On a related note, anyone have experience with star alliance elite baggage benefits on EN? In my case, UA *G. The thread here quote a web page suggesting that only LH elites get baggage benefits. But a poster above speculates that all *G would. Any actual experience?

Booked as a LH codeshare?

If you go to http://www.airdolomiti.eu/ and click on the "Destinations >" button on the mid-right of the page, you will get a pop-up map of the current destinations.

Those listed as operated on behalf of Lufthansa can be booked with and will earn United miles - they have an LH flight number in the 1000 series, and they also show a full list of Star Alliance flight numbers at the gate.

Those listed as managed by Air Dolomiti cannot be booked and do not earn United miles - they only show an EN flight number and an LH number in the 9000 series.

Thank you f:)r this info. This explains why UA rejected me when trying to get credit for my recent Air Dolmiti flight on 016 ticket stock with an LH flight number. I'm not terribly pleased but at least I now understand what's going on.

You can get mileage with EN as part of a larger UA booking. I've flown EN MUC<->TRS as part of a larger SFO<->TRS itin for about 8 years between 2004-2012. There was the annoyance of having to get paper tickets from UA because EN was in a weird partnership where they had a codeshare agreement in place but their own booking engine, etc., but I never had a problem getting mileage credit. That may have changed recently.

There was a more complete integration between themselves and LH around 2010-2011. I stopped having to get paper tickets for itins that had EN segments and I noticed that the gate area monitors would list only the LH flight number at MUC and TRS. I don't think they are a full *A member even now and they've always referred to themselves as "A partner of Lufthansa" instead of "A proud member of the Star Alliance" .

I <3 EN BTW. The service has always been wonderful, the staff is nice and I love how they manage to bust out a full meals even in coach, even on a quick hop over the Dolomites in an ATR.

I was lucky enough to be on a couple of their flights when they were handing out little HerpaWings models of their planes to pax. :)

I haven't been on an EN flight since 2012, but I never had a problem with *G anything in almost 10 years of flying them. Note, though, that as I said in a previous posting, this was part of a itin that included UA metal flights booked through UA. I've never flown just MUC-VCE or VIE-MXP, etc. on just EN.

My flights into TRS have always been in the 4xxx or 3xxx range.

This does suck for *A service, esp. intra-IT because you don't really have all that many options . It seems like your choices are to fly one of the many LH "partners" or AZ :(

I found this out the hard way. I called MP and asked to speak to a supervisor. They said LH rejected my request, not UA. I could have easily booked my trip via FRA and got full credit so after I told my story the supervisor gave me 500 PQMs but no RDMs. One time thing, they said, but to be fair the website isn't clear about this.

FWIW, I was rejected but then the agent had to ask the supervisor about something else and they ended up crediting the EN flights. I was told that they've had problems crediting them automatically and that LH was incorrectly rejecting things. I'm now n:confused:t sure what I believe but after receiving a whopping 1000 RDM, 500 PQM and $56 PQD for my P fare VCE-MUC I'm moving on. My 016-ticketed BRU-VCE flights on SN got zero credit due to the P fare class.

According to .bomb, after 9/1, all EN flights earn credit (both RDM and PQM) as a partner airline.

I believe only the LH-coded ones will recognize *A baggage limits, though. Others still have "priority boarding" FWIW.

I just noticed that too Exerda that Air Dolomiti is now listed on the UA partner page.

To confirm: I just tried to claim for LH coded Air Dolomiti flights in August and got told that if they had been in Sept I would have credited, but no go for August :-(. Both LH 9xxx flights to/from VRN. Oh well...

This may be yet another case where HUCA works w;)nders.

It's sad but true, that LH flights operated by Air Dolomiti earn according to the partner schedule (see update below, this may no longer be the case)

In my opinion, it's worth every (lost) mile

The service on Air Dolomiti is second to none when compared to every other "regional" airline

Where else do they insist, that when you have a glass of wine, you are given a glass, not a piece of plastic...


UPDATE, 15th October

Word of caution

UA are being "difficult", talk about driving (flying!) you into the hands of their competition??

"We’re always glad to hear from Premier 1K members like you. Thanks for writing.

We received your request to credit your recent flight on Lufthansa. Unfortunately, this flight does not qualify to earn MileagePlus® miles because it was not operated by Lufthansa.

A codeshare flight is marketed (or sold) by one airline but actually flown by another. In this case, your flight was marketed by Lufthansa (our partner), but operated by Air Dolomiti S P A (an airline that does not participate in the MileagePlus program). When you fly a codeshare flight, it is the operating airline (Air Dolomiti S P A in this case) that determines whether your flight is eligible to earn miles.

We realize that airline codeshare partnerships are detailed, especially when it comes to earning miles.

Thank you for selecting MileagePlus as your frequent flyer program. We look forward to serving you again soon."

The problem is Lufthansa.

In former times they just had LH codes on all flights. They were just operated with EN planes (like City-Line). These were 100% Star Alliance Flights with all Bells and Whistles.

Then the bean counters found the little loophole:

They just switched routes from LH codes to EN codes and added a codeshare with LH. What happened now:
All *A Members did not get any *A Perks (I saw *G not getting Lounge access in MUC or not getting extra luggage).

No Milage credit.

The change was made route by route and done very silently. The plane and the timetable did not change, just a little rochade with the flight numbers.

The did similar things with Germanwings (4U) but with that, they repainted the planes.
Both are no members of *A!

UA *G are very lucky: UA did bi-lateral agreements with 4U and EN, so you get at least miles. No word about lounge access and extra luggage.

LH is just a shame!

lounge access at MUC?
 

It looks like UA has sorted out the mileage accrual issues by making EN a partner airline outside *A.

I wonder if/how this would affect lounge access in MUC? I have a connection there between ORD arrival on UA and MXP departure on EN.

Has anyone been able to use *G lounge access when transiting MUC to an EN flight recently?