Mileage on Code-share
 

if you buy a ticket with a united flight # but operated by a different airline, say Thai, do you get full mileage????

i am looking into going to BKK in december and on united.com, they give me the option of ANA thru NRT or TG thru either LHR/FRA. all flights are united flight #s. i am wanting to make sure i get full miles.

thanks.

you will always get the base miles you earn for the flight, regardless of the *A carrier. i think it is the class of service and elite bonuses where mileage varies from carrier to carrier.

I fly a lot on Air Canada using my MP number. I book on either the ual.com or aircanada.ca websites. If I book on ual.com the base miles always post within 36/48 hours, aircanada.ca takes a week or so. I never get my Premier Exec bonus miles regardless of which site I use.

You will not get any Premier Bonuses (25%/100%) on code-shares except the trans-atlantic segments operated by LH.

You can choose all UA metal, use the multi-segment option and force a trans-Pacific routing via NRT.

edite to add: NH (ANA)-operated code-shares should be scrutinzed as the lower-priced economy fares only yield 50% and 70% mileage.

I get all my 1P bonuses on US flights flown with UA flight numbers

According to Mileage Plus. Thai will give you full mileage and class of service bonus but no status bonus. ANA will only give you 50% on super cheap economy, 70% on cheap economy and 100% on full fare economy. Business and First get you class of serice bonuses, No elite bonuses though.

Here is the link for the miles you earn on ANA.

http://www.united.com/page/article/0,,1182,00.html

Does not matter if it is code share or not, based on the metal you fly.

Believe me, you only get 70% on ANA. I flew twice this year to Tokyo on ANA. Only got 4700 miles from the east coast to tokyo? BLEH!

Miles may vary
 

You may find that the airlines calculate the mileage between airports differently. SFO-FRA via LH is different than via UA, but of course only by 10 miles or so.

From a MP statement:

That would explain why LH 454 is half an hour faster than UA900....

No seriously, no Premier boni on any TG operated fligh. But it still got better as in earlier times, coach fares would only be credited 50% mileage and status.
So you might consider flying UA all the way ... despite the cost difference.

UA837 is quite lovely and it's a true vioctory if you snag an upgrade.

codeshare
 

Here's another but risky option. I booked the cheapest fare from SFO to PHL which (surprise!) turned out to be a codeshare with US. First time to fly codeshare other than Lufthansa. I was appalled when I learned all the nuances of codeshare, inc no upgrades. Soooo, I went late (flight at 850 AM) to the airport and did standby to PHL totally on UA metal (much more expensive flights when I was booking) AND got an upgrade for husband and me (1K's). Told them we had a power outage which turned out to be true! On the return, we went early and not only got UA metal but a freebie upgrade. If you do that, you get all the UA bonuses, etc as if you booked it in the first place. I am not sure I would do it again. I suspect I will simply avoid codeshare. I also checked with UA the night before each flight to see what the load was on the flights I wanted to fly.

FYI Karen2, in terms of miles and elite boni, codesharing with US is the same as flying on UA. Where it is not is in the upgrades department, both redeeming, and earning (your flights on the codeshare do not count toward the 10k mile thresholds for e-500s), as covered in other threads.

Like you, albeit for different reasons, I was able to stand by for a flight on UA metal where I had been booked on the US codeshare. For anyone who wants to try it, I'd only recommend that you aren't yet checked in for the the US flight, otherwise you will have to go to US and have them "off-load" you from their flight so UA can re-book you on UA metal (sometimes an angel or un-hurried agent will call US for you and have them "off-load" you, but don't count on that).

I flew on ANA two weeks ago from NRT to HKG and only get 1265 miles posted on my statement. I paid for "B" fares.

Just trying to understand.... if I fly a code share then I do not get my extra 25% (mp-premier)mileage bonus? Do I also lose out on any promo I would otherwise be qualifying for? (I've never seen that in the T&C)

For the most part, yes. One exception being UA/LH codeshares between North America and Germany, as far as I am aware. There have been reports of variations, but these may be due to glitches in the system(s)?