Whine Wednesday: Airlines Crediting Mileage To Incorrect Frequent Flyer Program

This week’s Whine Wednesday is about an ever-recurring issue of airlines not crediting miles for completed flights to the correct frequent flyer program, even when you make sure to attach the desired membership during check-in.

In my particular case, I was flying Bangkok Airways on a short Phuket-Bangkok segment, but the booking class was high enough that it would have collected Cathay Pacific Asia Miles, which I added to the reservation.

Where things become problematic is when you book flights while logged in with an airline’s own frequent flyer profile, which might manifest itself in the booking and can’t be deleted even if you add a different frequent flyer number later on.

We frequently get emails from readers about this issue, and in their case, it’s usually more serious as it involves long-haul flights or important tier points, which thankfully wasn’t the case here.

When I booked my flight, I didn’t even remember that Bangkok Airways is a partner of Cathay Pacific Asia Miles, but I checked when I saw that the booking class (H) would be a bit more expensive than the cheapest available fares, since I booked a popular afternoon flight.

I decided to add my CX number as I use CX miles quite frequently, and this flight would have earned me 419 miles. Would, because the miles never arrived even after several days.

I thought this was odd and already had a bad feeling that Bangkok Airways screwed up. Sure enough, when I checked my FlyerBonus account, the flight had been credited there:

This is really annoying. These miles in my Bangkok Airways account usually expire because I don’t use them often, with my approximately two domestic flights in Thailand per year.

Is it the end of the world? No, but it’s a totally unnecessary problem where the airline is 100% at fault. I could probably force it by having them delete the credit and then contact Asia Miles to move it there, but for 419 miles, I’m not willing to go through the hassle.

Conclusion

Bangkok Airways credited my domestic flight to the wrong frequent flyer program despite having correctly entered my Cathay Pacific number into the reservation, and it also displayed correctly on the boarding pass obtained at the check-in counter.

The issue likely arose because I booked the flight while logged in with my Bangkok Airways profile, which unknowingly overrides any FFN you later add. Many airlines suffer from this problem, and once their own number is somewhere in the record, it’s close to impossible to get rid of it again.

Had this been a long-haul flight, I’d definitely escalated it and have the mileage corrected. One thing is for sure: in the future, I will no longer log in when booking any Bangkok Airways flights. Just book it anonymously as a “Guest” customer.

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