More Changes to MP Program re: *A Miles
 

"As of March 13, 2006 all *A Partners require the ORIGINAL BP and a copy of the receipt to credit ""missing" miles"". per Rapid City MP tonight.

I took a TG RT BKK-CNX in March via TG e-ticket. The e-ticket but not the BP have my MP #. When no credit posted after 2 weeks I called and was told it takes "up to 60 days for *A credit to post". In my experience, if the flight doesn't automatically post after 2 weeks it isn't going to. I faxed a copy of my receipt and BPs to MP and received this email:

" In order to receive credit for missing flights flown on partner
> airlines, you must mail in a copy of the passenger/e-ticket receipt and the ORIGINAL BOARDING PASSES.
>
> Please mail these required documents to:
>
> Mileage Plus
> PO Box 6122
> Rapid City SD 57709-6122
>
> We will forward your information to the partner for credit approval.
>
> Thank you for being a 1K member, your business is appreciated.
>
>
> Sincerely,
>
>
>
> Service Director
> Mileage Plus"

I called MP and was told that the policy had changed on March 13, 2006 and that "ALL *A Partners require the ORIGINAL BP and a copy of the receipt to credit "missing" miles." :td: :td:

Reminds me of the Rainmaker and the Great Benefit Insurance Company's Claims Manual:

Quote:

"Is that a complete Great Benefit claims manual, sir?"

"- Yes. -"

"Does it have a section U?"

"It has a section U."

"Let's talk about this mysterious section U. Let's explain it to the jury. Just read paragraph three."

"Claim handlers are directed to deny all claims within three days."

Be sure to keep a copy of the BPs and proof of mailing in case MP "loses" the original BPs as it usually happens... :rolleyes:

This is just an excuse to make it harder to claim past credit.

I'm not sure what the change in policy was. I had to send original BP to claim LH miles a couple of years back. I thought they always wanted original BP for *A.

Same here.Last year I was told I had to send in my original BP for my TG flight that had not posted. UA is not anexception.
AC requires an original BP as well to post *A flights if they have not been posted.

So does SAS for the SK EB program.

Ok, after talking with the SD at MP this morning things are a little clearer. She said that during this past 6 months ALL *A carriers have required Original BPs to post the miles. In the past only select *A carriers required this.

My point was that if TG had my name and ticket # they could easily pull up the record and see that I took the flight. She said that the reason for the original BPs was that too many ffers were trying to get credit in multiple programs for the same flight.

Is this a glimps of what is to come...no automatic credit on *A flights? :confused:

Is there a better work around for the carriers and or frequent flyers?

Part of the issue with original BPs is that because airlines have multiple partners, there have been many cases of attempted (and successful) double-dipping... And the airlines being charged for the miles are tired of it... If you must send the original BPs in the mail, you might want to get a return receipt or some other way of proving you sent them...

And what about OLCI, you just print it twice and that would be it if you want to double dip. Really this is a policy just to make things more difficult, I would be surprised they send they forward the boarding pass to the partner.

I took a flight LIS-FRA on TAP with an LH flight number and LH from FRA-IAD on pure LH on Jan 29. After the usual "it will take a few weeks..." I was asked to fax the BPs to UA, about a month later. On repeated followup calls I've been told LH is taking longer than usual now to credit miles.

A second flight going to the Berlin DO on March 16 I was on LH FRA-TXL. Same story, faxed BP, no response from LH.

Consistent but hardly seamless.

Exactly the problem. I can see the airlines perspective on this, it is just annoying that the burden of proof falls on the pax, and not the airline. :rolleyes:

I don't think any *A partners (besides UA & US) allow online printing of BP's. I know LH & SQ allow online check in, but you do not print your BP and need to pick it up at the airport.

It is more than annoying. I can see the airlines perspective on this too....."Why should I have to do the work to keep track of this when I can shove it off to the ffer and maybe it won't cost me a dime" :rolleyes:

If a *A partner pays out they should have a record of it and only pay out once. Seems simple enough. Am I missing something?

Online check-in or not, it's easy enough to "lose" your boarding pass and get it reprinted.

Yes. You're missing that their record system is the original boarding pass. :)

But if the operating carrier receives two, one from UA and one from, say, LH, they will know somehting is up.

I'm not defending the idea, I think it is stupid too, but thats the way it is. Play the game and take the miles ... or leave them.

It does seem they have been getting more difficult not just about crediting but also getting *A miles to post in the first place. I've been trying to get a LH FRA-SCC flight to post for three months now and still nothing despite repeated calls to M+... and having sent the boarding pass.

You can also with at least AC, LX and JK... plus it is very easy to print as many boarding pass you want at almost all *A self-check in kiosk.

We've been talking back and forth with some people at United Mileage Plus throughout the day, and thought you all might be interested that, in the process, this thread came up.

Evidently, some in their marketing department have been following along and sent us an email explaining the reasoning -- they've told us it is ok to post their message in this thread, so here goes...

Hope this adds to the discussion.

Thanks for sharing and I find it very interesting.

On the topic of retroactive mileage credit, that's definitely been a weak spot for many industry players (and even for many customers).

I guess this is just another item for companies to use to bash S-O compliance requirements. UAL's government relations people must be loving this (as they hate Sarbanes-Oxley requirements). :D

S/OX rules are to the corporate world what "security" is to the airline world... you can throw it up at anything as cover for any negative action you want to take. :cool:

[j/k btw for anyone taking this too seriously!]

The content of the message is total B/S since SarbOx does not apply to foreign listed companies, only those listed on US Stock exchanges.

The OP could have avoided any issues by double- and triple-checking with mutiple TG personnel to make sure that their UA/MP FF# was correctly entered into the potentially multiple systems that might be encountered with TG and other *A carriers.

For TG, successful evidence would have been the notation "UA *G" on the boarding pass stub. With this, credit should appear within 48 hours.

I've got no problem with the requirement to send in originals, (I've had to do that with LH for years), as long as they understand that subsequent communications will involve copies.

My exact thoughts. In addition what about the "accuracy" of UA marketing promoting Star Alliance and seemless mileage earning.

UA needs to face up to the problem and not "spin it".

The Alliance carriers can and should verify the flights taken and credit the miles without additional requirements for the ffers.

Thanks for the tip transpac. I did confirm with multiple (2) TG agents that my MP # was in the account.

My BPs have a notation "UA*" on the bottom. Do they need to have "UA*G"?

Yes, it should say "BKKCS" in smallish print, and "UA*G" in larger print, at the very bottom of the boarding card stub. I'm guessing that the FF# was entered incorrectly (somebody else probably got credit for your flight; am waiting for the post "Why did I get credit for this TG flight?" :D ). Always hand the card to the TG agent, or have it visible to them. You can ask for a print-out of the record, in order to verify the correct FF#.

Interesting, my BP from BKK has "BKK5B" in smallish print followed by "UA*" in larger print. The BP from CNX has "CNXPX" in smallish print followed by "UA*" in larger print.

I guess having or not having the "G" (perhaps meaning Gold) after the"UA*" is the indication it is or isn't entered correctly.

After reading the replies and pondering this for awhile leads me to believe that most of the problem is TGs responsibiliity. I took their flight. Their agent or automated system failed to ensure that the miles were transfered to my MP account. This is not to say that at least some of the responsibility doesn't fall on UA as TG is their partner and UA is part of SA.

UA's marketing spin doesn't help matters it just puts salt on the wound.