After flying to Changsha, China on China’s only 5 star airline, I was worried that my air miles would not post to my Alaska Airlines Mileageplan account correctly. I had booked a roundtrip business class ticket on Hainan Airlines and this was my first experience crediting Hainan miles to Alaska Airline since the two airlines expanded their interline agreement to a mutual frequent flyer agreement in August 2015. When Alaska Airlines and Hainan Airlines expanded their agreement, Alaska Airlines opened up the ability of Mileageplan members to earn thousands of miles.
Earning on Hainan Airlines
Effective date for earning miles on Hainan Airlines: August 24, 2015.
Elite Qualifying Flight Miles: Earned flight miles and premium cabin bonuses on Hainan count towards Elite Status.
Economy Cabin: Earn actual flight miles* flown in Y class of service, plus 25% Bonus Miles.
Earn actual flight miles* flown in B, H, K, L, or M classes of service.
Earn 50% of actual flight miles* flown in Q, X, W, U, or V classes of service.Business Class Cabin: Earn actual flight miles* flown in C class of service, plus 50% Bonus Miles.
Earn actual flight miles* flown in D class of service, plus 25% Bonus Miles
Earn actual flight miles* flown in I class of service.First Class Cabin: Earn actual flight miles* flown in R and F classes of service, plus 100% Bonus Miles.
Earn actual flight miles* flown in Z class of service, plus 50% Bonus Miles.
Earn actual flight miles* flown in A class of service, plus 25% Bonus Miles.The ticket I booked to Changsha booked in “R” class which is actually discounted business class, however Hainan Airlines tickets international business class as First class! This means, that with this flight being nearly 7,000 miles each way, under the earning charts above I should have earned 6,998 base miles plus 100% bonus miles for a total of 13,996 elite miles and then another 125% miles as I am gold MVP 75K for a total of 22,743.5 redeemable miles each way.
The miles posted for my Hainan Airlines flight exactly two weeks after I flew Hainan Airlines to the date and the Hainan Airline flight miles posted precisely as I hoped for, for 22,744 miles! From my experience with Alaska Airline, two weeks is the typical time frame it takes for partner flights to post to Mileage Plan accounts.
Overall this is fantastic news, as the Hainan Airline Business Class trip really did end up being a 4.8 cent per mile trip before my MVP bonus!
