I was talking about the "other alliance model" being nostalgic only in that specific sense.

Not trying to say one service is better than the other in general and where you get better benefits and/or service.

I have no clear idea on the whole picture of that, so it makes no sense to me to comment on that.

Yet on this specific issue...Miles and More is 2011 and SkyTeam is way beyond. I don't understand why... but that's still reality.

I was told that I need to call Delta directly, to USA, to collect these Czech Airlines miles.

So actually now I need to spend money to collect these miles. All because I wasn't aware at 6 in the morning that Czech Airlines are part of the Alliance.

Does it make sense?

And even if it wasn't 6 in the morning and it was Air France... don't see why I need to spend money to collect these miles just because I forgot to mention at check-in my membership or whatever.

Really makes no sense to me.

Not a big deal at all. I will survive.

But would I be OK if I was Skyteam and my costumers had to go through that to collect their miles? No way.

Air Canada's Aeroplan also has the same feature, allowing you to submit your credit request for flights operated by most *A partners. Much more convenient than mailing in the BP.

First of all, you're mixing SkyTeam (an alliance) and Miles & More (a frequent flyer program shared by several European Star Alliance members). If one wanted to bank to UA's, the service provided by M&M would be worthless, since it doesn't apply to an entire alliance (and their service still doesn't include two *A members). SkyTeam doesn't get involved in how miles credit to a program from flights on another member carrier. In fact, a given fare class might earn at different rates on different alliance partners, since they have their own individual frequent flyer programs. Would it be great if every SkyTeam carrier provided a way to retroactively claim miles from partner flights online? Sure. However, I think those of us who fly SkyTeam with any regularity would prefer that they start with sorting out seat selection so that you can trust a seat selected on delta.com for a flight operated by AF is actually reflected in the AF systems. Right now, it's virtually a lock that it won't be.

It's been pointed out that you should be able to scan or photograph and email your boarding passes to DL, which you can do for free. In fact, calling them will accomplish nothing, so it's not worth doing. They need the boarding passes, either physically or via fax or email.

Sorry, I might have been confused. I thought Skyteam is also the name of the Skyteam alliance. I guess there is no one FF program for Skyteam? The wording, I think, matters less. There are two alliances. Each has a different approach to miles collecting. Still, even if a 1000 miles flight with Delta and AF on the same class is calculated in a different way it's still something a system, not very sophisticated, can handle...

As for the seating... well, there you go. You give another example, even more annoying, how this alliance is... more like a group of companies having mutual interest yet each still work for its best interest and nobody is sitting on top of the alliance to make sure it works smoothly for the best and comfort of the SkyTeam customer. Delta care for their customers. AF for theirs. So on. At least that's how it sounds by the mileage and the seating.

I mean...the concept of an alliance of that kind, at least some part of it, is to attract more costumers to use your carriers than others. So you need to make sure your customers are well served. Doesn't feel like there's a SkyTeam boss that is working on that and that the members are eager to work it out. Too bad.


Right. Forgot that. I just spoke with the local Delta office, where actually a good friend of mine is working, and he told me I need to call them. This confusion is another outcome of the not-so-smooth system.

But yeh, I'll go look for the email with which I can contact Delta. Thanks for the reminder.

And...from what I see now...on the Delta website...

"For our airline partners, send a copy of your airline ticket/ticket receipt and boarding pass(es) to:
Delta Air Lines, Inc.
SkyMiles Account Support
Dept. 654
P.O. Box 20532
Atlanta, GA 30320-2532
or fax: 404-773-1945"

No email. Only fax.

If that's not nostalgic...

To clear up a few misunderstandings and to emphasize a few things mentioned by others here:

First, remember to not mix up your terms:

You are a member of a frequent flyer program. This might be Delta's SkyMiles or Czech Airline's OK Plus or Lufthansa's Miles&More program.
Your Frequent Flyer Program might be used by only a single airline or it might be shared. Both KLM and AirFrance formed Flying Blue and nowadays Air Kenia and Air Europa use it as well.
Lufthansa created Miles&More but when they bought Austrian and Swiss they started using M&M as well.

