Earning miles on partner airlines

Now that most US airlines’ point programs have switched to the amount paid for tickets instead of miles flown, I wondered how someone could verify that the points are accurate when earning miles through partner airlines.

I completed a 2-month journey in 2016 that consisted of 12 flights aboard five airlines, but I paid only one fare to the booking agent. I had two economy flights on United Airlines, three premium-economy flights on Lufthansa, one flight on LOT Polish Airlines (all three airlines are Star Alliance members) and six flights on two other airlines that did not offer mileage. 

I wanted to know how to determine how much I paid for each segment in order to verify I received the correct number of points, so I wrote to United and asked how they calculate frequent-flyer-mile awards when a flyer flies on multiple airlines on one ticket. I also wrote to Delta Air Lines. They both emailed responses to my query.

According to Delta, “Flights marketed and ticketed by Delta’s partner airlines will earn miles based on distance flown and fare class paid at the time of travel. 

“For itineraries ticketed by Delta’s partner airlines that contain both partner-marketed segments and Delta-marketed segments, the partner-marketed segments will earn miles based on the distance flown and fare class paid at the time of travel, and the Delta-marketed segments will earn miles based on the total base fare and carrier-imposed surcharges prorated as a percentage of total distance flown.”

United’s response was, “For flights operated by a Star Alliance or MileagePlus partner airline on tickets issued by United (ticket number starting with “016”), MileagePlus members earn MileagePlus award miles based on the fare and MileagePlus status.”

Oddly, United gave me bonus miles for one Lufthansa flight but not the other two.

MIKE HARRISON

Castle Rock, WA