CTChris

In a one stop (YZZ) RT from SFO to Madrid, I got credit on United for the Toronto/Madrid leg, but not for the SFO/YZZ flights. United says that Air Canada won't give mileage for that ticket class (though they did for the second half of the same ticket.)
Anyone encountered this before, or have a fix? I've sent a letter in.

emcampbe

When was your trip? At least to its own members, AC used to treat domestic/US-Canada legs differently than international for mileage accumulation on some fare classes. Even when the domestic/US-Canada leg was part of an international itinerary. They stopped this a while ago, though. Not sure if this was possibly an issue, but know this was the case for Aeroplan members.

CTChris

Just happened in October. Why should United not credit miles from Star Alliance partner, even if AC has some weird rule like this. I even asked if I'd get miles before ticketing.

Jebby_ca

While all Air Canada International Flights earn 100% status miles, only certain fare classes for Canada domestic and transborder (between Canada & USA) earn status miles.

Check the Aeroplan website for more detail. I don't remember receiving status miles for a "Tango" ticket transborder, but according to that chart and the one on .bomb, you should be getting some miles.

Edit: The chart on Aeroplan states only redeemable miles, no status miles. Not sure how that works with United MP.

WineCountryUA

Mileage earning is determined by the operating carrier (what we call metal on FT).
Air Canada MP earning rules are on united.com. Vaguely remember some discussion on FT about the Tango fares of Air Canada not earning EQMs but still 50% for RMDs.

Welcome to FT!, CTChris

KathyWdrf

Without my going into the specifics of your case, you need to be aware of the fact that a LOT of Star Alliance flights do not earn the same mileage on UA as a UA flight would. (However, it is still possible that there is a posting error in your specific case.)

The point is, this type of thing (in general) is NOT some "weird rule" on AC's part. You need to check the partner mileage earning chart for ANY Star Alliance partner you choose to fly on, starting at this page:

www.united.com/page/article/0,6867,1177,00.html

You can also navigate here from www.united.com: click on Mileage Plus -> Earn Miles -> Air Partners

tylorcl

What is the fare class of this leg? You may need to check on United.com what fare class can earn you miles with AC flight between US and Canada. If you can not credit to UA, you may try crediting it into your AC account.

CP@YOW

As far as I can tell, UA gives credit for all AC (non-award) booking classes. The only restriction is that you get only 50% miles on domestic Canadian flights at the "Tango" fare level (E,G,K,N,P,T). You can see this by comparing UA's mileage chart for AC
with the latest list of valid AC booking classes in this recent flyertalk post by AC's Andrew Yiu.

This being said, there does appear to be a communication problem between AC's and UA's systems. This year, I have had horrendous problems (similar to the OP's) in getting various AC flights to post to Mileage Plus. I don't know why some flights post and others do not, even within the same itinerary. The process has been Kafkaesque, but eventually after many faxes and phone calls, I have successfully gotten UA to post the miles. You just have to be very persistent. Many of the rejection form letters UA sends ("booking class not eligible") are simply incorrect.

For me, reaching the Premier Executive level in the middle of the year helped immeasurably because now my calls get routed to Rapid City instead of Manila. All the Manila agents could do was tell me to wait another 60 days. The Rapid City agents are excellent -- customer-focused and interested and willing to dig into the problem and ultimately post the miles. But it's still very frustrating.

Altaflyer

I have been chasing the same miles for months now. It's ridiculous!

T class on AC earns 50% on MP yet I get a class not eligible letter. All they have to do is call AC res, they can pull up the tkt and tell UA the fare class and that should be it. They won't call. Faxing after every flight is insane. UA treats me well though. Another bump in DEN today and u/g to First on the rescheduled flight ^

Shareholder

I've had this happen on several occasions over the past two years. All AC classes of service qualify for MP credit, except of course for award classes. However, AC's TANGO class fares only receive 50% credit. On one occasion, it took three letters with copies of eticket, boarding pass and MP web site print out showing eligible AC fare categories. On another, even though I was entitled to 100% mileage (on an AC TANGO+ fare) I only received 50% credit. Gave up after three letters to MP (only another 250 miles). It can be an agonizing process...

tcook052

Welcome to FT, OP. ^

BTW, Toronto is YYZ.

keithguy

Actually, AC still does that. On the lowest fare classes, AC members will get full mileage on intercontinental flights but only partial mileage (non qualifying) for domestic and Canada-US segments.

lhrsfo

I'm in the middle of the same dispute with UA. Both TATL legs credited miles quickly, both CA/USA legs did not, appealed, got denial letters and following up. According to UA's and AC's website, there is a distinction between domestic (ie intra-Canada) and international. As CA-USA is international, just like TATL, and as it's all one booking and hence fare class, UA has no leg to stand on. Persuading them of this is harder.

LessO2

I've got some inter-Canadian issues with mileage credit. Was denied credit on a recent trip, still waiting to fax in information for another trip.

Aside from "Tango," I can't find any information on booking class.

CP@YOW

Yes, the "Itinerary/Receipt" from an AC online booking only shows the category (Tango), not the exact booking class. For some reason, the receipt e-mailed from a telephone booking is different and does show the exact booking class.

However, there is a way to get the booking class online, as long as the flight hasn't yet occurred. You can look up your itinerary on aircanada.com no matter how you booked. After you enter the booking reference and your last name, the initial summary screen you get shows just the itinerary and does show the booking class. Print that page. (If you go further and click on the link to view the Itinerary/Receipt, you will be back to just "Tango"). The only problem is that you can't get back to historical itineraries once the flights have been flown.