Code sharing with Virgin - do I still get my points
 

Last December I flew Air China from London Heathrow to Shanghai, and Beijing back to London Heathrow. It was a Air China ticket, but code sharing meant I found the outbound flight was in fact with Virgin

At check in, the girl on the baggage drop,/ check in desk would not put my points on my Star Alliance card (which is in fact a United card), because Virgin are not in SA

Now, I am about to travel London to Tokyo return, I shopped around on pricing and deliberately chose ANA because the price was good (2nd cheapest of all direct carriers) and they are in Star Alliance (I am 10,000 miles short of enough points for some free tickets I am after).

When I checked my e-ticket I find again as with my recent trip to China, the outward flight is a codeshare with Virgin.

I bought an ANA ticket in part due to SA membership, and I do not want to lose again the points I feel are validly due to me. What do I do to get these points when I check in at Heathrow tomorrow

By the way, another issue I have with code shares, is that I do not seem able to check in on line. meaning I get the worse possible seats left when i turn up at airport, but thats another story.

Thanks


GUY

Welcome to FlyerTalk!

Open a OnePass account and credit the flight to that account. No EQMs (the flight doesn't carry a CO code) but at least you'll get RDMs out of it and the account will merge with the UA account later in the year.

Regarding OLCI and seat assignments contact VS and they should be able to help you out with that.

I really want the points on Star Alliance, I chose the carrier precisely because they are in SA, and I need another 10K miles on that card for a trip (free tickets planned) in April or June. don't want to start from zero with another loyalty scheme (already have Skyteam, British Airways Exec Club, and Emirates as well as Star Alliance)

What is an EQM

What is an RDM

Elite qualifying mile. These are the points that get you status.

Redeemable mile. These are the points that get you awards.

You actually didn't choose a *A flight nor a United partner so that is why you don't get miles on United for those flights. In Star Alliance the operator of the flight, not the marketing company, is what generally matters for earning purposes. If the goal is a redemption in the April/May timeframe then you should expect to not have the points from this trip available for that.

I especially chose ANA precisely because I wanted the SA points, not realising the flight selected was a code share?

Anyhow, I just signed up for Continental One Pass and when it gave me a membership card to print out, in the bottom corner of that card is says Star Alliance?

Surely it should make no difference which Star Alliance card you have? United? Continental? I should be able to get the points when I fly on an ANA ticket even if it is a code share

Sorry to be thick, I am just a little confused by this all. If I present my new Continental One Pass card at VA check in will I get Star Alliance points (it says Star Alliance on the card)

Welcome to FT! ^

We're all a bit confused in the beginning :)

Some clarifications:

1) Each star alliance (*A) airline has its own frequent flyer (FF) program. You choose one program and credit all your flights there. Each program has different accrual and redemption rules, they are not interchangeable, and there is no such thing as "*A points", but rather United points, Us Airways points, etc.

2) As a general rule within *A, whether you get miles and how many miles you get is decided by the airline operating the flight, codeshares don't matter.

I realize you booked ANA to get miles, but during the booking process codeshares are always displayed. You could have, at that point, made sure that all your flights were actually operated by ANA and not Virgin.

Unfortunately United and Virgin are not partners, so you can't get United miles if flying on a Virgin airplane. Sorry :(

3) Continental and United are in the process of merging. So far they operate separate FF programs, but at some point (likely at the end of the year) they will be combined.

Why does that help you? Because Continental and Virgin are partners. So you can credit miles from a Virgin flight to Continental.

Then at some point your Continental and United mileage balances will be merged.

Unfortunately this won't help you with your travel plans for May.

4) Usually codeshares are not an impediment for online check-in. But you need to get the reservation code for the airline operating your flight. You can do this for example by calling said airline (Virgin in this case) and providing your name and date of travel.

Are you asking or stating this? Yes, it appears that you made that mistake.

CO is a member of Star Alliance so that shouldn't be much of a surprise.

Absolutely not. Each program has its own rules. Even earning on partners within *A varies depending on the operating carrier of the flight, the program to which you are crediting it and the fare class paid.

You will get Continental OnePass points, assuming that the fare class is high enough that the VS flights qualify for earning. Details on the qualifying fare classes can be found here. Keep in mind that the NH fare class may not actually be the same as the fare class that VS will put on the flight; that's just the way codeshares work.