Air China miles accrual?

[SQ228]

Hi, I thought someone with more experience flying with Air China might be able to solve this one easily for me.

I took two CA international flights (PEK-TSE return) in early April. The economy booking class was T. I specified my KF number when I booked online and that number is on my e-Ticket, although shows as my PhoenixMiles No.

Nowhere on my ticket can I find a reference to miles accrual and nothing has shown up in my account almost 8 weeks since the first flight.

Does CA actually even issue miles? Or could the problem be the T fare class? The PhoenixMiles website I can access is full of "under construction" sections and when I try to use the mileage calculator, it only allows selecting from drop-downs in fields that are all in Chinese characters, which isn't much use to me. The KF calculator only shows information for SQ/MI flights.

[zilchster]

Originally Posted by SQ228

Hi, I thought someone with more experience flying with Air China might be able to solve this one easily for me.

I took two CA international flights (PEK-TSE return) in early April. The economy booking class was T. I specified my KF number when I booked online and that number is on my e-Ticket, although shows as my PhoenixMiles No.

Nowhere on my ticket can I find a reference to miles accrual and nothing has shown up in my account almost 8 weeks since the first flight.

Does CA actually even issue miles? Or could the problem be the T fare class? The PhoenixMiles website I can access is full of "under construction" sections and when I try to use the mileage calculator, it only allows selecting from drop-downs in fields that are all in Chinese characters, which isn't much use to me. The KF calculator only shows information for SQ/MI flights.

The problem is with T class. You don't earn miles on Krisflyer for that fare class.

[Jumbojet Lover]

Originally Posted by SQ228

Does CA actually even issue miles? Or could the problem be the T fare class? The PhoenixMiles website I can access is full of "under construction" sections and when I try to use the mileage calculator, it only allows selecting from drop-downs in fields that are all in Chinese characters, which isn't much use to me. The KF calculator only shows information for SQ/MI flights.

This chart is your friend: KrisFlyer mileage accrual levels on Singapore Airlines, SilkAir and Partner airlines

From the chart, there is no T booking class in the row for Air China, which means that it does not earn any miles at all.

I refer to it constantly when making flight bookings on partner airlines to check if it's worth going for a slightly more expensive fare for more miles that can be credited to Krisflyer, almost always avoiding fare classes which do not earn me any Krisflyer miles.

[davidfusq]

I did the same 'mistake' years ago thinking my relatively cheaper (compared to SQ) SIN-PEK-SIN flight on Air China would accrue KF miles. It didn't accrue any. Later I found out about the booking class and accrual tables and have used it religiously when booking flight on partner airlines.

Using the table, I used to figure out some "hacks" to maximise KF miles accruals without paying expensive fares.
eg.
1. SIN-HKG-SIN on United (before the accrual table changed, United Economy fare always get 100% even the cheapest one like S$ 250 ~ 330) but now this route is no longer served.
2. SIN-TPE-SIN on EVA Air Premium Economy earns you 110% miles at the price cheaper than SQ Economy fare which probably earn only 70% miles.

Interestingly, some of these cheaper fares would still accrue the operating carrier's frequent flyer miles albeit not at 100%, but earn 0% on KF.

[SQ228]

Thanks everyone! This saves my time not looking further into it.

That chart was definitely the missing piece of the puzzle, although had I looked at it before booking, I doubt it'd have helped in this case, as T class was expensive as it was and the only other option was the full-flexi that was insanely expensive. That's the reality of flying a route with hardly any competition I guess.

[zilchster]

Originally Posted by SQ228

Thanks everyone! This saves my time not looking further into it.

That chart was definitely the missing piece of the puzzle, although had I looked at it before booking, I doubt it'd have helped in this case, as T class was expensive as it was and the only other option was the full-flexi that was insanely expensive. That's the reality of flying a route with hardly any competition I guess.

Basically, Air China's cheaper fares accrue almost nothing on KF, only the full-flexi fares. And the full-flexi fares on most routes ain't cheap either. So try to avoid Air China I suppose.

[Unionruler]

Originally Posted by zilchster

Basically, Air China's cheaper fares accrue almost nothing on KF, only the full-flexi fares. And the full-flexi fares on most routes ain't cheap either. So try to avoid Air China I suppose.

Full flexi ain't but discount PE to PEK is on sale quite often.