wco81

So I had booked 3 TATL flights for 2020 before this new PQP scam er scheme became public.

These were all P fares:

1. SFO-LHR-GVA-LIS outbound, LIS-EWR-SFO return, on 016 ticket. The LHR-GVA and GVA-LIS are on LX, also P fares. FWIW, it showed 2117 PQD and 19125 PQM.

1a. FAO-LIS-OPO flight booked directly with TAP on their "Classic" fares

1b. OPO-LIS booked with TAP, on Basic fare.

2. SFO-LHR round trip, on 016 ticket, for 2326 PQD and 16104 PQM

3. SFO-LHR round trip on 016 ticket, for 2264 PQD and 16104 PQM.

3a. LHR-ZRH and GVA-LHR booked with LX, classic L and T fares.

So under the old MP scheme, I would have had over 6500 PQD and 51,300 PQMs, enough to qualify for Premier Gold for 2021.

There are 14 segments or flights so I guess it would be 14 PQFs, well short of the 24 I would need.

However, I plugged these flights into the PQP Calculator (pqp-calc.com) and got over 10,000 PQPs, which by itself would qualify for Premier Gold. However I guessed at some of the fare classes for the short-haul intra-Europe flights, though those don't contribute a lot to the totals in the first place:

Here are the printouts of those entries. Does anyone see obvious mistakes? Maybe UA flights can't be used in that calculator at all, because they are yielding way more PQPs than the PQDs UA had listed when I purchased the tickets:

rankourabu

The UA(SPEC) entries in the calculator are for bulk (specialty) tickets. You need to remove them, and instead add actual PQD/PQP earned based on spend for any 016 tickets.

wco81

Ah OK, so that's 9835 for the UA segments I had entered vs. 6707 PQD from those same UA flights, a difference of 3128.

So I don't know if the short-haul PQPs I entered are correct but I guess I would need somewhere around 3000 more PQPs or worst-case scenario, 3293 PQPs.

I guess I'll play around with *A TATL flights.

wco81

OK, so I'm looking at booking another TATL in order to hit 10k PQP, so need 3300 PQPs.

I can easily hit it by doing an SFO-LHR on AC, where the routing is SFO-YUL-LHR-YVR-SFO, all all AC P fares. About 3600 PQPs according to PQP-calc.com.

Alternatively, the same priced fare would get me SFO-YUL-LHR and LHR-SFO direct on UA. Assuming I can book on AC, how many PQPs would I lose by using the UA nonstop on the return?

hirohito888

There's no way to tell how many PQP you would lose out by flying UA on the return without knowing the fare. You can probably book one and check your itinerary on UA.com which will tell you your PQP and then cancel within 24h if you're not satisfied. SFO-YUL-LHR gets you 2,315 PQP, you should probably aim for a fare above $2,000 since the UA return should (but may not be) roughly half the fare. And that should theoretically get to your 3,330 PQP target.

Also SFO-YUL-LHR-YVR-SFO is 11,311mi, so on a AC P fare, you should be getting 4,524 PQP (11,311 x 2 /5)

wco81

Hmm, so if I book through AC or some 3rd party site, it will show up within 24 hours on my UA MP account?

Also, does AC have 24 hour cancellation? Maybe they have different laws up there?

hirohito888

Yes, once you book they should provide you with a UA PNR, you can use that to look up estimated PQP.

And yes, AC has 24h free cancellation.

jsloan

The US DOT requires a 24-hour hold or free cancellation period for all flights booked at least 7 days in advance which include a US port of call (origin, destination, or transfer point) or which are operated by a US carrier. Canada may have similar consumer protection laws, but if you origin is the US, it wouldn't matter.

Note that these laws do not apply to travel agents, although some offer similar policies anyway. If you're booking through an agent, make sure to check the cancellation policy first.

wco81

OK, I found an AC fare on Google Flights but doesn't appear on the AC site at all.

I mean the flights don't even show up for any price. So I'm on hold with the AC call center now.

But I've repeated these searches and GF repeatedly shows a low fare. So I've tried their other links. Orbitz comes up almost double the price.

The only one which is around the price shown on GF is Priceline. However, on Priceline, all the outbound flights are shown with OS flight numbers, SFO-YYZ, YYZ-FRA and FRA-SZG. Of course only the last one is actually operated by OS.

So do I still get the AC PQP calculations despite my booking it under the OS codeshare?

The return flight path is INN-FRA-YVR-SFO. The AC flight numbers show up correctly for these in the Priceline booking.

rankourabu

1. You are wasting (a lot) of your time with the AC call center - they will not be able to replicate the fare
2. Just book it under OS flight numbers - its only the actual plane you are on that matters, so if its operated by AC - you ll earn AC rates

wco81

OK, I'll give it a shot.

With OS flight numbers, I get 3381.

With AC flight numbers, I get over 4600. So it's a big difference.

I just barely make my target for this year with 3381.

rankourabu

It doesnt matter what the flight numbers are, PQP are awarded based on the operating carrier.

wco81

Booked it, so just a matter of it appearing in my MP account.

Should be okay either way.

So it's common for some AC flights not to appear on their site?

hirohito888

If you're talking about certain flights not showing up on AC.com during booking, then yes, it happens a lot. AC booking website is useless except for simple one-way/return.

rankourabu

Yes, as mentioned above, they have a useless website - and a call center with 4+ hour holds on a good day.