Help us out: your experiences of using two frequent flyer numbers with the same booking

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• martin says:

  14 Mar14 March 04:21

  Wondering the situation with air France status and crediting to virgin ?

  • pigeon says:

    15 Mar15 March 09:20

    Flying blue number in a AF/KL booking is notoriously sticky.

    However with Virgin bookings I’ve had luck – e.g. book cash ticket, upgrade with Virgin points, put Delta number into booking (no problem). I had to retroclaim but DL awarded the economy class miles.

• chris tritton says:

  14 Mar14 March 05:01

  I have never had a problem when flying on CX or BA. I have BA Gold but seeking CX diamond. Enter BA number in booking and always change in lounge (CX lounge never a problem and also BA Glasgow),

• Lumma says:

  14 Mar14 March 05:18

  Would love an article on redeeming on Royal Jordanian by the way

  • Tare says:

    14 Mar14 March 07:59

    Same here, as I recently status matched with them

• Dubious says:

  14 Mar14 March 05:18

  Whilst Singapore Airlines is does allow passengers to enter two frequent flyer numbers, it is not fool proof and does have some limits.

  The website and app is really designed for you to add your KrisFlyer membership number to get the onboard Wifi access (for free) when in Economy’, whilst crediting points to another airline. I think that was the original driving force being implementing the functionality.

  It does not work so well if you have StarAlliance Gold status with another airline but want to credit the points to KrisFlyer.

  I have had some check-in agents set it up corrected at check-in. Some have told me they had to wipe all the details from various parts of the booking and then re-add them. Others (at two different airports) have told me it is set correctly, but then the miles ended up going to the wrong account…

  So in summary:
  Status on SQ, but Miles to Another Programme = can do via the website/app
  Status on other carrier, but Miles to SQ = don’t put membership number in booking; do manually at check-in counter, manned by a human (not the automated machines).

• shanghaiguizi says:

  14 Mar14 March 05:23

  Oh, I can positively contribute to this one.

  Over the last four years I’ve been on a journey and frequently have encountered, and found workarounds, to this very issue.

  Initially had BA Gold, but then made the switch to Qatar. As I was wanted to gain status with Qatar I wanted all OW flights to be credited to Privilege club, but until I had achieved gold in QPC needed to use my BA gold to access the lounges. In all the examples I have I never attempted to add two separate OW FF numbers to the same booking. My strategy was to add QPC number and then show my BA gold card when entering the lounge. I should note that as company policy is J above 7 hours all times I flew Qatar I was in business, so could access the Al Safwa lounge regardless. All the times I used this were for feeder flights e.g., EDI-LHR in economy on the way to Asia in J. I never flew to the states in this period.

  I achieved QPC platinum, but as I was based in Malaysia and most of my travel (~50 flights annually) were to Japan, Korea, Philippines, Singapore, and Bangalore, I switched to Malaysia. This is where I experienced the most issues. I stuck with the strategy above where I’d add the MH enrich number to the booking, and then would simply show my Qatar membership to gain access to the lounge (and when checking in). At check in a few times the check in (never at KUL, but EVERY time at Bengaluru, and a few times at Manila) lady insisted I need to add the Qatar number. The first time I did this the flight never credited to Malaysia (or Qatar) so every time this happened in future I just smiled and agreed then as soon as I was in the lounge I called Malaysia customer service and asked them to annihilate the Qatar number from the booking. This worked every time.

  I now have Malaysia enrich platinum until April next year, but in December last year got a status match to Singapore KrisFlyer Gold, and have moved all my travel to SQ.

  I do think it’s crazy the alliances haven’t developed better mechanisms to account for people who have status in multiple programs, and want to receive the benefits from one program, whilst accumulating points or status in a different program.

  When I wanted to move all travel to MH I asked for a status match and showed I was good for 60-80 flights per year, but they rejected it. That’s contrasted with SQ who responded to my status match in about a week with a match.

  • Lesley says:

    14 Mar14 March 14:14

    How did you select your seats with no charge with Qatar please.

• Glenn says:

  14 Mar14 March 05:27

  Having this issue right now- on trip with Qatar and had asked BA FFN to be added. Then used Avios to upgrade from Qatar and it then added QFFN. Have asked for it to changed, check in, live chat, and boarding passes still printing with Qatar FFN. No one can solve- I am 110 Tier from Gold and this month is critical of all months to go nuts. It has caused issues at Lounges entry in Doha and KL as I am burgundy with Qatar but Silver with BA- all painful!

  • Chrisasaurus says:

    14 Mar14 March 09:10

    Don’t ask them to change it – get in the phone or live chat and ask them to remove the FFN. That’s how I eventually removed my BA number from a BA flight this week. Them all of a sudden it showed the AA number I’d added in the first call.

• Phillip says:

  14 Mar14 March 05:35

  My experience here is with wanting to use ITA status but credit VN flights to VS. I would add my VS number to the booking and show my ITA membership card at the priority check in desk.
  Every time, despite telling them not to change my number, they would try to do it, but because ITA was such a mess, they couldn’t add it anyway. Most times I’d get a “next time you have to add your membership number where the status is to the booking for status benefits”.

  • Charlie says:

    14 Mar14 March 09:01

    Different programmes within alliances have different rules. For example, Air New Zealand stipulate that if *G status benefits are used, then points should be attributed to Air New Zealand. Similarly, if you book an award redemption on Alaska metal using Alaska miles, it’s very difficult to add OWS/OWE status from another programme, and Alaska’s rules say you can’t.

• RobH not Rob says:

  14 Mar14 March 05:35

  Rob, do you think Royal Air Maroc will be pressured to close this “loophole”?

  We grabbed RJ silver status natch purely for early seat selection in the next 12 months. It worked fine on a recent Maldives trip but as it was a reward flight we didn’t try to switch back to BA # after seat selection.

  • Lumma says:

    14 Mar14 March 06:14

    It’s not really a loophole allowing customers to do what they’re entitled to do as part of the programme rules. It actually saves BA having to take calls or time at check-in desks

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