What does "code share" mean in airline parlance?

[Kent_Clark]

@Musicat

See, I understood you up until that line.

Aren’t all routes available to all customers at all times? If you want to find a flight from A to B, does it not exist until you look at Airline C’s data?

I admit I haven’t flown for a long time so maybe this is a stupid quesiton, but if I use a general Internet search site to search for all carriers, all flights from A to B, won’t I see all flights available? Or do I have to try each airline’s individual site as some flights are invisible on other airline’s sites?

I don’t find Southwest flights unless I look on the Southwest site. Granted, Southwest is something of an anomaly, but I’m sure they aren’t the only ones who don’t play with other airlines.

[Musicat]

@kunilou

I don’t find Southwest flights unless I look on the Southwest site. Granted, Southwest is something of an anomaly, but I’m sure they aren’t the only ones who don’t play with other airlines.

The last time I flew anywhere (other than with tired arms) I probably picked up a phone and called Mary at the travel agency. Imagine that!

So forgive my lack of knowledge here.

So you’re telling me that there is no Internet site I can go to that lists ALL flights for ALL airlines over a specific route, or at least ALL the (reasonable) ways to get from point A to point B? So unless I know what airlines fly to A and/or B, and unless I check ALL their individual sites, I might miss the data for some flight?

And that’s the best we can do in this age of Teh Internets?

[tanstaafl]

Southwest does not share its information with other reservation systems so no, you usually cannot find Southwest information anywhere but Soutwest’s site.

They also block access to their site from competitors and sites like Travelocity to prevent them from getting their flight info that way either. They want you to go to their site figuring that once you’re there you will just go ahead and buy a ticket from them instead of going somewhere else, checking prices and coming back.

[Tripler]

@Musicat

So you’re telling me that there is no Internet site I can go to that lists ALL flights for ALL airlines over a specific route, or at least ALL the (reasonable) ways to get from point A to point B? So unless I know what airlines fly to A and/or B, and unless I check ALL their individual sites, I might miss the data for some flight?

And that’s the best we can do in this age of Teh Internets?

Actually, that question is best answered in this thread here. There are services (like Orbitz, Kayak, etc) that dip into the central reservation service (CRS) to show you all of the flights for all of the routes that exist, which gets you to most places.

In the case of specific airlines’ websites, they’re only going to show you the other airlines they code share with. . . they’re not going to route you to a competitor (or someone they don’t share with because they’re in competition). It’s all about the marketing.

Those Priceline and Orbitz websites? They don’t cater to any specific airline, so they show you all of the airlines.

Tripler
You called a travel agent? See, some Dopers around here don’t even know what a travel agent is!.

[treis]

@Musicat

See, I understood you up until that line.

Aren’t all routes available to all customers at all times? If you want to find a flight from A to B, does it not exist until you look at Airline C’s data?

I admit I haven’t flown for a long time so maybe this is a stupid quesiton, but if I use a general Internet search site to search for all carriers, all flights from A to B, won’t I see all flights available? Or do I have to try each airline’s individual site as some flights are invisible on other airline’s sites?

The big deal is that it allows you to combine it into one trip. If your flight is delayed, then the airline has to put you on another flight. Basically lets say you want to go from Baton Rouge to Madison, Wisc. The available flights are:

Awesome Airlines 110: Departing Baton Rouge at 9:00 am, arriving at Chicago at 12:00 pm.
Cool Airlines: No flights from Baton Rouge

Awesome Airlines: No flights from Chicago to Madison
Cool Airlines 220: Departing Chicago at 2:00 pm arriving at Madison at 3:00 pm.
Without code sharing you wouldn’t be able to buy a ticket from Baton Rouge to Madison. Awesome Air doesn’t fly to Madison, and Cool Air doesn’t fly from Baton Rouge. This means that you’d have to buy an Awesome Air ticket from Baton Rouge to Chicago, and one Cool Air from Chicago to Madison. This presents several problems. The first is that you have to go through the pain of actually finding the itineraries that would work using two different systems. Then, you have to purchase your tickets from two seperate airlines.

When you fly you have the problem of dealing with two separate trips instead of one. You will have to pick up and recheck your bags in Chicago. That means walking all over the airport, wait in a ticketing line, and going back through security. Big pain. The biggest problem, however, is that if your flight is late into Chicago you are boned. Awesome Air won’t refund the flight to Madison, and Cool Air is under no obligation to put you on a later flight. You could be stranded, or have to pay a bunch for another ticket.

With code sharing all of those problems are eliminated. You either go to Cool Air or Awesome Air and buy one ticket. Awesome Airlines 110 will also be listed as Cool Airlines 110, and the opposite for Cool Airlines 220. Everything else is automatically taken care of for you. Your bags are transferred and you don’t have to worry about scheduling. Most importantly, if your Baton Rouge to Chicago flight is delayed, the airlines have to make accommodations for you. Either they put you on the next flight, on another airline, or in a hotel for the night.

[suranyi]

@Tripler

Actually, that question is best answered in this thread here. There are services (like Orbitz, Kayak, etc) that dip into the central reservation service (CRS) to show you all of the flights for all of the routes that exist, which gets you to most places.

In the case of specific airlines’ websites, they’re only going to show you the other airlines they code share with. . . they’re not going to route you to a competitor (or someone they don’t share with because they’re in competition). It’s all about the marketing.

Those Priceline and Orbitz websites? They don’t cater to any specific airline, so they show you all of the airlines.

Even that’s not true. As tanstaafl said, there are some airlines that will not show up on the big air booking sites such as Orbitz. In the U.S. the most important such airline is Southwest.

Ed

[Tripler]

@suranyi

Even that’s not true. As tanstaafl said, there are some airlines that will not show up on the big air booking sites such as Orbitz. In the U.S. the most important such airline is Southwest.

Ed

I stand corrected then! I spoke too generally in this case.

Tripler
Oops!

[slaphead]

@suranyi

Even that’s not true. As tanstaafl said, there are some airlines that will not show up on the big air booking sites such as Orbitz. In the U.S. the most important such airline is Southwest.

Ed

Plus which airlines may not release all their inventory to the GDS. Sometimes there are special prices that only show up on the airline’s own website. Amongst other things, this is because the GDS fee can be a significant component of the overall price for very cheap tickets.

[madmonk28]

Code share is important in my work for another, maybe esoteric, reason. I’m a foreign aid worker, If I am traveling internationally on a grant provided by the US government, I have to purchase a ticket from a US carrier. With code share, I can buy a ticket with United, but it is in fact a Lufthansa plane. Some times I won’t even know if it is going to be a United or Lufthansa flight until I get to the gate.