Code Share Nonsense

[Art at ISP]

So I went to book a trip to LAS for a trade show in Feb. All flights to and from LAS on US are now the dreaded 757 with only 8F. I only found one flight in 3 days which had E or P inventory, and absolutely none coming back. Not for nothing but there is NO way I am spending 5 hours in the coach cabin of a US 757, especially a redeye.

So I opened my horizons and tried to book onto a UA flight from LGA instead of ISP under the assumption I could at least get seats in E+, which are actually almost as comfortable as F in a US 757. Believe it or not the lowest fare was flying US flights on UA metal (hows that for a switch?).

After ticketing I call Chairmans to get me seats in E+ (at this point I am not even trying for F). They tell me sorry, they can't do any seating except to request aisle or window. I have to call UA. So I have the travel agent call UA, and they said nope, it's a US flight, we don't care about his status he's not getting an E+ seat.

My next move? I cancelled the trip within 1 hour so the ticket could be voided. I will expolore other options, including looking on ITN.net to get inventory. I am sure as more conversions get done, more inventory will be opened.

Not for nothing, but this code share nonsense is a mess. They say one thing, but when you try to do it, all you get is NO. And I am NOT even asking for upgrades (yet).

Just another way to tick off good customers. The agent at the Chairmans Desk sounded frustrated on the verge of disgust with this nonsense, as she was powerless to help me. She said she has had similar problems on a regular basis. She suggested I take it up with CA, which I plan to do.

Oh well.......Merry Christmas everyone

My best to you all.

 

[USFlyer]

Art -

Your experiences are the exact opposite of mine. The codeshare has been nothing but smooth and seemless. It's possible all E+ seats are already taken. Regardless, UA goes out of its ways to make US elites feel welcome. So that one agent was totally incorrect in saying that UA doesn't care about your status. You can get an E+ seat if one is available.

 

[BoeingBoy]

Art's post does hit on one item I've wondered about. I'll admit that I haven't checked personally so it's just hearsay.

Situation is check (ALB-MCO for example) on a flight on U and fare is $xxx. Check same flight on UAL and fare is less than $xxx even though the flight is operated by U.

I've heard numerous people say this. Why is our code-share partner undercutting our fares? Or maybe more correctly put, why are we charging more?

Seems to me that the result of this is that people get used to buying their ticket thru UAL even if the flight is on U and pretty soon they don't think of calling U at all.

I'd love to hear an explanation of this if anyone has one.

Jim

 

[ual777fan]

Well also UA's website buys tickets from the airline in bulk. So sometimes prices on the website and the phone are different. The website generally tends to lag with the fare changes.

 

[Art at ISP]

In this isolated case, U's flight was cheaper than the same itinerary on UA. And checking UA's seat inventory, E+ was wide open on all segments--they just wouldn't give any seats to U.

In any case I am still weighing my options--I have a month to figure it out.

Merry Christmas to all...

 

[ITRADE]

Like USFlyer, I've had nothing but success with the US/UA tie-up. The flights have gone well. The miles have posted. And the decision to go with one alliance or another has been finalized.

 

[W:EXCH:INVOL]

I've noticed 2 problems lately with codeshare customers on our flights. 1--Customers are double-booked on every flight in their pnr. This prevents us from selling more seats. Party of four on four segments=16 less seats to sell. 2--US does not have "control" of the e-ticket. Customers cannot check-in on kiosks. Saw this 3 times yesterday and 4 times today. These instances were just with the customers -I- came in contact with. Anyone else at ato seeing this?

INVOL

 

[funguy2]

I think there are two interesting points that are being missed:

1) The code-share between UAL and USAirways encouraged a normally loyal customer to consider flying on a different airline! Had Art flown his USAir ticket on all UAL metal, USAir would have seen very little, if any, revenue from the ticket, all the while being encouraged to do it via Dividend Miles, etc.

2) Art did A LOT of work to buy an unsatisfactory product, which was promptly returned. Sounds to me like a guy who drove to every Wal-Mart in town to buy a Ginsu Knife. When you finally find it, and get it home, it turned out to be garbage, and had to be returned.

These are two things that would concern me as a Shareholder or Management type.

