The moving target of earning rates in frequent flyer programs is never fun to track. United Airlines has made things even more complicated recently as they continue to tweak the rates for partner airlines. Two more such tweaks seem to be out there this week.
First up, earning rates for travel on Avianca are now available. These weren’t shared when Avianca/Taca group joined Star Alliance a couple weeks ago but they are now. Nothing particularly surprising in the numbers, though it is worth noting that the cheapest economy fares earn at less than 100%. Also of note is that flights wholly within Colombia have different earning rates on four fare buckets, two at the top and two at the bottom of the spectrum.
Earning rates for travel on Brussels Airlines have also changed, effective July 1, 2012. In this case the change is actually a good thing, so I suppose complaining about it isn’t so useful, though the frequent changes still make it difficult to know what’s really going on out there. The changes affect only the top six fare buckets – J, C, D, Z, Y and B – and the earning rate for award miles on all six has increased. For J and C they now earn at 175% rather than at 125%. D and Z now earn at 150% rather than 125% and Y and B earn at 125% rather than 100%.
As always, the new earning rates have been updated in the calculators on the Wandering Aramean Travel Tools site.
Related Posts:
- Quick earning rate comparison for new Star Alliance partners
- Star Alliance seizes Central America
- New MileagePlus earning rates for Taca flights
- United updates partner earning rates. Again.
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Avianca and Taca are pretty much the same as what AviancaTaca LifeMiles members (like me, gave up on UA MP) earn on the cheapest AV/TA fares. Something to keep in mind: Many relatively low-cost AV/TA fares are actually in relatively high fare class “families” – such as the MVD-SFO via LIM/SAL $839 flight I just took 3 weeks ago. A “Benefit” fare that at least in LM earned a 25% RDM/EQM bonus. Most of those $650-900 1-ways or $900-1300 r/ts from US AV/TA gateways to deep South America will get full miles in UA MP or AV/TA LM, and may even get some bonus miles in LM.