simpsonc510

There is a thread on flyertalk about new rules for earning United miles on Swiss flights. DH and I will earn our miles just fine, on our upcoming ORD-ZRH-ORD flights. DS, on the other hand, might not earn his. He is booked in "K" fare (we are in "S" fare), and new rules say that K fares do not earn EQMs. Rules changed near end of September. DS's ticket was purchased on UA site a month before rules change. He is depending on these miles to make 1K in 2011.

Wondering if anyone here has had experience with Swiss K fares earning miles since new rules have taken effect. You would hope that people who bought tickets before rule changes would be grandfathered in.... but who knows! Deceptive practice for sure!

Thanks.

ms_go

Have you seen this thread:
http://www.fodors.com/community/air-...king-codes.cfm

Re different rules in place when the ticket was purchased, FWIW, I had a conversation with MP customer service about changes like this at one point and was told that the rules in place at the time of travel would apply. That was a couple of years ago, and not related to Swiss, if I recall.

Not sure how many miles he needs for 1K, but did you see there's another DEQM promotion between IL and CA that started today?

ms_go

But on that DEQM promotion, speaking of fare classes...nothing below W qualifies.

ms_go

Sorry for a third post, it's been a really long week already. I just re-read part of your post...and it looks like the ticket is a United-issued ticket? Is K the United fare class or the Swiss fare class? A K fare on a United-issued ticket doesn't necessarily equal a K fare on Swiss--so if that is the UA code, you need to find out the applicable Swiss fare code to determine whether it earns miles (and for your ticket too, as the thread I linked above involves a fare that was S on a UA-issued ticket). And now I'll stop, i promise!

mrwunrfl

deja vu all over again.

I'll pick up where ms_go left off and that would be to comment on Carol's S fare.

Carol, did you buy those S fares from SWISS? Or did you buy from United and S is the fare code that UA gave you?

I'm suspecting that you may have figured it out from flyertalk, but in yours and DS's cases you would need to get the SWISS booking codes for your tickets to determine the mileage earning.

Did you know that you can buy EQMs from Continental? United sells only RDMs, but CO will sell you RDMs with an option to also buy EQMs.

For example, I have a CO-booked first class ticket on Asiana (two weeks from today!). With that ticket I have an option to buy miles at two different levels. The higher level offers 20,000 RDMs for $600 with an option to buy 20,000 EQMs.

I just got a big surprise. Some time ago the offer was to pay an additional $900 for the 20,000 RDMs. I just checked it again and now the offer for the RDMs is the same $600. BUT the EQMs now cost $1600!

mrwunrfl

Carol, I found the post where I mentioned Elite Maximizer to you.

rkkwan mentioned on that thread that the CO EQM offers were expensive. Now I see what he means. I was toying with the idea at $1500 total, not cheap, but now $2200 just aint gonna happen.

mrwunrfl

I'll make a third post just to keep up with ms_go. I'm just wondering if the increase in the offer is due to it now being November. Or something.

simpsonc510

I'll have to look at the reservations on the Swiss site. Yes, all three tickets were booked on the UA site, because I wanted us all to earn EQMs.

Thanks for all the replies since I posted my question!

simpsonc510

I've sent email to Swiss.

wally34949

I called Swiss last week and had my ticket reticketed so I would earn miles. It cost me about $300 for a one way flight. Not happy, but I'm rather close to 1K.

simpsonc510

Got a reply from Swiss that is rather vague, but it says that the mileage will be credited.

clevelandbrown

My belief is that the rules in effect at the time of buying the ticket are applied to the flight, even if the rules have changed before the date of the flight. I could understand an airline applying a more liberal rule, but not a more restrictive one. The rules in effect at the time of the purchase are a part of the purchase, and if they take away part of what you bought, they should offer to amend the ticket to what you paid for.

simpsonc510

I agree completely, clevelandbrown. Otherwise it is deceptive practices in my book. We shall see...

mrwunrfl

Were your United S fares purchased before the rule change?

simpsonc510

Yes they were. So was DS's K fare. It's his K fare that I am not certain about. And he's the one who is trying to make 1K and NEEDS these miles.

simpsonc510

....Note that the booking class that appears on your ticket may differ from the booking class that the operating airline uses to determine flight miles earned....


This is a quote from the UA site in regards to earning miles with airline partners (Swiss in this case).

It doesn't get much more confusing!! I guess we just have to wait and see.

What's your own take on this, mrwunrfl?

ms_go

If the e-mail response was vague, one other way to check the SWISS fare code...there should be a SWISS record locator on this reservation under My Reservations on United . com (toward the upper left of the page, under the UA record locator). You can call SWISS, give that record locator and ask for the fare class (I haven't had much luck getting United to be able to tell me a partner's corresponding fare class).

On the quote above re: booking class on ticket being different than the booking class the operating airline uses, here's my recent example.... I had United tickets to Asia that included two code-share flights on Asiana. The United reservation showed those Asiana flights as S class. If you look at the Asiana page on the United site, it shows S as earning full mileage. But from a phone call, I determined that the reservation actually mapped to Asiana's W class, which only earns 70 percent of EQMs/RDMs--which meant giving up about 1,200 EQMs. I didn't really care at the time because I didn't think it would make a difference. Now, I'm looking at ending the year 3,800 miles shy of 1K and would love to have those as I try to figure out the best mileage run. Oh well...

Good luck. I agree, this isn't very transparent.

simpsonc510

I emailed Swiss and gave them the ticket number. That was what resulted in the vague reply, which basically said that miles would be earned.

simpsonc510

....The provided booking reference is valid (SFxxxx) and your mileage details have been inserted in the reservation. The according miles should be credited automatically.....

This is the reply I got from Swiss. Do you read into that that miles will be earned? Or will it be UA's call in the end?

Confusing! Just plain confusing!

mrwunrfl

All three tickets are probably ok because the were purchased before the change. I'm guessing. But those kinds of changes are usually applicable to tickets purchased after a certain date.

I keep mentioning your S fares because the S is the United code but might not be the LX code. If the reply that you got was applicable to your United S tickets then it looks like your LX code for those tickets is also S. Otherwise, your concern about DS ticket could apply to your tickets too. If your United S fare maps to an LX S fare code then you two are ok no matter which rules they apply.

Your DS mileage credit depends on them honoring the rules that were in effect when the ticket was purchased. His UA K code could be a K or L on SWISS. It is the SWISS code that use use in the UA table, not the UA code.

If you or DH are counting on the EQMs from this trip then I suggest calling LX and have them look up the LX fare code for your two tix.