I will be travelling in business class on Lufthansa flight Hong-Kong to Melbourne operated by Cathay Pacific.
I have United airlines membership which I normally use when travelling on Lufthansa (or any other Star Alliance airline). I have Qantas membership which I use to get points when travelling on One World airlines.
This time it will be a confusing case as the ticket is issued by Lufthansa (i.e. Star Alliance) but will be operated by a One World member.
Announcements on Lufthansa and Cathay Pacific collaboration in the news specify that both airlines will honor each other’s points program. My problem is I am not a member of any of the two. So can I still get points and if yes, which membership I should provide - United Airlines for Lufthansa or Qantas for Cathay Pacific?
Hi Tanya,
Which program you are eligible to credit towards will come down to which carriers airline code is on your ticket. Forget about who actually flies the route, for loyalty purposes where your points can go is dictated by the airline who owns the ticket, and who’s flight number it is.
If the ticket says LH1234 for example as the flight number, then for all intents and purposes this is a Lufthansa flight, so you could apply your United number and be credited the points based on that. However if the ticket says CX123 for example, then it is marketed and owned by Cathay, so your United number would do no good for you and you would apply the Qantas membership.
Lufthansa are an interesting one, as frequently you’ll have them own the ticket in/out of Australia but you will have a myriad of partner airlines operating sections of the trip as they don’t fly their own aircraft to Australia. However for loyalty points it will always come down to who has their flight number on it; if it’s a CX flight number put your Qantas number, if it’s a Lufthansa flight number operated by Cathay Pacific, apply your United number.