Miles&Smiles Elite is no more Star Gold card... [in some computer systems]
 

... According to Scandinavian Airlines Customer Service Management and (propably) Miles&Smiles team B-)

Answer I got from SAS Customer Service when I wrote a short complaint why SAS does not recognized my Gold status on my last SAS flight:

Dear Mr xxxxxxx,
.
Your correspondence has been received in regard to your Frequent Flyer membership status in your booking, xxxxxx when travelling from Dublin on 5th November with SAS.

I am sorry that our agent was unble to confirm your Gold status and was unable to resolve this for you at the time of your check in.. Our agents are unable to view your account details and I aplogise if this was not courteously explained to you.. All Star Alliance members are advised to carry their membership card when travelling so membership level can be confirmed.

I have spoken with Miles & Smiles and they have confirmed at this time you are an Elite member.. To benefit from Star Alliance Gold benefits you are required to hold Elite Plus membership level.

.Therefore on this occasion your reservation correctly issued your boarding pass with Basic level

.Kind regards,

.xxxxxx xxxxxxxxxx

Customer Care Manager

Scandinavian Airlines

What a complete and utter nonsense.

This is simply not true! Have flown recently with other *A carriers, and my TK Elite (*G) STATUS was printed on my BP. I always hand them my *G physical card, and ask them to make sure that my FF# and my status is on my rez and my BP.

P.S. I seem to have read somewhere that SK did have some problems recognizing other carriers' *G status (for lounge access, priority bags/boarding/screening, etc.). Maybe it was a system glitch?! But I suppose a physical card should solve the problem?

I guess you have not had your card with you, righr? Then - if SK database is not updated with "G status - you might be out of luck. I once managed to get to the ARN lounge by showing them my status on TK App om my smartphone.

I always have my card with me.
I showed my card at checkin and asked for update, 'couse my online BP showed TK*B, but checkin agent could not fix this glitch over 10 min, so I gave up.
To use Fast Track in DUB and Gold Lounge in CPH I showed my Elite card and got access with no problem .

Why didn't you bring M&S Elite card?? You can not rely on that all systems recognise elite status of other *A members. It may be a IT glitch but it certainly can happen - that is why you should always bring the card along.

ooops - my bad - wrong assumption:(

FYI.. There is a portal for Star Alliance employees (no password required so one can access it without breaking the law:)) https://portal.staralliance.com/employees/

and the rules are:

Link: https://portal.staralliance.com/empl...ports/branding

I always have a printout of this page and it already saved my a.. a few times. (The page and rules were discussed many times on the old BD forum as BD had a really terrible IT department, so we - the BD flier community - had to help ourselves:))

Scandalous accusation of my beloved bmi .... but true of course. :D That's why my transition from BD to TK was so easy ;)

Same happened to me on Lufthansa. I thought it was just some random hiccup in the system. Boarding passes showed TK*P as did passbook, but I still got my second luggage free of charge and no other problems. I has my physical card with me. My card did show up as TK*G just 4 weeks ago previously with lufthansa.

Ha ha

Agree!

Hi all,

just wanted to share my story on this:

I am TK*G but (all) my boarding passes for my recent round trip in December/January (FMO-FRA-SFO-LAX, LAX-FRA-FMO) showed TK*P.

The LH personnel was not able to get the system to show TK*G although he had verified my card (which I had with me) was working.
On my first flights I even got the "Priority" tags added to my bags. However, when we arrived in SFO the tags have been cut of and were delivered along with the non-priority luggage.

I was able to use the Airport, StarAlliance, LH and United lounges after showing the physical card though.

On our flight back several people got upgraded since the flight was overbooked. With my boarding pass not showing TK*G, I feel that I might have missed out on an upgrade... Not sure, but it would be bad if that's the case because of some software bug :(

All tickets have been booked via United but where operated by LH (just SFO-LAX was on United). Maybe this is the reason?
When flying to SFO in November (also booked via United) I had to pay for my 2nd bag as they do not allow a 2nd bag in economy, even when *G.
Again, the ticket only showed TK*P but I showed the physical card on checkin and was told that I still had to pay for my 2nd bag.

For the last trip I did not have a 2nd bag.

Can anyone shed some light on this?

Cheers,
Thomas

Were both of those United trips long-haul trips including overseas segments on the PNR? If your earlier booking was a separate booking within North America, your standard free baggage allowance is 0 and *G gives you +1 free bag. On overseas itineraries, your free baggage allowance is 1 and *G gives you a 2nd free bag.

Ah yes, the wonders of the LH IT system. I had the same experience recently on a LX/LH itinerary. The LX BP was correct TK*G but the LH BP said TK*P. I asked LH staff what this was all about and they claim to know nothing.

One agent even tried to manually set my TK number to *G but the system refused.

Now if you were into conspiracies you could think that LH deliberately blocks TK*G given their lack of friendship.

Moral of the story is always carry your physical card. Incidentally LX lounge dragons still insist on the card even when it says *G on the BP.

I have the problem with my UA and TK card.
The problem exists since LH introduced OLCI many moons ago.

My last trips with LH and SK (end of December) with no problem - BP showed TK*G (and got even the op-up on LH).