Fare Classes, Fare Codes and the Failure of United

You will be interested in this post if you want to learn more about frequent flyer miles (including some of the technical part) or already know about them.

Generally all commercial air tickets have fare class associated with them. The definition of what letter equals what class/rules/etc. can vary by airline, but for instance, a Y class ticket might be an unrestricted coach class ticket (meaning you sit in coach but the ticket can be refunded and such). “A” class for most airlines denotes one of the first-class fares while J class is typically one of the business class fares.

While the rules can vary, so do the frequent flier miles earned by the various classes. So, for instance, a T class fare on Etihad will earn 0 miles from Etihad (and pretty much all of their partners) for the flight, while a T class fare on United will earn one mile per mile flown from United.

I booked an A class fare with United but used a mileage account for a partner airline. These work in that the partner airline will issue the miles earned (based on their rules of course) for the fare class on the operating carrier.

To make it simpler, Airline A is flying the flight. You could earn miles to Airline A’s frequent flier account of course, or, due to a frequent flier partnership between airlines, you could decide instead to have those miles earned to Airline B’s program. Airline B’s rules would apply if you wanted to credit the miles to Airline B’s program. They might say, if you fly in “these” classes on Airline A, we will give you miles. If you fly in “those” classes on Airline A, we give you nothing. If you fly other classes, we give you 50% for miles flown.

In my instance, I calculated how many miles I needed to get to gold status, which for simplicity, is 10,000. I noted that Airline B would credit three miles into the Airline B frequent flyer account for each mile flown in the “A” fare class. As such, I knew I needed 3,334 actual miles flown. With that, I designed a journey that would, say, get me 3,500 miles with a ticket purchased in “A” fare class. At the end of the journey, I would have qualified for gold.

As the plane started boarding, I was called up to the gate agent who noted that they were oversold in first class and he hoped to re-route me in a more direct fashion. I politely declined noting that I needed the miles. He responded that they would credit me the miles I was missing and all would be fine. What he didn’t understand was, that while United can credit a United frequent flyer account with miles, they can’t credit a different frequent flyer account. If I had accepted his offer, I’d have ended up in customer service hell a couple weeks from now when I noticed I was only credited for miles per the direct journey.

In any case, given that I was the target for a bump (probably based on a combination of me not being in the highest status echelons and the fact that I had several connections which could easily be solved by a re-route), I offered a couple options. The one we agreed to was to bump me to an exit row in coach for the first leg (21A and 21F on the 737-700 R1 are amazing seats with spacious legroom due to the missing seat in front of you) with no one next to me, several hundred dollars in travel vouchers, several food vouchers (to make-up for the missed meal in First class) and a day pass to the United Club (sidenote: United doesn’t give United Club access to domestic first class ticketholders which I find rather crass but the agent told me he would notate the record allowing access). UPDATE: Once I arrived to the United Club, the desk attendent told me there was no notation in the record and thus I was denied access afterall. Very poor execution by United.

Ample Legroom / United 737-700 21A and 21F

I probably could’ve argued for a slight bit more (for instance, cash instead of a voucher, or maybe a higher voucher) or been difficult (I could’ve dug in my heels altogether and kept my first class seat), but then again, by being reasonable I keep stress levels low, I help out a (most likely overworked) gate agent who is in a bind and I am no worse for wear. Also, while traveling just as comfortably in this fine seat, I ensured that my fare class would not change and thus I would be credited with the proper miles from the airline partner with whom I hold a frequent flyer account. And, you know what, as a parting aside, first class in United domestic isn’t much of anything to get all frothy mouthed over anyways especially when I can trade in the meal for vouchers and end up with more room than I would have had in First. Outside of a couple key routes, like NYC-LAX, the airlines seem to have been in a race to the bottom when it comes to domestic first class.

So the takeaways are this

Pay attention to your fare class if you want miles (provided the airline has a miles-based frequent flyer program of course). Sometimes it may be hard to tell. If you can find your fare code (which usually is in close proximity to the rules of your fare. A fare (basis) code and a fare class are two different things), you can generally look at the first letter of the fare code and discover your fare class
Note that different airlines credit the same fare classes different ways. One airline might not give you miles for a certain fare class, one might give you 50% and one might give you 100%. If you are members of more than one airline frequent flyer program, see whom the partners are of whatever airline you are flying to figure out which will credit you the most
If the airline wants to change your flight which inconveniences you in any way, negotiate a better solution. Negotiable amentities are cash, vouchers (flight, food, hotel, etc.), routes, cabin, airport lounges, etc. Note that it is very much a negotiable process and there are regulatory rules (EU has certain rules, US has certain rules, etc. and it depends where you are flying, who you are flying, etc.) that kick in if you can’t come to an agreement but still get bumped
United is quite a poor airline, and one I am increasingly interested in avoiding as time goes on. Their broken promise of club entrance, which was only a factor due to a booking error that was all of their own doing, was not appreciated in the least. I can now report without hestiation that United treats coach passengers just as first class passengers; equally bad. Poor service for all, no matter how rich you are, that’s a beautiful non-discriminatory method.

Just a rough overview with a little story worked in but hope that helps!

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Tak

New York, NY

Internationally-published photographer with a passion for creative food, fine products, unique cultures and underground music. Twitter / Instagram / takw at triphash dot com