United/NZ denies NZ flight credits

Old Jan 3, 2019, 2:53 pm
  #1  
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United/NZ denies NZ flight credits

I have been denied any mileage credit for flights I took on Air New Zealand business class. This is a major loss and will be the difference between getting status or not on United. I sent them the receipt showing on my united airlines account. It shows the class of service: D, and Z, for the outgoing and incoming flights. This should be worth 200% for premier qualification according to the mileage plus website but they are giving me nothing. They only tell me Air New Zealand refused it. What can I do about this?

Last edited by WineCountryUA; Jan 3, 2019 at 4:05 pm Reason: title tweeked to include NZ
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Old Jan 3, 2019, 2:56 pm
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I think we need more details. Who issued the ticket? What metal, what flight number? Why is NZ denying the request?
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Old Jan 3, 2019, 3:03 pm
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Why does the title say "United denies" but the body says "Air New Zealand refused"? Who is doing the denying / refusing? Or are denying and refusing different things?
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Old Jan 3, 2019, 3:47 pm
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This is *A and UA will thus credit whatever NZ approves. Other than the mechanics, your complaint has nothing to do with UA. It is NZ refusing.

Your mission is now to determine by NZ refused the credit and whether NZ is correct. Did UA pass that on? If not, call NZ.
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Old Jan 3, 2019, 4:01 pm
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Was this purchased business seats? was there any upgrade purchased? And irrops?
Was the fare a published fare or purchased from a consolidator?
What was the flight routing?
And as others have requested, was there any reason for the NZ denial?

We are doing a lot of guessing given the limited information.
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Old Jan 3, 2019, 4:06 pm
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My only experience with getting NZ flight credit was incredibly painful and took months of back and forth until MP Customer Servixe decided to give me the miles instead of deal with me any longer. By far the worst experience I have had in getting miles to post correctly.
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Old Jan 3, 2019, 4:36 pm
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Was is a NZ coded flight? Or a UA flight number (codeshare) on NZ operated flight?
Do you have the physical boarding pass?

As posts above the full details
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Old Jan 3, 2019, 4:46 pm
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If you are sure you are in the right and got the run-around, try Star Alliance [email protected] : https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/28175004-post21.html
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Old Jan 3, 2019, 5:21 pm
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Sorry if there weren't enough details. The critical flights were NZ27 and NZ28 from San Francisco to Auckland and back. These were Air New Zealand flights therefore, classes "D" and "Z" according to the UA receipt. I sent copies of the respective boarding passes to United. United just told me repeatedly that Air NZ denied the mileage credits. United didnt give any details about why. I didnt buy the tickets myself; they were purchased by another party through a travel agent in NZ.

Where should I start with this? If I try and call Air NZ who do I call about it? The payoff for getting the credits is enormous. Otherwise I lost my status completely for 2019.
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Old Jan 3, 2019, 5:46 pm
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Did the travel agent put in your FF number to credit them to UA or did you make sure prior to getting on the flight that NZ had your information and where you wanted the miles credited?

The travel agent who made the reservation - did they use a bulk fare? ie was the flight even eligible to earn miles - NZ or the Travel agent would have to answer that question

Do you know the ticket number? the first 3 digits is really what we need
fare code would also help quite a bit to determine the fare basis
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Old Jan 3, 2019, 5:57 pm
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Originally Posted by nmstough
Sorry if there weren't enough details. The critical flights were NZ27 and NZ28 from San Francisco to Auckland and back. These were Air New Zealand flights therefore, classes "D" and "Z" according to the UA receipt. I sent copies of the respective boarding passes to United. United just told me repeatedly that Air NZ denied the mileage credits. United didnt give any details about why. I didnt buy the tickets myself; they were purchased by another party through a travel agent in NZ.

Where should I start with this? If I try and call Air NZ who do I call about it? The payoff for getting the credits is enormous. Otherwise I lost my status completely for 2019.
so this makes no sense, unfortunately. If you had 2 NZ flights and flight numbers ... in D and Z-class ... then you can't really have a United ticket. Were these codeshare flights?
What happens if you enter your ticket information in the automated retro-crediting system on United,com?
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Old Jan 3, 2019, 6:13 pm
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Originally Posted by nmstough
Sorry if there weren't enough details. The critical flights were NZ27 and NZ28 from San Francisco to Auckland and back. These were Air New Zealand flights therefore, classes "D" and "Z" according to the UA receipt..
Are you sure of the flight numbers?
From a google search
NZ27 IAH AKL
NZ28 AKL IAH https://flightaware.com/live/flight/ANZ28

AKL SFO is NZ8
https://www.airnewzealand.co.nz/flight-schedules

If you retro claimed for NZ27 & NZ28 instead of NZ07 & NZ08 that would fail

As post above, it may be because of the underlying ticket conditions. A special fare?
Best if you contact the TA

Last edited by Mwenenzi; Jan 3, 2019 at 7:29 pm Reason: corrected NZ27
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Old Jan 3, 2019, 6:27 pm
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I would guess they were credited on error to the wrong FFP account by NZ through something your TA entered. I would call NZ, or have your TA call with the ticket numbers and ask which FFP number they were credited to, if it doesnt match yours, then you can follow up accordingly. I don't think this is UA's battle.
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Old Jan 3, 2019, 6:29 pm
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Originally Posted by nmstough
S...they were purchased by another party through a travel agent in NZ...
You need to start there (the travel agent) - was it a consolidator/bulk fare and maybe ineligble for credits? Contacting UA is a waste of your time and UA's. You need to be know something about your own ticket in order to discuss it with Air New Zealand if there is indeed a problem. If the problem is w/ Air New Zealand, that needs to get fixed before anything shows up at UA.
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Old Jan 3, 2019, 7:03 pm
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I fly to AKL about 10 times a year, usually from SFO. NZ28/NZ28 is IAH-AKL. AKL-SFO Routes are NZ7 and NZ8 respectively.

I've bought tickets on both ANZ and United ticket stock and it's never been a problem getting miles to post.

As stated above your issue is likely how the ticket was purchased. Air New Zealand sells "grab a seat fares", and corporate bulk fares some of which are not eligible for mileage credit. Also, as noted above if another (e.g, Air New Zealand) FFN was entered on the ticket you aren't eligible for mileage credit. And finally, even if you get the mileage credit resolved you will not be eligible for PQD because the ticket was almost certainly not purchased on United (016) stock. And a final possibility is that the travel agent did something weird and purchased the ticket on stock that was from a third airline. I have seen NZ travel agents do this a couple times with our business travelers but usually, it involves a multi-stop trip.

Long story short, you should talk to ANZ and/or your travel agent. Good luck.
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