SkyTeam/Air France/Continental points

Here's the story . . .

Flying to Shanghai shortly with KLM (unless EI management come through with their reverse-strike they have proposed for tomorrow).

I have a frequent flier membership with KLM -well with Air France who have a shared scheme with KLM. I am also a member of the Continental scheme.

I want to get the points for my KLM flight credited to my Continental account, but I can't find out where to make this change. According to the SkyTeam website it should be possible - earn miles for any airline scheme when flying with another SkyTeam airline. According to the Continental website it should be possible. According to the Air France website . . . . what are you silly English speakers thinking of, we do not know of such a thing . . .

My problem (apart from too many scheme memberships leading to confusion like this) is that these extra points will be very usefull on my Continental account which already has quite a lot of points on it, and almost useless on my Air France account which has no points on it yet.

I tried contacting KLM and they could only use my KLM/AF account.
I tried contacting AF and their phone system has no human element, so because my call didn't fit into one of their questions the phone line dropped after a few minutes
I tried contacting Continental and got through to some nice German man who doesn't work for Continental, but who seems to get overflows from the Continental call queue every so often.
I tried contacting SkyTeam but they have no human contact points that I can find.

z

Just present the Continental Card at check-in and ask to have the details input. You may also be able to do this on the KLM website prior to flying in the 'manage my reservations' function.
Longterm, you should decide to go with either one or the other miles scheme. It makes little sense to continue to run with 2 schemes from the same alliance (skyteam).

As Soy says just show the card at checkin (and make sure it's input correctly and shows up on the boarding pass) - should say something like FQTV / COxxxxxxx with xxxxxx being your number on the Continental FF scheme

You might need to do this in Amsterdam as it's quite possible that Aer Lingus yon't be able to do it correctly in Dublin - you won't get miles on the Aer Lingus flight to Amsterdam anyway (even if it's booked under the KLM codeshare). Just get them to do it at the numerous KLM transfer desks at Schiphol... If all else fails hang on to the boarding card stubs and send them in after the fact to get the miles credited ... Whaterver you do though don't mention your Air France number at any stage .. if that gets onto the booking somehow it would be at least painful and possibly impossible to "un-credit" them from that and put them into Continental.

Definintely agree with Soy - it's generally better consolidate your miles in one FF scheme per airline alliance to maximise benefits - so if you've got a reasonable points balance in Continental One Pass then there's really not much point in joining Air France's Frequence Plus programme.

Oh, if only I knew then what I know now . . .

Unfortunately when booking the flights originally I did exactly as you said not to . . . and gave them my AF card number. This was before I realised there was a link between KLM & CO. It seemed like a good idea at the time.

I feel I will have to do a lot of convincing tomorrow to see if I can remove the AF number.

This will be after I get them to re-route me off Aer Lingus if they go ahead with their threats for tomorrow.

Cheers,

z

If your miles get you access to Skyteam lounges then get them to change the number at the KLM lounge in Schipol. They are usually better to deal with than the transfer desk.

I use Skymiles (through Delta), and I can tell you that KLM/Air france are quite hard to deal with for re-claiming miles, BUT for just getting them at check-in, its a formality.
Just use one airline, and claim at check-in from them all. You can also add your number at booking, and you get priority seat selection, and priority boarding, which can be handy for getting seat 2C.
My biggest bug-bear is that you can use all the Skyteam lounges in the world with exception of the KLM ones in Schipol (very selective entry, for Delta its Platinum level only, but only with Elite Pass). Kinda sorry I didn't join KLM Flying Dutchman now, but Delta had the better offer at the time, way back when.

Incidently, Skyteam is an excellent serivce for Dublin airport freq-fliers, as you can use Delta, Continental and Northwest to the USA, and KLM, Air France and Emirites to everywhere else.

Who needs Heathrow?