i'm taking an air canada flight in september from chicago to toronto. it is actually a united aircraft, operated by united, code-shared by air canada.

with the united promotion of flying all of the star alliance partners, i want to make sure i'm getting credit for the right airline. if i take this flight, will i be propertly credited with flying on air canada, even though it's a united flight?

At last a question where I feel 100% as a specialist:

No - it HAS TO BE a AC (and/or LH, TG, RG, SK) flight-NUMBER AND with that company also beeing the CARRIER (with your UA-Mileage-Plus-number entered).

Last year I managed to get the maximum-bonus from UA (50'000 miles credit) AND LH (a free eco ticket for 8 Star-Alliance-segments max 2 segments per partner) by ONE-round-the-world-ticket in between sep-15 to dec-15-97 (this year you have to finish till nov-15-98).

I flew 2 segments per all-5-partners (without VARIG at that time = 10 segments): for the longer segment I entered my UA-1K-number (for more bonus on UA and for making sure to reach 1K again) and for the shorter (just short hops) I entered my LH-Miles&More membership (where I have just the standard=0 bonus). And I didn't enter any membership-number befor flying (they can't enter different memberships for different segments).

Unfortunately LH doesn't offer such a promotion this year (until now).

thank you for the information, rudi. for this sep15-nov15 promotion, do i have to fly RoundTrip on each partner, or just a segment to qualify? what i can do on my toronto flight is fly up on a United flight, and back on an Air Canada flight to chicago. is that acceptable?

ONE segment with AC as FLIGHT NR and CARRIER and your MILEAGE PLUS # is enough = ok.

thanks again, rudi. i'm a bit nervous that there are certain rules about these promotions that are hidden until it's too late.

for example, i flew LH last year from paris to frankfurt, and later when i tried to get the miles for the flight, i was told that i was on the wrong "class" of ticket. now i ask plenty of questions in the beginning to make sure i don't make any more mistakes.

by the way, if anyone else might be interested in which classes of ticket are valid for star alliance credit, i got this list from mileage plus:

LH - B,E,H,L,M,Y
TG - Y,M,B,Q,V,S
SK - B,G,M,Q,V,Y,H,K,L,T,O
RG - B,G,H,K,L,M,N,Q,T,V,W,Y
AC - B,E,G,H,I,K,L,N,Q,R,U,V,X,Z

by the way: you must REGISTER for that promotion, if you aed in the USA (Europeans don't have to register - that's what UA has written me in a letter this summer).