Codeshares are a terrible practice in the airline industry. One airline sells a seat on another airline’s flight but pretends it is their flight.
- The flight is, say, on Air Canada
- You’re flying an Air Canada plane with an Air Canada crew. You have to check in with Air Canada.
- But your ticket says it is a United Airlines flight. It has a United Airlines flight number. Even though United doesn’t fly between those two cities.
Sometimes with codeshares you can’t even get a seat assignment until the airport because an actual flight with the flight number you’ve booked does not exist. And when things go wrong, the codeshare adds complexity and puts another layer of bureaucracy between you and the actual airline operating your flight.
Airlines do it to sell more seats on more flights, but it doesn’t just confuse customers it often confuses the airline’s own systems. Airline alliances and joint ventures are supposed to fix this, but in practice they rarely do.
American Airlines has put controls in place to try to prevent their agents from screwing up customer reservations when rebooking travel. They have greyed out codeshares as even an option when they need to rebook a customer due to a flight delay or cancellation.
American reminds its agents that on the day of travel, if they book a customer into a codeshare, the airline actually operating the flight might not even get the booking correctly. So to prevent agents from making a booking – and the customer turning up at the other airline only to find that they don’t see the reservation – American is blocking their agents from rebooking passengers onto codeshares. That should tell you something about codeshares!
Here’s the internal memo regarding this change:
The takeaway isn’t just “don’t book codeshares in the first place” it is to remember that if an airline is rebooking you because your flight has been delayed or cancelled, and another airline is involved, don’t let them rebook you onto the codeshare if you can possibly avoid it!
My big issue with it is that these “partner airlines” really are codeshares and none of your elite benefits transfer over.
So I’m a United 1K that had to take Air Canadia to YYZ recently. Well you have to pay for your seats if you want an e-row, can’t choose a free seat on the United app, and by check in on the United app.
You’ve gotta get the AC app, pay 50 bucks for an e-row, no discount on snacks (used to getting them for free as a 1K).
Also no CPUs. The AC flight back from YYZ to SFO had 3-4 empty first class seats and at least 3 United 1Ks onboard. Shouldn’t Star Alliance Gold count for something?
When I fly “United” within Europe on Lufthansa, I have to pay baggage fees and money to pick my seat.
The only thing that actually works is Star Alliance Gold status that gets you into lounges.
I had a situation earlier this year with an AA code share rebooking. I was in Sydney Australia and got an alert the night before my flight that it was canceled. The next flight wasn’t until 3 days later, so they rebooked me on Qantas. I had a business class upgrade on AA, but it didn’t transfer to Qantas. I was stuck in an uncomfortable main cabin seat for 15 hrs. I called AA to complain and they gave me some miles and apologized. I will never, ever make that mistake again.
Congress passed the Fly America Act which requires federal workers and military traveling internationally to fly on US carriers. So US carriers codeshare all the time to meet this requirement.
A related concept is the regional carriers. A lot of people don’t realize they are different companies. A number of years ago, when United had a computer meltdown, all their flights were delayed. But it didn’t affect all the regionals. I was sitting waiting for my delayed flight when the gate agent came on the intercom and told the crowd “this affects all United flights, so your connecting flight at IAD will likely be delayed the same amount so you should be OK” I reminded the gate agent that the regionals were not affected, and they have to live up to their on-time commitments to United and would likely leave on time irrespective of United’s computer issue. The gate agent admitted this and sheepishly got back on the intercom to tell folks that he was wrong in providing that assurance, because if they were connecting to a regional, they might be in trouble.
There are sometimes pricing or other advantages to booking codeshares. There are risks, but it’s not all bad.
Seems to me like this whole system needs a major over-haul to be re-corrected
If the original flight which was cancelled was a codeshare, presumably this rule does not apply?
DL BOS to CDG said seat selection after check-in. I.e. 24 hours before departure like I have nothing else to do then. So I login to the partner/operator AF site and chose my seats there. Small potatoes, until that day you’re in a middle seat for 7 hours.
A terrible practice? BS. Codeshare agreements result in a more efficient operation, fuller planes, more choice, and thus lower prices. How terrible.
While all true especially on US/AC relationship,
Let’s not pretend that AA does it to protect customers, but are rather doing it to keep every single revenue penny on their pockets.
When I was using the last of my Northwest Airlines miles years ago, Delta put me on a Korean Air codeshare. Everything went off fine. Maybe the problem is more with the specific airline than with codeshare in general.
AA not booking code shares is not because they are interested in providing the best service to their customers but instead because it is much cheaper to rebook on their own metal vs another carrier. This is true of all airlines. I agree that code shares add complexity and sometimes the systems do not communicate well between the airlines. But I’m confident in saying rebooking a passenger onto another airline, code share or not, is the last option for any airline. They don’t want to have to pay another airline to provide the service. The memo you are referencing is a cost cutting measure, nothing more. That is why they are getting out the more costly options .
