Claiming miles that I have flown before registering as frequent flyer
Recently I started traveling across US quite frequently – once a month or so, and by that time I haven't registered for Frequent Flyer program in any of the airlines. I flown by American Airlines, Virgin, United and JetBlue, and at some point I decided to create my FF account in all of these.
I was quite surprised when I realized that I cannot claim my miles for all these flights that I had before.
Well, if that was a traditional 'welcome' by a brutal western capitalism, please let me know. Otherwise I would like to find a way to claim these miles. I paid for those tickets, and even though I wasn't a registered frequent traveler yet, I truly believe I have rights for those miles.
Best Answer
If you have a significant number of flights in a small period, besides investigating the credit prior to enrollment policy of the airline that you flew, it may be worthwhile investigating partner airlines that you might be able to credit the flights to.
For example, these are all the airline mileage programmes that you could credit an American Airlines flight to on wheretocredit.com
AB Air Berlin
AS Alaska Airlines
BA British Airways
CX Cathay Pacific Airways
EY Etihad Airways
AY Finnair
IB Iberia
JL Japan Airlines
9W Jet Airways
KE Korean Air
LA LAN Airlines
MH Malaysia Airlines
QF Qantas Airways
QR Qatar Airways
S7 S7 Airlines
UL SriLankan Airlines
Mostly, there are greater restrictions on credit prior to enrollment when the flight was on a partner airline. For example, see this old thread on flyertalk regarding Star Alliance crediting.
Incidentally, it seems your Virgin flights are on Virgin America rather than Virgin Atlantic and Ts&Cs are provided here.
Eligible travel must occur no earlier than 30 days prior to your Elevate Program enrollment date as displayed in your Elevate Program account
Potential partner airlines are here.
EK Emirates
HA Hawaiian Airlines
SQ Singapore Airlines
VS Virgin Atlantic
VA Virgin Australia
Pictures about "Claiming miles that I have flown before registering as frequent flyer"
Can I claim miles from past flights?
\u201cCan he still get the miles for the trips we've already flown?\u201d she asked. Luckily, yes, to a point. Whether you forgot to join an airline's frequent flier program or just didn't add your number when booking your flight, most major airlines in America will give you a window to claim them.How do I add my frequent flyer number after a flight?
Contact your airline or booking agent Give them your flight details and ask if they can add your frequent flyer number to your booking. Depending on the company you've booked with, you may also be able to use online chat or social media to request this change.Can I add Qantas frequent flyer points after booking?
You can add your Qantas or oneworld\xae Frequent Flyer number to your booking online at Manage Booking. Once you've retrieved your booking by entering your booking reference and last name, simply click on the 'Add Frequent Flyer number' link or click 'Edit' from the 'Passenger details' section.Can you claim old miles?
You can submit your mileage claim as long as it has been at least three days from the completed flight. It can take up to 10 days to credit the miles for an American Airlines flight. Remember, you can receive AAdvantage miles for flights taken on partner airlines.Adam Ruins Everything - How Frequent Flyer Miles Work | truTV
Sources: Stack Exchange - This article follows the attribution requirements of Stack Exchange and is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.
Images: Nurlan Tortbayev, RODNAE Productions, Pavel Danilyuk, ROMAN ODINTSOV