Spill the beans... on how to manipulate airline codesharing

Former_MSE_Penelope

Spill the beans... on how to manipulate airline codesharing [IMGRIGHT]http://images.moneysavingexpert.com/images/spillthebeans2.gif[/IMGRIGHT]

Codeshares are where two airlines agree to sell each others' flights, so you book with one carrier, fly with another. Often it's annoying, yet be clever and you can gain. Prices differ wildly, eg, we found a Manchester-Orlando return Virgin Atlantic flight sold by Virgin for £650, but if you'd booked Continental on its codeshare it's £790, but it can work the other way too. Tell us your best experiences (and tips to avoid being taken for a ride).

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hxm

I fly to Kenya quite a lot. The cheapest fares are usually with Qatar or Emirates, but these involve non-connecting flights which extend the travelling time too much for my liking. You can only get direct flights from London so I normally go from Manchester with KLM, who codeshare with Air France and Kenya Airways.

Depending on which airline is actually operating the long-haul flight, the shuttle from Manchester will take me to Amsterdam or Paris. I always check all the websites because as you say, the price for the same flights can fluctuate wildly. Kenya Airways often charges more than £100 more to travel on the exact same flights.

I have been known to opt for paying a little bit more than the cheapest available fare for a shorter connection, but it's definitely worth checking out all the options. Last year I would have paid quite a bit more if I'd booked with KLM to travel on the same long-haul flight and I would have had a much longer wait at Schipol for the return trip to Manchester. Other times it's been better to book with KLM.

Jon_Stubberfield

One instance in Delta/KLM and Air France who have a code share agreement to the USA.

Airlines have corresponding 'fare categories' which relates to pricing. Sometimes KLM will have a better fare category available for the same flight operated by Delta for whatever reason. So by booking a Delta flight with KLM could mean that although you're on exactly the same aircraft, you're able to obtain a cheaper fare. This can work the other way around too.

If you're on one of these comparison sites, often the software is not intelligent enough to pick up on these little nuggets.

richardw

It can help with easier ticketing from one airline, instead of using a travel agent website, because you'd get the travel agents terms and conditions in addition to the airline's.
Virgin Atlantic is part owned 49% by Singapore Airlines, so they codeshare on some of each others flights, this makes trips like LHR-DXB-SIN-LHR ticket table by either Virgin or Singapore Airlines. Always worth a good hunt around for possibilities.

one_bill_at_a_time

Often when the prices are really similar I'll also look at which airline will give me the best airmiles / tier points etc.

For instance, with Virgin or BA I get great miles but only if I book on their flight code not the codeshare partner ... just another thing to add to the decision making

AHAR

I think a good starting point to identify potential codeshare arrangements would be to familiarise yourself with the members of the main airline alliances Oneworld, Skyteam and Star Alliance.
Codeshare agreements will usually, but not always, operate within these groups.

richardw

AHAR wrote: »

Codeshare agreements will usually, but not always, operate within these groups.

Yes, but many airlines have codeshares with non-aligned airlines. Airline websites sometimes have partner information which may help in the hunt for cheaper code shares.

Amba_Gambla

Surely this doesn't matter if you use https://www.Kayak.co.uk ? It shows you the cheapest anyway...

Effervescent

Its sometimes cheaper to book flights to Norway with bmi code than it is using SAS (SK) code

Voyager2002

Amba_Gambla wrote: »

Surely this doesn't matter if you use https://www.Kayak.co.uk ? It shows you the cheapest anyway...

I agree. However, unless you are determined to get the very cheapest no matter what, you might avoid a particular BA flight that says "operated by China Eastern" since that would mean travelling on a poorly-regarded airline, even though BA sold you the ticket. Equally, a China Eastern flight might suddenly become more attractive if you found that it was "operated by BA".

Frequent flyer miles make the whole game more complicated. I was once seriously annoyed when I bought a return ticket from the BMI website, where both sectors had BMI flight numbers. The flight back was "operated by Ethiopian Airlines" which was fine (particularly since they gave me a free upgrade!), but BMI would not give me the miles because it was not one of their flights!

molly_moo_2

Sorry can someone explain to me what codesharing is?
thanks