Can someone explain the award mileages?
Aug 1, 2005, 2:51 pm
#1
Original Poster
Join Date: May 2001
Programs: AA PLT 2MM, LH SEN *, HH Gold
Posts: 3,075
Can someone explain the award mileages?
This is from a search for an award ticket Europe - North America. Can someone explain the different mileages quoted?
Code:
"Open Miles" option Skyteam Award scheme First From 200 000 Miles First Travel class not available Business From 240 000 Miles Business From 90 000 Miles Economy Class From 100 000 Miles Economy Class From 75 000 Miles
Aug 10, 2005, 5:17 am
#2
Original Poster
Join Date: May 2001
Programs: AA PLT 2MM, LH SEN *, HH Gold
Posts: 3,075
200,000 for "open Miles" in F and 100,000 for "Open Miles" in Y seem to agree with the programme documentation, but where do the other three numbers come from?
Last edited by Hagbard Viking; Aug 10, 2005 at 5:19 am
Aug 10, 2005, 6:08 am
#3
Join Date: Aug 2003
Location: NL
Programs: KLM-FB Gold, PriorityClub Platinum Amb.
Posts: 358
Well - it's quite logical 
You think you are booking Bus or First, but in reality, you only book a part of your trip in Bus or First - all the other parts are Eco.
Example:
You book AMS-CDG-FarAway in Bus (according to the first options, plus the whole booking process, including payment!!).
In reality you book AMS-CDG in Bus (okay - Europe Select), and CDG-FarAway in Eco, FarAway-CDG in Eco and CDG-AMS in Bus.
You will see this only in the final confirmation after payment!!
The tool then calculates: one award AMS-CDG in Eco plus one award CDG-FarAway in Bus.
Then you get the 'strange' amounts of miles.
See also: Business Award booked in Economy
For this type of trips (i.e. more than one segment = you have connecting flights) it's better to call. From The Netherlands it's cheaper to call to Paris direct - even if you call via KPN.
You think you are booking Bus or First, but in reality, you only book a part of your trip in Bus or First - all the other parts are Eco.
Example:
You book AMS-CDG-FarAway in Bus (according to the first options, plus the whole booking process, including payment!!).
In reality you book AMS-CDG in Bus (okay - Europe Select), and CDG-FarAway in Eco, FarAway-CDG in Eco and CDG-AMS in Bus.
You will see this only in the final confirmation after payment!!
The tool then calculates: one award AMS-CDG in Eco plus one award CDG-FarAway in Bus.
Then you get the 'strange' amounts of miles.
See also: Business Award booked in Economy
For this type of trips (i.e. more than one segment = you have connecting flights) it's better to call. From The Netherlands it's cheaper to call to Paris direct - even if you call via KPN.
Aug 10, 2005, 6:13 am
#4
Join Date: Jun 2004
Location: JNB
Programs: Air France Platinum - Qatar Airways Gold
Posts: 1,659
Quite tricky.
90K in business: very close to the 80K we usually know for "Europe 1 to US" at Skyteam scheme, so I assume it's based on that amount. So we need to find an extra 10K miles somewhere. An explanation could be that there is an extra charge of 10K on one european leg with no availability at SkyTeam scheme. But then it doesn't really make sense since the difference between Skyteam miles and Open miles for an intra european (zone 1) award in business class is 30K, not 20K. 30K/2 (1 segment) is 15K, not 10K.
There could be another explanation. The transatlantic segments are in coach (50K)
, and the US domestic segments are in business (40K). Same thing with "Europe 2" segments in business (40K).
I dare not consider they would propose it as a business class award...
This is something that I would not book online. I'd rather call FB to get the big picture.
=================
Edited to add:
Eendracht, thank you for quoting again your thread, it contains essential first hand information that should be double posted as a warning in the sticky threads. Lessons learned: mileage quoted by the award booking engine can be very misleading. Sure someone will get caught one day and that will be a huge disappointment at check-in .
I am quite confident that the award availabilities I've been posting for weeks were honest since they were non connecting most of the time, especially the CDG-US ones at 80K in biz.
90K in business: very close to the 80K we usually know for "Europe 1 to US" at Skyteam scheme, so I assume it's based on that amount. So we need to find an extra 10K miles somewhere. An explanation could be that there is an extra charge of 10K on one european leg with no availability at SkyTeam scheme. But then it doesn't really make sense since the difference between Skyteam miles and Open miles for an intra european (zone 1) award in business class is 30K, not 20K. 30K/2 (1 segment) is 15K, not 10K.
There could be another explanation. The transatlantic segments are in coach (50K)
, and the US domestic segments are in business (40K). Same thing with "Europe 2" segments in business (40K).I dare not consider they would propose it as a business class award...
This is something that I would not book online. I'd rather call FB to get the big picture.
=================
Edited to add:
Eendracht, thank you for quoting again your thread, it contains essential first hand information that should be double posted as a warning in the sticky threads. Lessons learned: mileage quoted by the award booking engine can be very misleading. Sure someone will get caught one day and that will be a huge disappointment at check-in
.I am quite confident that the award availabilities I've been posting for weeks were honest since they were non connecting most of the time, especially the CDG-US ones at 80K in biz.
Last edited by Falco Peregrinus; Aug 10, 2005 at 10:20 am
Jan 21, 2016, 7:19 pm
#5
Join Date: Oct 2014
Location: London
Programs: United: 1K, BA: Silver, IHG: Plat, Hyatt: Plat, Marriott: Gold, SPG: Gold, Avis: Chairman
Posts: 178
OK, i'm pretty new to Flying blue and their system is totally confusing me!
I'm trying to book LBJ>JOG oneway on 7th June. Search shows a few options at 10,000 miles. (Routing LBJ-DPS-YOG). When I click to the next screen, price is 20,000 miles. Does flying blue always charge 'per flight' and not per route?
Very annoying that the price shown on the selection view doesn't match the actual cost of the flight!
(Additional: I tried calling the help desk and they quoted 25k miles plus 10x the taxes...!)
I'm trying to book LBJ>JOG oneway on 7th June. Search shows a few options at 10,000 miles. (Routing LBJ-DPS-YOG). When I click to the next screen, price is 20,000 miles. Does flying blue always charge 'per flight' and not per route?
Very annoying that the price shown on the selection view doesn't match the actual cost of the flight!
(Additional: I tried calling the help desk and they quoted 25k miles plus 10x the taxes...!)
Jan 22, 2016, 12:07 am
#7
Join Date: Jan 2007
Location: GLA
Programs: AF/KL FB Plat 4L, VA Vel Silver, BA EC, LH M&M
Posts: 1,825
Jan 22, 2016, 12:21 am
#9
Join Date: Jan 2007
Location: GLA
Programs: AF/KL FB Plat 4L, VA Vel Silver, BA EC, LH M&M
Posts: 1,825
@travellermatt: your phenomenon is likely to be the result of the fact that for giving an overview the system does not actually search for availability, but refers to results previously stored and updated every now and then.