I also agree with the comments that, when you reserve through Expedia or other third-party sites, PLEASE go to the airline website and update your seat assignments. US Air and a few others have most of their aircraft as Preferred (read – pay me money for some perceived luxury because I *desperately* need it) seating. If a third-party site tries to assign a seat there without collecting the fee, the seat assignment is usually refused. US Air made headlines in every major newspaper about charging for drinks, so why would that be a surprise? (I wouldn’t drink the tap water on an airline, based on what I’ve read on travel sites…)

Joe’s right, Chris; you do collect a lot of whiners. I’m sorry, but if you’re booking on Hotwire, Priceline, Cheap Tickets, and some of those discount places, you really should expect what you pay for. Now, that Delta story years ago that left you speechless, *that* isn’t whining.

There is nothing deceptive about code sharing… its just people too lazy to read what they are clicking on…

… and then come and say “Noone told me!”

and the “Her father works at the airport and told her…” … as what? And if he asked at the ticket counter… was he capable af explaining to her what they REALLY said?

Seat reservations are NOT guaranteed, they are a courtesy. Buy your ticket over some internet site choosing seats is simply saying “Choose a seat and we will see what we can do…. (but dont bet on getting it)”

Do folks really think in the 2 minutes it takes them to bang in a reservation (and ignoring reading the details) that the internet site will be able to confirm it all through the reservation system? Internet site has to do a request with united, who have to do a request with US Airways… and all done by the time you hit enter?

A bit naive folks ;-)

I’m not opposed to codesharing, but I am opposed to the way in which it is currently presented to consumers. Everything needs to be out in the open.

I think that’s what practically many, if not all, airlines and travel agencies do when it comes to codeshare flights. Sounds like something was amiss in your instance, though it might take forever to find out what went wrong.

As for codesharing being deception, what might be really deceptive is if the airline or travel agency didn’t state the flight is operated by this or that. If codesharing were disallowed (which is highly unlikely anyway), it might create less options that some people…might not like.

I won’t comment the codesharing thing since the others have already done so, and people pretty much will agree and/or disagree. I thought I’d point out that Expedia also doesn’t indicate whether you’ll get the seat or not as I went through it earlier.

I won’t be surprised if the other travel agencies’ websites don’t guarantee that either. It might be nice if they explicitly state that, but I guess some people don’t like being told what they don’t want to hear. (or read in this case…)

Then again, I also guess the travel agencies never said they’ll guarantee such to begin with, and people will interpret whatever they want. It’ll probably be one of those never-ending debates.

Speaking of which, Continental’s contract of carriage even says this on page 10 of their PDF:

Seat assignments are not guaranteed and are subject to change without notice.

Gotta love those disclaimers sometimes, although they’re arguably necessary anyway.

Now, the seat issue from third party websites is a big deal. Absolutely they should not be offering seats that don’t get reserved. I work for an airline and this happens very often. But this complaint is with the website! And there is definitely a difference between third party websites. Much different between say, Travelocity and Orbitz, and then opaque sites like Priceline or Hotwire where you cannot even earn miles if you book through those sites.

Read your itineraries people! Don’t be sheep!

Why would you deal with such a company?

With their booking fee they are no cheaper than other sites. You just have to dig a little harder.

Happy Flying in the New Year!

I’m moving on with my life now, I promise ;-)

And yes, I tried going to USAirways’ site (after trying United’s) and yes, they did have my reservation but I was not allowed to pick a seat. I called and was told the same thing. I even had a live human being go to their counter and ask, and he was told that no, I had to wait to check in to get a seat assigned. More importantly though, the implication that passengers buying through these travel sites are “second rate” to those who buy directly from the airlines is interesting. Something for everyone to consider if that’s the case.

I don’t know much about codesharing, or how it works. As someone who doesn’t really buy tickets from these travel sites often, it was just confusing to figure out who to call if I had a problem (forget seat selection, what if my flight was cancelled? I would have lost valuable time calling, first Cheaptickets, then United, then USAirways…). Again, just a little more clarity on this whole codesharing deal would be useful to everyone, and clearly Chris thinks it’s scam.

For all of you talking about frequent miles and whatnot… well, I just wanted my window seat! And maybe a Coke would’ve been nice…

Happy travels everyone!

I think its great that I can use AA miles to fly for free in Europe, although AA doesn’t have a single flight that operates entirely within Europe. I think it awesome that I can fly BA and use the premier lines, the club lounge, and the security queue, even though I’ve never flown BA more than twice a year.

And like many have said, code sharing is generally made very clear to the consumer.

The seat issue is a more pressing problem and CheapTickets should make this clear by not offering seat assignments on airlines where it can’t guarantee them and passengers need to do their homework and review their reservation with the airline on which it has a reservation.

Do you not know what operated means? Common sense definition means, in this context, that the airplane is flown by USAirways. How is that complex? The airplane has a USAirways logo on it. So, you will fly on USAirways. You check in at USAirways counter at the airport.

Why, its like buying a Ford at a Chevy lot and getting . . . a Ford. Hmm.

Now, when it comes to seat assignments – sure – the third party sites screw this up routinely. They do not tell you that, so sure, you have a beef with their websites.

That being said, if you buy a ticket on a website, that is sold by one airline, to be operated on another, would common sense not tell you that perhaps you should contact the ‘operated by’ airline to assure yourself of a seat that you want?

As for ‘preferred seats,’ join the party. You are just ignorant of the current rules the airlines use to raise revenue.

Here is another tip – you’ll have to pay for soft drinks, checked luggage, preferred seats, seats in the front, window seats, aisle seats, pre-boarding, getting off the plane first, entertainment, and fuel, unless they’ve waived the surcharges. Should they disclose all this in advance, yep. Do they? Yep. In the fine print you never read because people who whine like you never make any effort to understand before something happens and then expect to be compensated for whining.

And Christopher, you do attract a lot of whining.