An answer to "Which program should I credit a flight to?"
 

Right now it is just an answer, not the answer, but I'm working on that. ;)

I've got a whole ton of data about earning rates for 6 of the 27ish carriers in *A right now. Today's project was to create an interface where any particular route/fare/operating carrier combination could be input and it would calculate the various earning permutations. Especially at the very high and very low fares the earning rates can vary wildly so being able to compare them was something I thought was useful. Here's an example of an F fare from FRA-MCO:
Right now I've got data from AC, A3, BD, US, UA and CO in there and I'm working on adding more. Give it a look and let me know if you see anything wonky or if you think it is a complete waste of time. :eek:

http://www.wandr.me/Tools/Frequent_F...g_Options.aspx

Sorry the "export" formatting sucks; I guess I'll add that to the bug list for now.

Looks pretty good, but it might be a case of information overload. Most people only care about one status per airline (if they even care about that airline), though that would greatly complicate the interface. Adding a separator between the airlines would help to process the information, as would merging the cells using ROWSPAN.

You also have Premier Executive outranking 1K on UA.

I did consider creating ain interface where you could enter all your status levels and then it would only show those. I decided against it due to complexities in storing the profile info, plus I really don't want that info in my systems if I can avoid it from a privacy perspective. I like the idea of splitting it by airline; I'll look into making that happen.

As for the "rankings" they are not purposefully sorted by status levels within each program; that's just how they happen to be in the database. I can try to address that, though bad data is my primary focus right now.

Thanks for the feedback!

sbm12 never ceases to amaze me with his solutions to help fellow FT's. I will be happy to make this a sticky at the appropriate time!

Great work! ^

This tool will be particularly helpful to determine where to credit the so-called "discounted economy" booking classes as more and more booking classes only earn 50% miles or even 0 miles.

Btw are you sure COS bonus on AC is only RDM, not EQM?

Yes, your AC numbers look a bit wonky.

All AC members would earn the base mileage 4743, plus 50% COS for F =7114.
I don't see where you are getting the 8300 number from.
Depending on the airline flown, and the status of the member, and the options
selected, an AC member MIGHT get additional miles.

For example, a SE member who selected bonus miles option would get another 4743
( for a total of 11857) if the flight was on UA. An E member who selected the bonus miles
would get bonus 2371 miles, for total of 9485. A P member who selected the bonus
would get bonus 1186, for total of 8300 ( Ah - that is where the 8300 is coming from!)

If the flight was on LH, then all three levels who selected the bonus miles would get
25% bonus = 8300.

This is an LH flight (the only non-stop carrier on that route). That is where the 25% across the board comes from.

I also just added LH earning rates though I know there are some problems with the fixed earning rates within Europe not reflecting the 25% elite bonuses on LH group operated flights. I'm trying to figure that out.
No, I'm not. Is anyone else?? :)

I´m almost certain the COS bonus is both EQM and RDM when the flight is credited to AC/AE (at least my last Z flight seems to have earnt 125% EQM and RDM)

E.g.
FRA-YYZ in AC J - booking class Z would earn 125% EQM and RDM = 4925 miles
FRA-YYZ in AC J - booking class J would earn 150% EQM and RDM = 5910 miles
Prestige/Elite/Super Elite bonus miles are only RDM and are based on the base miles (so + 0.25/0.5/1.0 x 3940 RDM miles)

FRA-YYZ in LH F - booking class A/F would earn 150% EQM and RDM = 5910 miles
(+ 25% RDM bonus based on base miles)

Thanks for the explanation, Jasper2009. It looks like I had it wrong on the AC metal and I adjusted that. It should show up correctly now.

:cool:

Ah man this is awesome
^^^

Just a note on earning UA miles with LH within Europe:

Mileage accrual in T and L class on flights within Europe is only valid when in conjunction with a Lufthansa intercontinental flight. For flights only within Europe on Lufthansa, T and L class will not earn any mileage credit.

I don't know how you handle this but currently the system shows miles earned when they would not be.

Finally someone comes up with a practical solution to this eternal question. Brilliant!

The text should be red and if you hover over it you should see the fine print "Tickets wholly within Europe will earn no credit on this fare." I could display it as a 0 and add the fine print to say that it will earn 100% in conjunction with an intercontinental flight instead if folks think that's more accurate or a better way to see the data.

Understand! Perhaps a key saying what red means would be sufficient?

I guess I can move the "Notes" to above the table from below it. ;)