Careful on code shares
Code sharing has been a boon to the airline industry. They get the benefits of an expanded route structure without any of the costs by piggybacking on another airline’s flights. If we applied this concept to other industries, Ford could eliminate their quality control problems simply by slapping their logo on a Honda or Toyota.
Just as we all know a Ford isn’t the same as a Honda or a Toyota, we all know airlines aren’t created equal. A friend related her story about a flight to Phoenix purchased throught Expedia. Code sharing gave her two very different experiences.
She flew Continental on the first leg to Houston and then onwards to Phoenix. Flight attendants were friendly, there was a movie, breakfast (cereal and a banana) was served on the first leg and the flight attendants brought around muffins during the second leg from Houston to Phoenix.
The return leg was on Northwest from Phoenix to Minneapolis and then back home. Flight attendants were disinterested, there was no movie and no meals were served.
In the past (way past), I booked myself on what I thought was to be a KLM flight from Boston to Amsterdam only to find myself on an old Northwest DC-10. The difference in service, meals and aircraft between Northwest and KLM was dramatic. That insured that I focused on which airline is flying which route, especially in these days of code sharing.
Check carefully whenever booking flights. Online travel agencies can often find excellent rates by combining different airlines, even airlines that don’t have code sharing or that are not part of the same airline alliance.
The good deal may come at the expense of easy connections, consistent service and luggage transfers. Make sure to understand which airlines are flying which routes before buying airline tickets. Sometimes it makes a big difference.
All airlines are not created equal
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Another thing to be aware of is that frequent flyer miles are not given for certain booking classes of tickets on codeshares. So if you’re counting on receiving miles, you’ll have to find out the booking class - such as T, V, W - and check to make sure you’ll earn those miles on the FF program you’re hoping to.
Here you go too in perpetuating the myth that our domestic auto industry does not make quality products. I have owned American-made cars for the past 20 years and have not had major problems with any of them. In fact, I just bought a new Ford and find it’s quality just as good or better than the foreign-made rentals I’ve had of late. As long as you take care of your car, it will take care of you. That’s true whether your car is American, German, or Japanese.
Honda used to purchase Izuzu Rodeos and rebadge them as Hondas and Ford and Mazdas have done this for years, as has GM and Suzuki or any number of auto companies. The difference is really simple, in the case of a car, you still get a car and you know who to take it to for service. Even if your Honda was actually built by Izuzu, the Honda dealer that sold it to you will service it.
Now when you buy an airline ticket on a code shared flight, no one will service it if there is a problem. The actually operating carrier will point you to the carrier shown on your ticket and the ticketed carrier will send you right back to the operating carrier and neither one will help you out.
This is the inherent problem with Code Shares and has been since their inception. I am waiting for the day when one major code share airline goes under. Can you imagine the mess?
What I find with codeshares is……………………….alot of infrequent flyers dont even know what airline they are connecting to on their itineraries.
I can only imagine how many passengers have shown up at the WRONG AIRLINE.