 

[thepoohbear]

:huh: I've heard it both wayson the lower fare deal.If you book a flight say from EWR to DEN on US website and go on flights operated by UA , you will get a lower fare than if you booked the same flight and restrictions on the UA site.It's wierd but true.The Chairmans Preferred that I've come in contact with cannot upgrade on UA the way they do on US. It's the same with UA's 1K's, they cannot upgrade unless the want to PAY for the upgrade.So much for EBanks.
The multiple bookings in same pnrs is crazy. I had a party of 3 booked in Q,L and S so a RT Itin looked like 12 segments.Then when I went to remove the segments that wer'nt needed I lost the seats they were checked in on. And when I had to do an Invol reroute with 016 stock.....well after trying to ET the D*MN UA computer sends me all their flt numbers into the PNR, so I had to start all over again.

 

[Flying Titan]

Art -
Sorry to hear about your codeshare problems. I've had exactly the opposite experience and I'm a US2, not a US1. When I've flown on UA metal under the codeshare, I've found nothing but good service from UA. They've always seated me in E+ and greeted me with preferred treatment similar to the level I've come to expect from US.

As for me, I haven't gone out of my way to choose UA over US since the codeshare began, but I now treat it as a viable alternative because of the DM benefits. Hopefully, it will work out better next time.

 

[USFlyer]

Here's my understanding of the different prices we sometimes see: US allows UA (and LH, SpanAir, etc.) to sell a certain number of seats in each fare class and vice versa. I believe the exact number on each flight is determined by some probably confidential formula (probably related to the number of seats that typically go empty on any given flight). So, it's possible US has sold out its M class on flight 123, yet UA still has some seats it is allowed to sell in that class. Ideally, everything would be sync'd up so that UA's M class would also zero out, but I thought the DOJ prevents UA-US from colluding in this way. So, UA's pricing analysts would need to realize US's M class is sold out and thus zero out its M class.

Also, the other thing that makes this wierd is with corporate discounts. US gives us a deeper discount than UA, but this discount does apply to UA-operated flights sold as US flights. So very often a UA-operated itinerary is cheaper when bought as a US ticket. Luckily, our automated reservation system only tells us about cheaper fares when a certain threshhold is met, so for the most part we don't see this happen all too often.

Art, document what happened and e-mail Consumer Affairs. I know US is trying to do everything it can to streamline the process, so they will welcome the feedback (even if you get a generic e-mail reply). Regardless, though, that UA agent is totally incorrect.

ITRADE, do you know if UA's seating chart lists our US status? Someone told me it actually lists us as UA's equivalent. i.e., a US1 would show as 1K, a US2 would show as Premier Executive and a US3 would show as Premier. I know the last time I flew UA F the UA F/A in First made a big deal about my status, and I was semi assuming US1 would have been meaningless to him.

 

[ITRADE]

Here's my understanding of the different prices we sometimes see: US allows UA (and LH, SpanAir, etc.) to sell a certain number of seats in each fare class and vice versa. I believe the exact number on each flight is determined by some probably confidential formula (probably related to the number of seats that typically go empty on any given flight). So, it's possible US has sold out its M class on flight 123, yet UA still has some seats it is allowed to sell in that class. Ideally, everything would be sync'd up so that UA's M class would also zero out, but I thought the DOJ prevents UA-US from colluding in this way. So, UA's pricing analysts would need to realize US's M class is sold out and thus zero out its M class.

I would think the situation is more of the former than the latter. I often (on sites like Orbitz and Expedia) see a US coded flight flown by United than is cheaper the same flight coded as United - and vice versa.

 

[a320av8r]

RDU-MCO Jun 7/Jun10
US $210.00
UA $170.00*

Ua flights operated by US

 

[ual777fan]

Here are more details on the US/UA alliance
http://www.usairways.com/about/codeshare/a...ne_partners.htm

This site clears up some of the lounge/check-in/upgrade issues.

 

[W:EXCH:INVOL]

I had approx 25 tickets today that we did not have "control" of. All of these were for customers who -tried- to check-in at a kiosk. No can do. Called the help desk just to see if anyone was working on the problem and was assured that the powers that be are, indeed, aware of numerous ticketing problems with code-shares. I think the exact amount of glitches she said they were working on was "a bazillion." (She may be exaggerating.)

INVOL