn nothing in the Skymiles program. Virgin-operated flights only earn if your ticket is marketed as Virgin (VS) or Delta (DL). ""


So, as long as both the flights are Air France, then I will earn points?

-- But also, side note, I thought Virgin Atlantic was a partner? So, for clarity, I can earn points on a Virgin Atlantic-operated flight ONLY if it is either Delta or Virgin marketed, correct?

-- So, if I book a Virgin-marketed flight from the Virgin website and it's operated by Virgin, then I can put my SkyMiles number and get points, right? Likewise, if I'm on Virgin website and book a Virgin-marketed flight operated by Delta, same thing.

-- But I will NOT earn points if I booked on the Air France website, an AF-marketed flight, operated by Virgin. That would not earn points because AF is Skyteam but Virgin is not. Is that correct!?

flyerCO

1. Simply put, to earn miles a codeshare flight must if marketed as DL, be any operating airline, or
2. For another ST partner marketed (AF,KL, etc) the operating airline must be member of ST, or
3. A DL, non-ST partner marketed (VS, VA, shortly LATAM, etc) must be operated by DL.

tbaiyun

Yes, you will earn as long as the fare category is on the Skymile earning table.

You will earn on a VS numbered, VS operated flights; VS numbered, DL operated flights; DL numbered, DL operated flights and DL numbered, VS flight.

PS: this forum tends to use numbered flight rather than marketed, and they are correct because someone can get a DL ticket stock 006 (markted by DL) with AF numbered flights.

That is correct. The same thing happens here for Flying Blue:
DL numbered, DL operated flight: yes
DL numbered, AF operated flight: yes
DL numbered, WS operated flight: no
AF numbered, DL operated flight: yes
AF numbered, WS operated flight: yes
WS numbered, WS operated flight: yes
WS numbered, DL operated flight: I am unsure...

I dislike codeshare and miles accrual... They are always complicated and sometimes the FFP cannot give a clear answer either.

WillBarrett_68

hold up.

If the flight has an AF flight number, it's AF marketed (that's the definition of marketing carrier), even if it's on 006 ticket stock.

WillBarrett_68

ticketing carrier is, for basically every situation I can think of, not relevant for determining earnings.

Zorak

This is wrong all around, both in that I don't recall seeing "numbered" in common usage in this forum, and that 006 does not mean marketed by DL, as Will indicated.

If you fly AF1234 with a 006xxxxxxxxxx ticket number, then

- AF is the marketing carrier

- DL(006) is the ticketing/validating/plating carrier
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Validating_carrier
https://en.m.wiktionary.org/wiki/plating_carrier

- And if the plane for the flight is owned/run by/staffed by KL then KL is the operating carrier*

It is possible for all three to be different on the same flight.

*Not going to get into dry/wet lease

hhdl

ILFC needs to get into the FF game

MSPeconomist

DL partners, more or less, with every member of SkyTeam, although some of these alliance members are much closer (AF/KLM/ AM, MU, KE) than others. Some of the less close SkyTeam partners would include SU, AR, VN, and (Taiwan based) China Air for example.

In addition, DL has (generally bi-lateral) partnership agreements with some additional airlines such as VS, VA, and (RIP) GOL. AS was once in this category as AS doesn't belong to any alliance, not do VA and VS, at least not yet. In fact, VS and VA have JVs with DL (as do AF/KLM, AM, MU, and KE; I'm not sure of the current status of AZ).

xliioper

You forgot CZ. No longer Skyteam, but still a DL partner and eligible for SkyMiles earnings (when flights are CZ or DL marketed).

MSPeconomist

Correct, but I said "such as" and deliberately didn't list CZ because IMO it's not clear how long the partnership will last.

tbaiyun

Interesting! Learn something new every time!

Question:
Will someone earn Skymiles on a KL ticketed, VS marketed, DL operated flight?

WillBarrett_68

there is no DL/MU joint venture