Airlines

[QUOTE=Punter 127]I believe all you have to do is tell them you want AA miles and not LAN miles and provide your AA number when you check in.

You can have your miles flown on LAN credited to any oneworld Alliance airline.[/QUOTE]I think UAL used to give you credit for miles but those miles didn't go to status. You could spend them for tickets and upgrades but miles flown on non-UAL flights didn't count towards Premier, Premier Exec, ect. I might be wrong about this though. Meforu what's the dealio?

[QUOTE=Daddy Rulz]I think UAL used to give you credit for miles but those miles didn't go to status. You could spend them for tickets and upgrades but miles flown on non-UAL flights didn't count towards Premier, Premier Exec, ect. I might be wrong about this though. Meforu what's the dealio?[/QUOTE]Dad,

You are correct. These miles do not give you "status" but are redeemable for flights.

[url]http://www.aa.com/aa/i18nForward.do?p=/AAdvantage/partners/airlines/lan.jsp[/url]

[QUOTE=Miami Bob]flights not operated by american crews are not qualifying[url]http://www.aa.com/aa/i18nForward.do?p=/AAdvantage/partners/airlines/lan.jsp[/url][/QUOTE] I sure can't find where it says that, could you show us the quote?

[QUOTE=Daddy Rulz]I think UAL used to give you credit for miles but those miles didn't go to status. You could spend them for tickets and upgrades but miles flown on non-UAL flights didn't count towards Premier, Premier Exec, ect. I might be wrong about this though. Meforu what's the dealio?[/QUOTE]I don't know about UAL, but I fly Japan air and get both miles and status miles on AA. (but I don't get bonus miles) if you read the link Bob and I posted it tells you how the miles are credited.

The way I read it the only time you don't get miles is if the flight is wholly in Argentina, Wholly Within Peru, or Wholly Within Continental Chile.

[quote=AA] Qualifying miles, points and segments count toward AAdvantage Executive Platinum, AAdvantage Platinum, and AAdvantage Gold status and bonuses. To attain AAdvantage elite status, a member must fly on at least four American Airlines or American Eagle flights within the qualifying year. Flight mileage may not accrue on flights operated by carriers other than oneworld carriers.[/quote] Lan is a oneworld carrier.

Please note link tell you how the mile and.
[url]http://www.aa.com/aa/i18nForward.do?p=/AAdvantage/partners/airlines/lan.jsp[/url]

[QUOTE=Daddy Rulz]I think UAL used to give you credit for miles but those miles didn't go to status. You could spend them for tickets and upgrades but miles flown on non-UAL flights didn't count towards Premier, Premier Exec, ect. I might be wrong about this though. Meforu what's the dealio?[/QUOTE]Not true at all. Flights on Star Alliance airlines (such as Lufthansa, US Airways, SAS, Air Canada. Etc) count toward UAL Mileage Plus elite qualifying status. Miles earned from other UAL partners such as TACA, Aer Lingus, Emirates are only good for things like free tickets and upgrades.

LAN is not partner with UAL in anyway. So no miles of any kind for United Mileage Plus program when flying on LAN.

[QUOTE=Punter 127]The way I read it the only time you don't get miles is if the flight is wholly in Argentina, Wholly Within Peru, or Wholly Within Continental Chile.[/QUOTE]Flights within those areas get 25% of the miles.

[QUOTE=Sportsman]Not true at all. Flights on Star Alliance airlines (such as Lufthansa, US Airways, SAS, Air Canada, etc) count toward UAL Mileage Plus elite qualifying status. Miles earned from other UAL partners such as TACA, Aer Lingus, Emirates are only good for things like free tickets and upgrades.

LAN is not partner with UAL in anyway. So no miles of any kind for United Mileage Plus program when flying on LAN.[/QUOTE]Sportsman is 100% correct, as soon as I read the post I remembered. One other thing be careful about using miles on non star allience airlines for upgrades. In a perfect world it should work but I remember many cases of upgrades booked through star allience carriers that the system just wouldn't recognize. However I have been out of the game for awhile so perhaps those bugs are worked out.

The key wording here is "elite-qualifying".

[quote=AAdvantage]Earn elite-qualifying points, miles, and segments when you purchase eligible fare tickets and fly on American Airlines, American Eagle®, AmericanConnection®, Alaska Airlines (including Horizon Air) British Airways, Cathay Pacific Airways, (including Dragonair) Finnair, Iberia, Japan Airlines (including Japan Asia Airways, JALways, Japan Transocean Air, JAL Express, and J-Air) LAN Airlines (including LAN Argentina, LAN Ecuador, LAN Express and LAN Peru) Malév Hungarian Airlines, Qantas Airways, Royal Jordanian, and American Airlines codeshare flights where the ticket reflects an American Airlines coded flight number.[/quote] This link just came with my monthly AAdvantage Platinum Account Summary.

