latenightlaundry

Hi there – I have *G through my AC status, though I have recently moved to the United States, and would like to concentrate on earning UA status this year. Question is – am I able to have my MileagePlus number associated with my booking, so that I'm earning PQPs but get access into the United Club by showing my Air Canada status? I do not want the agent to associate my AC status with my booking, in case that means that the miles accrue to AC rather than UA. How would I go about doing this?

fumje

Yes, need to scan your AC *G card, then scan your UA BP.

theet

So I’ve been trying to earn Asiana Club this year (having earned MileagePlus Gold last year) but I haven’t been able to get a clear answer on whether or not I can still use my MileagePlus benefits while flying with Asiana Club.

It seems like hit-or-miss. I flew to Hawaii and after check-in changed my FF number to Asiana Club, and was able to maintain checked bags and priority boarding. And then I flew to Canada, the checked bags still worked (had to do some funny lookup at the counter) but I was then denied access to an Air Canada lounge. On my next flight, I tried to change the FF number but the agent said the checked bags will now cost additional money.

So what’s the official word? Is what I’m doing dumb and I should stop? It’s pretty clear that I won’t make United status this year given my travel schedule, so I wanted to go for Asiana since it has a two-year window.

bwiadca

Official word is no. You are either in or out.

paperwastage

Lounge access is doable. Everything else ymmv.

You do know that asiana is going to leave star alliance at some point right ?

cfischer

I am sure you are aware, but OZ is in the process of merging and leaving *A, so that 2 year window may largely be in ST.

Lounge access should work - just show your UA virtual card. In principle, once you have checked your bag, you can change your FQTV#. Sometimes the translation of that to posting correctly is not 100% though. You might lose E+ seating after changing your FQTV#. If you won't make UA status anyway, I don't see a downside in that strategy.

lewinr

Does this work if I check a bag?
I read somewhere else that once I check a bag the number cannot be changed at a kiosk or by an agent.
Trying to understand if that is correct.

(From my perspective if I earned and have UA status then I should still get the benefits when flying UA even if I decide to credit the flight to another program and it is unreasonable that UA prevent this.)

jsloan

And from my perspective, if you are not crediting to UA, you are not entitled to the benefits of that UA account, and it is not unreasonable that UA prevent this. There are two sides to every argument.

SPN Lifer

Availability of benefits is determined by the United Airlines (UA) MileagePlus™ Terms and Conditions, as interpreted by UA in its sole discretion.

Not by the self-interested "perspective" of millions of different passengers each out to maximize specific benefits of importance to him or her.

lewinr

Yes, I recognize that there are other points of view on this.
And that UA can introduce whatever policies it wants.

But I dont need to accept that these policies are reasonable.
And in this case I dont accept it.

I spent alot of money and time to earn status to get promised benefits.
And the page promising those benefits states only that the benefits are "determined by Premier status at time of check-in with United".
It does NOT say "determined by Premier status at time of check-in with United according to mileage program to which you accrue the flight."

https://www.united.com/ual/en/us/fly...its-chart.html
I have Premier status at time of check-in.

and even if you click through to the Baggage Calculator it states:
I am a Premier Gold member. (Former 1k.)

You will say "you dont have premier status and are not a premier member if you dont accrue to your UA FF account."
But now you are adding a NEW CONDITION that is not given when describing the benefits on this page.

I spent my time and money getting this status for the benefits described on this page.
I have Premier status. I am a "Premier Gold Member". I should get these benefits according to this page.

Yes, it does say that benefits are subject to the terms of the complete rules and details of the program.
But it is unreasonable that they bury such a principle condition only in the "complete rules".

Anyway we can argue this back and forth all day. We have our positions, let's agree to disagree.

In any case I would like to hear any experiences people have changing their FF# after checking-in a bag.

WineCountryUA

This thread and its archive are filled with such experiences. As you will find there is a certain YMMV aspect to outcome but they are generally as desired.

uanj

I know people who do this specifically for the baggage benefit and they do it online. So I guess it works. I have only heard of pushback doing it in the lounge. Apparently if you fly economy and enter a lounge as Star Gold then the airline granting you Gold is charged a fee for access. When you fly a premium cabin the operating carrier pays. There are audits done because historically some airlines have mistakenly billed lounge access so once you enter a lounge I can understand why they won’t change the ff number. It looks like they don’t bother charging other airlines for extra baggage.

I also understand your point in that there is not a specific rule preventing you from doing this. But you are interpreting the rules for your maximum benefit and this is not in the spirit of any ff program. It is possible you could get pushback using an agent.

lincolnjkc

No idea about baggage, but for lounge access the entity (airline) granting access pays the entity operating the lounge (airline, contract operator, etc.) for each access with the rule that cabin trumps status
​​​​​ (or "most specific wins" if you prefer to look at it that way)

If you enter an XX lounge on YY status, YY pays XX an amount for that entry; if you enter a XX lounge on a premium cabin flight operated by ZZ, even if you have status on YY, ZZ pays for your entry.

In one doc I found on the Internet years ago I recall it being fairly nominal ($15-$20/passenger, IIRC). Even with UC members flying UA there appears to be some accounting where your swipe is 'charged' to -- UC ops (domestic flights), PL ops (premium cabin international), or *G ops (non-premium cabin international) based on traveled itinerary.

It is interesting to note that this from what I've pieced together this is at least partially why UC members can't access a UC when flying non-*A airlines that have a local contract for UC access -- such as EI in CLE. EI will only pay UA for their premium cabin passengers and it seems UC ops won't pay for its members not flying UA, and *G ops won't pay for *G not flying *A... There is a heavy degree of supposition there so the evidence I have found may be leading me down a dusty trail.
​​​​​
​​​​

ttuna3

Some of the UA outstations have issues with *G privileges. Had a issue with an upper Midwest one who absolutely refused to extend Group 1 since my OZ number wasn't in their system and they couldn't verify my status since the OZ and UA systems don't play nice with each other on names (has to do with the way OZ Koreanizes my name. DEN gate agent had no issues waving me through and finally got a "we're looking at it" again after the initial blow off from CS and then talking to the X(Twitter) team. This was with both my physical and virtual cards. Twitter acknowledged that I was entitled to *A with a card per the *A rules and what is supposed to be UA policy even if the number doesn't stick. Got the miles in about 2 minutes from OZ with a retro-claim after I waited the week to make sure it somehow didn't credit automatically.

lewinr

My point is that there should not be any rule preventing this.

If I earned status with UA as a good customer of UA, that status should work when I pay more money to UA to fly UA.

I shouldnt lose my "good customer" status only because in some cases for whatever reason I decide not to accrue the miles to UA.