Comments on: “Seamless” travel? Here’s the reality of codeshare flights

By: Janice Hough

Janice Hough — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 22:00:01 +0000

Hi Allison, I agree that a single airline can mess things up too…but in our office our experience is that multiple airline itineraries are much more likely to have problems. I have had many many more examples of electronic ticket problems and baggage problems with code-shares, besides the issues of often having to switch terminals. And I didn’t even get into when schedule changes result in mis-connected flights, which means you need to change a flight on airline B because of airline A. It can take hours to straighten out. Plus one airline partner almost always blames the other- Biritish Airways and Iberia both told a client of mine recently it was the other airlines fault – she finally got her luggage 3 weeks later.
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Plus in the event of a delay, an airline is more likely to hold a plane for an online connection than a code-share connection. I’m glad you’ve had good luck, and in some cases there is no alternative. But if code-shares and online connection were the same, we would have a lot less stress in the travel industry.

By: Matthew B

Matthew B — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 19:03:26 +0000

I have found it invaluable to have the eTicket number for checking in. Many people think that cute Sabre six digit alphanumeric is all they need. Unfortunately, this is not the case. If any change has been made to the itinerary, the passenger absolutely must have the 13+ digit electronic ticket number. This ticket number seems to be able to unlock the wonders of the airline ticketing system.

I never go to the airport without my printed itinerary (with eTicket number), passport and my travel agent’s 24/7 telephone number programmed into my fully charged cell phone.

By: Allison

Allison — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 18:37:04 +0000

The problems encountered in both examples in the brief article actually have nothing to do with a codeshare arrangement and could have happened if the passengers were flying on a single airline. I fly frequently on AA codeshare flights with BA and have never had a problem. My one bit of advice to anyone taking a trip involving multiple flight segments is to spend one or two minutes when booking to see if the flight segments are on one airline or with a codeshare partner. If some of the segments are codeshare, I always determine the information, policies and flight numbers of the codeshare airline and keep that information with me while I travel. When flights are booked online, the flight information always includes a codeshare if that is a case, so it is simple to figure this out ahead of time.

By: john m

john m — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 15:54:56 +0000

Codeshare flights are not good for the customer. They allow the airlines not to provide service and not take responsibility for their lack of action. All the airlines do when a codeshare flight is involved, is point fingers blaming everyone else and refusing to offer to help solve the problem.

Good customer service would mean that the “partners” would put aside the blame game and instead step up and say “What do we need to do to fix this problem?”. That’s would be good customer service and live up to the hype but the reality is that they, the airlines, don’t know and don’t want to provide good customer service.

In my humble opinion, the US Congress should revoke all the anti-trust immunity deals given to the airlines and thus end the practice of codesharing.