Be careful with DL fare codes on VS metal

[mitchja]

When's a Delta booked 'A' Premium fare not actually an 'A' fare but is on fact a 'H' fare - when it's a codeshare on VS metal

Just got back from a trip to North Carolina via ATL. Flights where booked via Delta.com in Premium (as approx £40 cheaper than VS) but used VS metal for the TATL flight legs:

DL 4364 (VS103) LHR>ATL - A fare
DL 4993 ATL>EWN - W fare
DL 4587 EWN>ATL - W fare
DL 4365 (VS104) ATL>LHR - G fare

DL fare code VS TP earnings are on this page - A fare over 3000 miles = 100 tier points according to that.

I'd even asked VS on Twitter before I flew to confirm this - which they did.

Not so apparently - as a few days after I flew, the miles and TP's where credit to my FC account - only to be 50 TP's and 100% milage for that TATL leg.

Turns out VS have mapped this Delta 'A' fare to their own VS 'H' fare (even though no H fare was available when I made the booking as I checked both VS and DL - VS only had a S fare available on that outbound flight).

Spoke to Flying Club yesterday where it was explained what had happened and that because it was a codeshare flight VS do actually map DL fare codes differently.

VS has agreed to now honour this though I'm still waiting for this to be changed.

Just be careful if booking via Delta to save a few quid as if I've have booked direct with VS, it was actually listed as a 'S' fare directly with VS, but was like I say; was about £40 more expensive.

Thanks for the heads up James - this was actually a "trick" I was looking at - booking DL 'A' class when it proved to be a fairly decent deal. Perhaps not so!

Actually james - another question - did the VS TPs/Miles credit towards your total flown miles? I have a EWR-LHR next year in PE booked on a DL code and longer term am aiming for gold for life. It would be nice if these credited given they are VS operated.

You would have thought they would update the website fast... But i can still see it saying 100

[mitchja]

As a Flying Club Silver member here I earned the following:

LHR>ATL - 5483 miles (base milage of 4198 + my AG 30% bonus; roughly correct for 100% milage though that should really be 200% as well if it was an 'A' fare, not 100% )

ATL>EWN - 845 miles (which is 432 base miles so 150% for Comfort+ as well as my AG 30% bonus) - this is almost spot on.

You would have thought they would update the website fast... But i can still see it saying 100

But that's the trouble - the website is correct, if you booked DL under an 'A' class on a DL operated flight. It's the translation into a VS booking class under a codeshare is where the problem comes from.

[mitchja]

Just spoken Flying Club (again) just now and this time it was more positive as the agent I've just spoken to seemed much more aware of this issue and did actually say there is an ongoing issue with Delta booked Premium fares not matching up correctly at VS's end.

The website is absolutely correct.

A DL 'A' Premium fare is more like a VS 'S' Premium fare in terms of being semi-flexible. I would guess a Delta 'G' Premium fare is mapped correctly to either a 'K' or 'H' fare. Miles / TP's not posted yet for the return though. I just hope the VS system doesn't confuse the DL 'G' fare with their own G Upper reward fare!!

The agent has emailed all the details to their Flying Club support department and he did say it should be corrected within 24 hours.

IMHO it would make much more sense if VS and DL used the same fare codes for all fare classes across both their systems - or is that just too easy?

That would be far too easy.

And good on VS for reimbursing you the ‘lost’ miles. When AA changed their fare codes last year, resulting in Domestic First earning Business Class instead of First BAEC tier points, did BA generously make up the lost TPs for people who’d already booked?

No, they did not.

[mitchja]

That would be far too easy.

And good on VS for reimbursing you the ‘lost’ miles. When AA changed their fare codes last year, resulting in Domestic First earning Business Class instead of First BAEC tier points, did BA generously make up the lost TPs for people who’d already booked?

No, they did not.

That's the whole issue when something like that happens isn't it. Unless you are clued up and aware of this things and speak to the airline to get it corrected, how many other people has this happened to but nothing has been done about it?

[mitchja]

Hmmmmm. Just to confuse this even further, I've just come across this webpage that does actually state that an agent booked DL Premium 'A' fare does in fact map to a VS 'H' Premium fare.

No idea if that applies to direct booked fares, but if it does, however, there's nothing mentioned that I can see on the VS website stating that Delta fares operated by VS aircraft do in fact earn different mileage and tier points to Delta operated DL fares

Going the other way though, a VS Premium 'S' fare does map to a DL 'A' fare!?!

Sounds like a real pickle James, although that £40 saving does jump out at me as a potential answer.

What if that was the price difference between H and S fare conditions? The A fare on DL when booked into Premium does fill both the H and S fare buckets (DL have 3 fare allocations for premium and VS have 4) after all, there surely has to be a pricing difference for the system to issue one or the other.

Just a thought.

But that's the trouble - the website is correct, if you booked DL under an 'A' class on a DL operated flight. It's the translation into a VS booking class under a codeshare is where the problem comes from.

Ah! But as a code share it really should just use the same as Delta sold and operated!
Maybe they should add a disclaimer

[mitchja]

VS have finally honoured this (but begrudgingly it appears; I might add). They have manually added an extra 50 tier points and manually added another 100% of the base miles to my account.

Depending on who you speak to though depends on the the answer they give you.

This particular fare scenario (and it's the only one it seems) really does seem to be a big sticking point with no clear guidance. No-one at VS seems particularly interested that nothing is mentioned on the website about this either.

The bottom line is basically don't expect the advertised Flying Club tier points or milage from a Delta Premium 'A' fare when the flight is operated by VS!

I won't be booking via Delta again either to save a few quid.

You would have thought they would update the website fast... But i can still see it saying 100

It took them months to update an error a few years ago when PE H class was showing as upgradeable. It wasn't at the time.