Beth Warner has a complaint I hear too often: “Delta downgraded me on my flight.” To make matters worse, she’s in a wheelchair. And to make matters even worse, they seated her next to a bathroom. Does she deserve some kind of refund?
CODESHARE
My seat upgrade disappeared, but Lufthansa kept my money
All Ronald LaPedis wants to do is fly from San Francisco to Bangalore, India, in relative comfort. But a codesharing upgrade nightmare threatens to send him to the back of the plane.
Missing miles on a United Airlines codeshare flight
Glennellen Pace and her husband are missing thousands of frequent flier miles after a trip to Australia and New Zealand. Is there any way to find them?
Stranded in China without an airline ticket
Question: I booked a flight from Dayton, Ohio, to Shanghai through US Airways, and things went terribly wrong with my ticket. I need your help.
The first two of the three segments of my trip from Ohio to China were on United Airlines. The United agent at the Dayton airport had great difficulty printing my boarding passes and eventually informed me that she would have to issue a paper ticket.
When I checked in for my return flight in Shanghai, I was told by agents that I did not have a reservation on the Air Canada flight. I showed the agents my emailed confirmation from US Airways and the agents rudely informed me that there was nothing they could do. When I begged the agents for help their only advice was that I call my travel agent. I explained that I booked the trip myself.
Why lying is wrong — even when an airline does it
To the airline apologists who rushed to the defense of an industry that lies by pretending other companies’ products are its own — a dirty trick called “codesharing” — I have just one thing to say: meet Lisa Waters.
Help! Code-sharing confusion grounded my vacation
Question: We booked a ticket from Washington to the Bahamas recently through Expedia. It was a code-share flight Bahamasair operated by US Airways.
At the US Airways check-in counter we, and about 50 other travelers, were told by US Airways ticket agents that Bahamasair had not transferred the ticket information to the US Airways system and so none of us could board.
Codeshare confusion: Whose baggage policy applies to my flight?
Codesharing, or allowing multiple airlines to sell tickets on the same flight as if it were their own, can lead to a lot of confusion. And it’s more than just a matter of, “What flight am I on?”
Consider what happened to Abhijeet Utturkar, whose family had tickets to fly from Mumbai to Tulsa, Okla., on flights booked through American Airlines but operated by American Airlines and Jet Airways.
I was looking at the baggage allowances for the trips and found out that AA.com lists only one checked bag for free and charges $50 for second bag for travel to/through/from India and Europe.
It also has exceptions to the policy, in which it states that one and/or two bags can be checked for free if the flights are operated by a codeshare partner carrier other than American Airlines, Amergican Eagle and American Connection. Then the operating carrier charges will apply.
Here are American’s baggage allowances and Jet Airways’ baggage allowances, in case you’d like to follow along at home.
Utturkar wants to know: Who’s baggage allowances really apply?
One airline ticket for the price of two?
Question: I need your help untangling a flight problem that involves Hotwire, US Airways, United Airlines and Frontier Airlines. A few months ago, we were supposed to fly from Los Angeles to Dallas on US Airways and Frontier. Our first outbound flight was a codeshare flight operated by United.
We checked in at the US Airways counter with plenty of time before our flight left. After waiting in line, a representative sent us to the United Airlines check-in area, across the airport. It didn’t matter; our flight to Las Vegas was canceled because of severe weather. At that point, a United representative told us our flight had been rescheduled for the next day.
My family and I live three hours away from LAX. We arrived at the airport using a rental car. We had to pay another $130 for a hotel room that night. The next day, when we tried to check in, the system couldn’t find our tickets.
Our only option was to buy new tickets, which cost us $235 each. Since then, we’ve been trying to get our money back from Hotwire and the airlines. But so far, nothing. Can you help?
— Llouellynde Orahood, Lompoc, Calif.
Answer: So you bought a round-trip ticket from Los Angeles to Dallas through an online travel agency, but ended up dealing with three different airlines? No wonder your refund is missing in action. I don’t think anyone knows where your money is.
This sounds like a Murphy’s Law kind of trip. Let’s talk about what happened to you, first. Going to the wrong terminal was probably avoidable. Your itinerary should have clearly showed which airline was operating your first flight. That means you check in at that terminal. (If you have questions, call your travel agent or airline.)