[url]http://www.aa.com/aa/i18nForward.do?p=/AAdvantage/programDetails/eliteStatus/qualificationRequirements.jsp[/url]

Sorry Daddy I don't have any info on miles, but I see that their are a lot of nollegable people here.

[QUOTE=Meforu 2000]sorry Daddy I don't have any info on miles, but I see that their are a lot of nollegable people here.[/QUOTE]Merforu, are you Exon in disguise?

Many of the airlines have introduced all sorts of bullshit fees. Bag fees. Ticketing fees. Parner fees. As some of you have found out, they're also killing accounts that don't have activity in 12, 18 or 24 months in many cases.

The only way to combat this crap, is to know what your options are. Make sure you print out the luggage rules when you book a ticket. Usually if you buy a ticket under a certain luggage rule, then even if they change it later, you're grandfathered in.

Many of the fees are waived if you're an elite with an airline. Most US airlines have double EQM (qualifying miles) promos until the middle of June. This lets you become elite twice as fast. You don't get actual extra miles to redeem awards, though.

I've been a Northwest elite for a number of years. They had one of the best award programs in the US. Then they merged with Delta, and everything got fucked up, royally. I've blown through 1.7 million miles in the last 9 months, and still have another 600k left.

I've booked 80% biz class flights with my miles. If you have a lot of miles sitting around in ANY frequently flyer program, I would strongly recommend you use them sooner, rather than later.

As a recap, here are the US FF plans that I think are the best:

AA - Has some of the best miles out there. I value them twice as much as Delta / NW miles. They're easy to use, and have nice one way awards now, plus off season awards at cheaper prices. If you're US based, the AA Citibank credit cards have some great sign up bonuses. As much as 35k, almost enough for a free trip to EZE.

Elite levels are at 25k, 50k and 100k.

CO - Free upgrades in the US are a bit of a hit and miss. If you're flying to the Caribbean or Central or Northern South America, it's much better. I find CO service to be pretty good. For top tier members, you get most fees waived, including free changes on award tickets. CO will be moving to the Star Alliance on October 24th, 2009. You will then be able to credit UA, US, SQ, LH and other Alliance member flights to the CO program.

I think the elite levels are changing at CO, to match the UA program, but I'm not 100% sure of this. I think for now, it's 25k, 50k and 75k for their elite levels. CO also has a special for Latin America customers where you pay $199, and get a free silver membership, mileage voucher, and some discounted coupons. This is a pretty good deal if you're flying on routes that you can upgrade. Usually North America to Northern South America (Peru, Colombia, etc) are upgradeable. This membership will get you some fees waived too, and you'll get bonus miles for your flights.

UA - I've heard good things about their program from friends, but I know that most of the really good benefits you've got to be top tier, 100K flown per year.

If anyone is looking for a coach or biz class flight to EZE on Delta or Continental, let me know. I still have those 600k miles to burn, and we might be able to work something out.

And a final comment, if you fly 25k miles a year, or 12.5k with these double promos right now, you have no excuse not to be an elite member. The benefits are good, and you get better treatment from staff, and access to the first class line, extra baggage allowances, and special phone numbers to call for help, in some cases.

If you always just go for the cheapest flight, and hop from one airline to the next, you're probably wasting a lot of opportunities.

I recently noted that Air Tran will now be offering Wi-fi service on all their flights. They are wiring all their planes to offer the service and the news said it is just a matter of time before all the other air carriers do the same. Great revenue source.

Now I feel like Seinfeld with " whats the deal with wi-fi on airlines? Wasn't 911 enough, now we have to make it easier to communicate or download diabolical programs. And what about your neighbor in 13c who is watching porn, not that that is a bad thing.

Perhaps I am missing something here, but can people not endure 2 or three hours without contact with their emails? It is certainly every ones choice I am not sure they really thought this one out. Comments welcome.

[QUOTE=Master J]Perhaps I am missing something here, but can people not endure 2 or three hours without contact with their emails? It is certainly every ones choice I am not sure they really thought this one out. Comments welcome.[/QUOTE]From the Crackberry addicts who never put their phones into airline mode, I can tell you that some people just can't go without internet access.

I paid for internet in 2006 on a Korean Air flight across the Pacific, and enjoyed having the service. A number of US carriers are installing internet now. I know Delta has it up on a number of flights, and I recall a couple of others are working on it. I doubt I'd pay for it on a 3 hour flight, but might for a 6 hour or longer.

I tried inputing some dates for Medellin. I could get there with my miles but the problem would be coming back! After looking at one way fares on avianca and american I realized that it would be cheaper to book a roundtrip ticket.

Does anyone know a trick to getting one way fares at a good price?