After tackling the age old question of agent versus internet in Part 7 of his series, our Flightie Joel explains how code sharing works in the airline industry and what this means for you the next time you fly:
Sometimes when you book a flight you might see that you have purchased a ticket off airline X but it says it is operated by airline Y. Most of you probably know that this means that you will be on airline Y’s plane even though you purchased it from airline X.
How does this work? Well quite simply, one airline has bought seats from another airline in order to connect passengers onwards. For example, an airline with a base in London may find there is a high demand for flights to Hong Kong but they only have flights to Shanghai, so they buy seats from an airline that has flights from Shanghai to Hong Kong and combine these flights which is known in the industry as a code share.
What does this mean for you? Firstly you should be careful when you book because if you want to fly with a certain airline due to service standards, comfort or professionalism then you might be in for a rude shock when it comes time for boarding.
More importantly for some there may be a cost difference involved. You might be paying a higher cost to book the same flight with one airline than you are with another. I can only speculate as to why one airline is charging more for the same flight than another. I assume this is due to one airline trying to recover the cost of purchasing seats from the other airline.
But the bottom line is if you are booking, check what airline you are really on, if it is a code share then check the airline it is operated by. This handy tip has saved my clients quite a few dollars here and there.
Courtesy of: Joel Pennington, International Travel Consultant, Flight Centre Canada.
Sometimes when you book a flight you might see that you have purchased a ticket off airline X but it says it is operated by airline Y. Most of you probably know that this means that you will be on airline Y’s plane even though you purchased it from airline X.
How does this work? Well quite simply, one airline has bought seats from another airline in order to connect passengers onwards. For example, an airline with a base in London may find there is a high demand for flights to Hong Kong but they only have flights to Shanghai, so they buy seats from an airline that has flights from Shanghai to Hong Kong and combine these flights which is known in the industry as a code share.
What does this mean for you? Firstly you should be careful when you book because if you want to fly with a certain airline due to service standards, comfort or professionalism then you might be in for a rude shock when it comes time for boarding.
More importantly for some there may be a cost difference involved. You might be paying a higher cost to book the same flight with one airline than you are with another. I can only speculate as to why one airline is charging more for the same flight than another. I assume this is due to one airline trying to recover the cost of purchasing seats from the other airline.
But the bottom line is if you are booking, check what airline you are really on, if it is a code share then check the airline it is operated by. This handy tip has saved my clients quite a few dollars here and there.
Courtesy of: Joel Pennington, International Travel Consultant, Flight Centre Canada.
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