Your airline is usually a member of an Airline Alliance. Delta, Czech, AirFrance and KLM are part of SkyTeam. Lufthansa, United, EgyptAir are part of StarAlliance. British Airways and American Airlines are with OneWorld.

The Alliances do not have a frequent flyer program. The airlines do. You are with your preferred airlines program but when you fly with another airline from the same alliance, you can get miles for your own program.

If you did not get them because you did mention your frequent flyer number when booking the ticket or when checking in, you have to claim them. This is done through your own frequent flyer program, not through the alliance.

How your program handles that is depending on your program.


Great. So give your Delta SkyMiles account number when buying tickets or when checking in and you'll see the miles on your Delta Account.


You don't. You collect SkyMiles from Delta.


Right. SkyTeam is an alliance, not a frequent flyer program.


You have one program per alliance, with one specific carrier.

On another note:
I have no experience with Delta, I actually avoid them like the plague which is not a problem as I avoid flying to the US as well. I doubt however that they are not offering an online form to claim missing miles. Look for that, fill it in and that's it.

If this is not possible, you might want to change your program and go with another Frequent Flyer Program.
But the other airlines are similar.
And even Miles & More want a paper mail when dealing with missing flights on e.g. Egypt Air...

Keep that in mind.

That's the official stance, but many, many, many FTers have reported success emailing in PDFs of their boarding passes to get mileage credit. [email protected] is the one to try.

The alliances are basically just loose affiliations of carriers to facilitate codesharing (buying a ticket from Air France that actually involves flying on a Delta airplane), mileage earning, mileage redemption, and lounges. Unless there is a joint venture immunized against anti-trust/collusion lawsuits (from SkyTeam, DL/AF/KL/AZ have such a joint venture for trans-Atlantic traffic, as do BA/AA/IB from OneWorld...I think there's something in Star Alliance as well, but I'm not certain), the carriers must all still compete with each other. These are massive companies with their own IT infrastructure, and integrating it is highly nontrivial. NW and KL had something great going on, but the AF/KL combination and then the NW/DL merger did a lot of damage to that (largely because of DL's choices of IT systems to preserve). Within any of the alliances, you'll find varying degrees of IT integration between their systems.

As has been pointed out, SkyTeam has several frequent flyer programs (as do all the other alliances). DL has one. OK, VN, CZ, KE, MU, SU, CI, AM have their own. AF, KL, KQ, UX, and RO use Flying Blue. In Star Alliance, you'll find Miles&More used by LH, LX, and OS. BD has its own program. NH has another. AC has another. UA has one, and its merger buddy CO still has a separate program of its own. To credit miles to a specific program, you need to give your number before flying or else provide documentation. Apparently M&M is willing to hunt things down based on electronic information submissions. Most programs aren't, and the IT systems are not integrated enough in any alliance for this to all be done automatically.

Thanks for the quick lesson guys.

All the best.

Why not? You can do that with MilleMiglia as well, on AZ website (which is notoriously rotten otherwise).

You just type in the ticket number, and it just works.

Just to be sure I'm understanding this...my Korean Air points cannot be transferred to my Delta account because I didn't give my Delta ff# to Korean Air???

If this is the case, I'm done with Delta. I have a trip booked with mostly middle seats and just found out they are now selling some of the window and aisle seats.

Welcome to Flyertalk
You cannot transfer points from one FFP to another FFP. This mean that if you are a member of both Korean airline program and Delta Skymiles program and have points (miles) on both of them, you cannot consolidate the 2 programs by transferring all the miles on one of these 2 programs. But you can earn DL points flying Korean (and reverse) and redeem miles with all Skyteam airlines and partners. When you book a ticket, you need to give the FFP on which you want the miles credited.

And if you gave the wrong number or didn't give any number at all during booking: You can always change the number during check-in. Either online or at the counter. Hand them your card and ask them to make sure that this number is marked on the ticket.