When booking, one consideration is how many miles you will get. For example, when crediting to AA, a QF flight with a QF flight number will earn base miles as a percentage of distance (often 25% for economy) whereas the same flight with the AA codeshare number will earn according to how much you spent. In my experience the codeshare is often better. For million miller counting the difference is even bigger (with the codeshare being better).
Retired after 36 years of Reservations with a major US carrier. I always called the codeshare partner to verify the reservation and arrange seating if available. If OA wouldn’t waive seat fee I sent a voucher to the pax.
Yeah, not everyone did this but
I grew up on Pan Am and taking care of passengers (I was bumped off in Teheran once) just comes naturally
Not really clear on what “codeshare” is, but I was flying a govt-purchased flight — and Leg 1 (Delta) was massively delayed. Too late to make legs 2 and 3 (United). Delta wouldn’t help me with rebooking legs 2 & 3. So I went to United. They wouldn’t help me either. After 2 dead-end phonecalls, I wandered the airport until I found a United private lounge — a kind lady there said she’d try to rebook me. I arrived to final destination in middle of night. Total transit time 24 hrs to get from midwest U.S to western U.S.
I’m an emergency responder, was enroute to an evolving wildfire. I worked my first shift the next day on 3 hours of sleep. If I hadn’t taken a stab-in-the-dark by going to the United private lounge, I might still be waiting for rebookings.
Now, for all of my federal flights, I always request to NOT be booked on multiple airlines.
@Dan … when was the last time you were “Flying United with Lufthansa inside Europe”? United no longer sells revenue codeshare only flights on United’s website anymore (IE: FRA-CDG), they have to be attached to a United operated flight. So if you had a United flight number on a LH operated flight, it meant you would be connecting to a UA flight, and you’re saying that you’re not getting them. I’ve never heard of that, ever. Even buying LH flights from LH directly, you’re eligible for larger baggage allowance, so this must be an isolated incident to your account specifically.
If you are in a codeshare flight call the main airline that did the booking and get the codeshare airline’s locator and manage your booking with the codeshare airline partner.
It usually works.
United just started having the same flight Air Canada has perhaps to accommodate more people traveling in the summer for example. They still have this same flight in the autumn but I will keep an eye out for it to see it they stopped it and turned it over to Air Canada during the autumn winter months.
I was on flight codeshared as Delta but was on KLM. I was able to select a seat at the time of booking.
When I looked at flights recently from JFK to LHR using the Delta app, I saw flights codeshared with Virgin America. There was seat selection available.
It seems that having codeshare works well depending on the relationship between the parties.
What reader Dan wrote was very accurate. UA often places codeshares from NRT or HND to Asia operated by ANA. Regardless of one’s UA status, guarantee that one can only see middle seats if lucky. Trust me on this – Star Alliance Gold (UA Gold or higher) does not mean much with ANA.
I use Delta to fly to the Philippines a few times a year. The connection feom ICN to Manila is Korean Air. Although i do not get premium seating of Korean Air, they do personally thank you for your loyalty (status thru Delta and give me lounge access which Delta wont do). Back before the big mergers, Northwest and Continental would recognize Each others status and provide the upgrades and perks when code sharing. As a consistent Diamond and Platinum status member, i just feel lucky for the occasional upgrade. It will never be what it once was. I stick with Delta because of customer service and routes i use most often. Ill fly Spirit or Frontier before i step on an AA flight ever again.
I flew on AC in July booked through United. I was able to select a seat (2A) during booking. During the online check-in process, my seat selection (2A) was grayed out and did not seem to be assigned to me. I had to select another seat to continue. I went ahead and picked seat (2B) which was available. When the boarding pass appeared, my seat showed as the original seat (2A) I selected during booking. In my case it seemed like a system quirk. Thanks to everyone’s useful info.
@Dan
+1 Here. Booked UA from YYG to LGA, but when I went to book seats and luggage, I found out it was an AC flight and was going to be charged. Cancelled that flight and booked Porter to EWR (not a bad little A/L).
Also, I booked a FC flight on united.com from JFK to LIS and will get Polaris access, but my girlfriend booked hers on the Amex site. It was a Lufthansa codeshare with UAL, and she will be unable to select her seat until check-in. Also, we are unsure of her access to the Polaris lounge.
I’ve booked Delta from JFK to Inverness two summers in a row and some of the travel is on KLM or a KLM partner.. Never an issue. Delta handles all of KLM operations at JFK. I think it depends on the airline.
I actively seek code shares when I fly DL to Europe. European compensation rules apply to any EU to US flight, but only on EU carriers on US to EU flights. I wasn’t able to do it last Spring, though DL was surprisingly generous in the compensation for my J to Y downgrade after a missed connection.
Given the depreciation of mileage currency, I no longer worry about codesharing to accumulate miles on a single airline. I simply book directly with the brand on the metal.