Can I get miles from Virgin Australia flight?
 

I've got a random Delta/VA flight from LAX-BNE. I noticed on VA website that some Star Alliance airlines are VA partners - New Zealand, Singapore, South African. Any chance I can get UA miles through indirect Star Alliance link?

No. VA is not a United partner.

No - I would keep with Delta if you fly them on occasion - their miles don't expire (though do devalue even more quickly than UA/AA) and they have an occasional 5-10k domestic Y sale so you could probably find some value in them eventually.

Otherwise I would credit to SQ since SQ earns at 100% for UA (so useful if you aren't going for status and have a flight where 100% > your RDM multiplier) and because they are a transfer partner of all major currencies so you can transfer in to get some useful award level and redeem for UA, SQ, or other *A.

Thanks! Curious about the Singapore idea:

- When you say 'SQ earns at 100% for UA', do you mean I can transfer SQ miles earned through this VA flight to UA?
- I'm not up on the lingo so not sure what you mean in the comment about RDM multiplier

- When you say 'SQ earns at 100% for UA', do you mean I can transfer SQ miles earned through this VA flight to UA?

No worries! You can't transfer SQ miles through to UA but you can accumulate SQ miles which can be redeemed for UA flights according to the SQ award chart. SQ is also a transfer partner of Chase UR/AMEX MR/Citi TYP/SPG so you can top off your SQ mileage account from any of those.

There are some parts of the SQ award chart that are better than the UA award chart. For example, LAX - HNL - LAX in Y on UA flights would cost you 45k UA miles but only 35k SQ miles for the same flights. It's a function of airlines in the same alliance having different award charts for the same flights.

- I'm not up on the lingo so not sure what you mean in the comment about RDM multiplier

Mileage earning on UA is a revenue based mileage program these days so you earn RDM miles (as opposed to status miles) based on ticket cost net of taxes (5x for general member, 7x for Silver, etc. etc.).

SQ is still a distance-based award program for status and redeemable miles. For all UA fare classes you can earn 100% on both if you credit to SQ.

For example a $200 JFK - LAX roundtrip would only earn you ~900 RDMs as a general member if credited to UA (~$190 x 5) but would earn 4950 miles if credited to SQ. As noted above there are some good opportunities in the SQ award chart so if you aren't chasing status on United, you are better off crediting cheap tickets to SQ and not UA.

Hard to know what you mean by "a random Delta/VA flight". Is it a codeshare? Operated by who?
www.wheretocredit.com/va
www.wheretocredit.com/dl

You can transfer VA freq flyer points to SQ freq flyer points at a 1:3.5 ratio. Being able to transfer ff points/miles is very unusal

Flying a flight marked by one airline (flight number), operated by a second airline (codeshare) and crediting the frequent flyer miles to a third airlines ffp is always problematic. Usually only works if all three are in the same alliance (Oneworld - Star - Skyteam) or specific provision in the ff program rules. e.g AA miles or BA avios on QF marketed flight operated by EK.

With some airline ffp's (like Oneworld Alliance) the marketing carrier (flight number) determines earnings, (if eligible).
With some airline ffp's (like Star Alliance) the operating carrier (a.k.a. metal) determines earnings, (if eligible).