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Why won’t scheduled airlines award miles when they fly as charters?

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Why won’t scheduled airlines award miles when they fly as charters?

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Old Jul 27, 2022, 8:07 am
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Why won’t scheduled airlines award miles when they fly as charters?

BA flies some charter flights to ski destinations, for example, and other airlines fly charters too but as far as I know you cannot earn miles on those flights despite the fact that the crew and service is often (always?) the same as their scheduled routes. Why? Are there any exceptions to this situation?
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Old Jul 27, 2022, 8:21 am
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Originally Posted by salut0
BA flies some charter flights to ski destinations, for example, and other airlines fly charters too but as far as I know you cannot earn miles on those flights despite the fact that the crew and service is often (always?) the same as their scheduled routes. Why? Are there any exceptions to this situation?
You're not their customer - the company which has chartered the flight is the customer. You're not paying to the airline the premium which it builds into its tickets to pay for the award of miles or tier points.
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Old Jul 27, 2022, 10:53 pm
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Originally Posted by salut0
BA flies some charter flights to ski destinations, for example, and other airlines fly charters too but as far as I know you cannot earn miles on those flights despite the fact that the crew and service is often (always?) the same as their scheduled routes. Why? Are there any exceptions to this situation?
Same situation with SAS charter flights.
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Old Jul 28, 2022, 4:25 am
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Originally Posted by Scots_Al
You're not their customer - the company which has chartered the flight is the customer. You're not paying to the airline the premium which it builds into its tickets to pay for the award of miles or tier points.
But presumably if the company chartering the plane believes it is a selling point to provide scheduled airline quality service, why do they not also figure out how to give people the miles and points benefits of scheduled airline travel as well for the journey?
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Old Jul 28, 2022, 5:06 am
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Originally Posted by salut0
But presumably if the company chartering the plane believes it is a selling point to provide scheduled airline quality service, why do they not also figure out how to give people the miles and points benefits of scheduled airline travel as well for the journey?
Miles - points / status benefits are not given. They are *sold* for good cash money by the ffp. Frequent flyer programs are very profitable for airlines.
If charter company paid more money to airline, the charter company could give ff miles/status benefits to the punters. Just like some hotels & rental car companies and airlines do. The punters are paying $$$ for these, but only some get the reward for loyalty.
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Old Jul 28, 2022, 5:15 am
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I used the word “given” in the sense of receiving a service or product, not getting something for free. Meaning: on a scheduled flight in business class, passengers are given a meal, drinks, blankets etc. But of course it’s all been paid for.

So what do you think the marginal cost to the chartering entity and therefore the extra cost to the consumer would be to receive the miles and credits/points towards earning status?

Last edited by salut0; Jul 28, 2022 at 5:43 am
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Old Jul 28, 2022, 12:54 pm
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Originally Posted by salut0
But presumably if the company chartering the plane believes it is a selling point to provide scheduled airline quality service, why do they not also figure out how to give people the miles and points benefits of scheduled airline travel as well for the journey?
Some have certainly figured out how to sell lounge access and other stuff. That’s money into the airline’s tills for charter operations.

Rebate currency credit — the miles/points — would be potential money out of the tills for those very same flights.

Given how bad the airline mile/point devaluations are, I wouldn’t count on the rebate currency from such flights accounting for very much benefit to me anyway (if I were to fly such flights).
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Old Jul 28, 2022, 12:56 pm
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Originally Posted by GUWonder
Some have certainly figured out how to sell lounge access and other stuff. That’s money into the airline’s tills for charter operations.

Rebate currency credit — the miles/points — would be potential money out of the tills.
Not if it was just factored in as part of the total service. Cups of tea and free headsets can be factored in, so why not miles and tier points?
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Old Jul 28, 2022, 1:03 pm
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Originally Posted by salut0
Not if it was just factored in as part of the total service. Cups of tea and free headsets can be factored in, so why not miles and tier points?
Tea and headsets today aren’t a drag against revenue and income in the future. Miles/points can be. Also, these airlines increasingly seem to really have a thing against rewarding leisure fare economy class travelers, and so this approach to charter flight passengers is par for that course. And this is even before going into whether the fares are bulk fares for interchangeable passengers and the charter tour sellers not wanting to have to handle “where are my miles/points”, “what about my status benefit” inquiries and so on.
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Old Aug 11, 2022, 12:01 pm
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Finnair gives points for charters, dubbed "leisure flights": 1000 points for a return in Europe/Canaries and 4000 points for longhaul (both tier and award points).

https://www.finnair.com/en/finnair-p...s-from-flights

One return flight earns one segment for status purposes.
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