AA and UA's major European partners move in opposite directions on mile earning

[Carolinian Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close Carolinian]

It has been interesting early this year to watch the major European partners of two domestic legacy carriers, AA and UA move in opposite directions in terms of mile earning for AA or UA ff members on their flights.

BA, the main European partner of AA, has ended its practice of giving only partial miles on cheaper flights, and now gives full miles on all flights.

LH (Lufthansa), on the other hand, which is the main European partner of UA, has moved the other direction, and started awarding only 50% or 25% of real miles on some of its cheaper fare classes. They have done the same on some of the other airlines they own.

AA and its alliance, One World, continues to shine as the most customer-friendly of the airline alliances.

[MaryH Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close MaryH]

Air Canada, one of UA's partners in Star alliance is now trying to use their dominate canadian position to only give 50% status miles on international and some leisure tranboarder flights on the lowest fare and 25% non status miles on canadian routes for lowest fare.. Some fares that earn 100% miles are 30-50% more or over 1000$ more on some international flights.

Lack of competition

[Carolinian Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close Carolinian]

The other problem is that with Star Alliance, it is the operating carrier, not the one whose code is on the ticket (like the other alliances) that determines your miles. If you have a UA coded flight operated by AC, then AC's miserly rules apply to your mile earning. I cited Lufthansa and the airlines it owns doing the same thing, but the problem is endemic within Star Alliance.

One World, AA's alliance, has always based mile earning on the airline whose code is on your ticket, not the operating carrier. Thus even when BA was shortchanging on miles on cheap tickets, if you were flying on BA metal with an AA coded ticket, you still got full miles. BA's recent move has meant that you get them when flying on a BA coded flight, too.

Air Canada, one of UA's partners in Star alliance is now trying to use their dominate canadian position to only give 50% status miles on international and some leisure tranboarder flights on the lowest fare and 25% non status miles on canadian routes for lowest fare.. Some fares that earn 100% miles are 30-50% more or over 1000$ more on some international flights.

Lack of competition

[MaryH Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close MaryH]

Yeah, Last year I booked a ticket with AC that included a LH domestic connection and the AC agent gave me a non-status leg both ways on LH and I had to do a MR end of Dec.