mith

Hi there,
I am mostly dealing with LH and partners at this point, oneworld has gone down esp. since my home airport is abandoned by BA and I will consider flying one of the new or old skyteam members on transatlantic routes a couple of times a year - all private - so moslty cheap economy tickets:
I dont care too much for status as i might not reach it, but I would be glad to get some awards out of it. I know as a European I cannot join NW-perks, but Onepass and Skymiles seem to be (still?) open to Europeans. I am tending to Continental, because I can transfer miles to amtrak and use them for train trips in the states ( i do have an adress over there, so no problem). Just wondering if it is possible to earn onepass miles on a NW flight operated by KLM or it will be possible to earn those miles on a AF operated Delta flight. I know as discussed in some star alliance forums that people got screwed when they tried to credit miles for a flight on one flight operated by an alliance member with a different alliance member codeshare number onto a third alliance members mileage programme.
Anyone here with experience crediting miles on a KLM operated NW flight to onepass?
I am really not putting more than one cent value to a mile and flight redemtion is not so important, I have enough problems burning BA or LH miles because lowcost carriers are usually cheaper than the tax alone that one has to pay when using an award ticket in most cases.
Thanks for your help.

graraps

It's the most reasonable choice. As you are not in France, I believe status thresholds are quite low at 40000 miles and you may even be able to make Rouge if you do 3-4 trips from Germany to secondary US airports via Paris via JFK or some other US gateway. KL, CO and NW will join Skyteam in September. I believe you can earn miles for EVERY flight for which you've bought a Skyteam-coded ticket.
I know nothing about Amtrak therefore unable to help you with that.
Redemption only makes good financial sense if you are patient enough to wait till you have enough miles to get a longhaul Biz or First class ticket.

mith

well, do miles expire after 3 years at F+ like with many european programmes when you dont have status, or will they only expire if someone doesnt earn or spend miles over a 3 year period like it is with most American programmes?

graraps

I am 99% sure it's the latter, but I am not a member of F+ so can't be absolutely adamant. You can try asking at the AF forum.

JOUY31

F+ miles expire after three years unless you do at least one of two things :
- have a paid flight on a SkyTeam airline
- have a purchase using the AF American Express card.

The validity of all your miles is then extended for another three years.

NickB

AFAIK, all the programmes that you are considering have a miles do not expire as long as you credit at least one flight to the programme in 3 years.

re elite status, wIth two US trips a year, you will typically be just short of the first rung of the elite ladder which across all programmes is 25K (except AF if living in France) :silver elite on KL,NW or CO , F+ bleu.
However, if you tweak your itinerary (rather than taking the most direct route) or fly the odd extra intra-European trip or two, you should make it to silver/F+ bleu. Benefits at that level are limited, but at least you get to use Business class counters, which can save you quite a bit of queuing time. Also, if you tend to travel with a lot of luggage, you will typically have an extra allowance.
For qualification: check out those two things:
1) minimum earning. AF is good on that, with a minimum 1000 points on AF operated European flights (others have a minimum 500 miles). Watch out for the domestic N class flights on AF, which do not earn anything.
2) excluded classes: US programmes have started to reduce the amount of elite qualifying miles on some discounted economy fares.

For earning, it is worth checking what bonus there is as a silver elite member. With KL, is is 25%. With CO or NW, it is 50%. Not sure about F+

If you don't earn that much miles but usually travel with someone else, something which is interesting in the AF programme is that they regularly have duo offers, viz. you can get somebody else to fly with you on an award for no extra points. In effect, this is tantamount to a 50% discount if they are two of you traveling, but completely useless if you travel on your own.

Finally a question: are you sure about what you say re codeshare on *A. Any pointers to relevant threads?
I was under the impression that airlines in *A behaved the same as elsewhere, viz:
- miles earned on flights coded under a *A airline and operated by a *A airline (although not necessarily the same)
- miles not earned on flights coded under a *A airline but operated by a non-*A airline (or vice-versa) unless the non *A airline is a direct partner of the airline whose FFP you are crediting the points to.
I am asking as I have a couple of BD-operated, LH-coded flights that I want to credit to OZ.

As far as CO is concerned, you will earn miles on KL-operated flights, whether these are under a CO, KL or NW code. Note, however, the 50% reduction on Elite qualification if you fly under a CO or NW code and the fare basis is one of the cheap classes (details of relevant classes are on the Onepass website)

mith

Thank you very much...
it does seem that F+ is a quite good programme... have to see, if they will stick to those nice earning rates also for cheap tickets on every new Skyteam member. Plus - I realize Air India is a partner, and I did fly them already (but I bet there is no way to claim those miles from 1998...maybe worth trying when I sign up?).
Continental has a partnership with VIrgin Atlantic, but it seems to me that their discounted flights usually dont earn any miles anyway. The advantage of Onepass is however, that I can already use the miles from one flight and use them for amtrak travel in the US while on AF I need to do at least two or three roundtrips in order to receive a free ticket.
I might sign up for one of the programmes depending which airline will be the first I fly or sth like that. Thanks again for your help

PS: I dont recall where i read this problem (someone not getting UA miles for a US flight operated by LH or some other way round - but it was here in one of the forums.

NickB

You do get 100% onepass miles on discounted Virgin Economy, even deep discounted classes like X, as long as it is a published fare. What you will not get is elite qualifying miles (unless booked under a CO code).

Forget about claiming old miles from 1998. There is no way that you'll get these.

JOUY31

- With F+ Bleu, you do receive 50% bonus miles
- I did receive LH status miles for an OS coded flight operated by AF (at that time, the food on CDG-VIE flights operated by AF was so much better than the food on on flights operated by OS - I don't think there is any difference now, except for Champagne vs Sekt )
- I may be mistaken, but I think that on OW, the code-share flight must be operated by an OW airline

NickB

That is right, and is generally the rule across most airlines in all three alliances (other than direct partners on the airline to whose FFP you are crediting the flights).

Were you just lucky on the AF-operated/OS coded flight (in other words, was it just a mistake on the part of LH) or is that standard for LH?