Codeshares

I was recently asked a question about codeshares by a reader of Condé Naste Traveler. One of the things I mentioned in my reply through The Perrin Post column was the importance of knowing the operating airline. It is the operating airline that you deal with for checking in, bags, transfers, etc. The codeshare airline is of no help and may use a different terminal or not even operate out of that airport. Some airports will only announce over the PA or on departure screens the operating airline's flight, not the codeshares (with some flights having 8 or more codeshares who can blame them?).

So how do you know the operating airline? Your travel agent or airline should include the operating airline (and preferably also the operating airline's flight number) in your itinerary. If they haven't then you can use this tool on OAG's website to find the operating airline (eg QF 301 is operated by British Airways). Unfortunately OAG hasn't included the operating airline's flight number, so I'd suggest a second step and look up the airline schedule for the operating airline for your route. OAG has a listing of most airlines' websites.

An easier way (with some interpretation required) is to use Executive Travel Skyguide's free flight search - enter the departure city, arrival city, and date. It will return all the flight options. Your flight, being a codeshare should have an asterisk to indicate the codeshare. Then check the listing immediately above and below that listing for an entry that matches the arrival and departure times (and transit point if relevant). In my example I can see for Bangkok to London Heathrow that QF301 is a codeshare matching operating flight number 10 by British Airways (BA10). Don't worry about matching the aircraft type since the coding used by airlines is not 100% consistent - in this example Qantas uses 744 and British Airways 747. Trust me it is the same aircraft!

Airline alliance changes

A quick summary of some upcoming changes to the 3 main airline alliances. With lots of changes there are new earning and redemption options opening up, and also some being lost (so book now if needed).

One World

- EI Aer Lingus leaves 31 March 2007
+ JL Japan Airlines joins 1 April 2007
+ MA Malev Hungarian joins 1 April 2007
+ RJ Royal Jordanian joins 1 April 2007
+ KA Dragonair joins 2007 (date yet to be announced)
+ XL Lan Argentina joins 2007 (date yet to be announced)
+ LP Lan Peru joins 2007 (date yet to be announced)
- BA's British Mediterranean (BMed) franchise ends northern Summer 2007 (ie many BA flights to Africa, Middle East and Central Asia will no longer be One World flights)
? RG New Varig may possibly join (with Lan's part purchase)
? WS Westjet is in talks with One World.

With Aer Lingus leaving, travel to Ireland is harder but otherwise not much impact. The addition of Japan Airlines adds several routes to Asia, but Malev and Royal Jordanian add some new destinations and more connections in Eastern Europe and the Middle East. Dragonair adds lots of options for China travel, and the LANs open up much of South America. The loss of BMed removes several destinations.

Sky Team

+ UX Air Europa joins June 2007
+ CZ China Southern Airlines joins 2007 (date yet to be announced)
? IC Indian Airlines is in talks with Sky Team

More destinations added in Europe and China.

Star Alliance

- RG Varig left 31 January 2007
? RG New Varig is in talks to rejoin Star Alliance
+ CA Air China joins 2007 (date yet to be announced)
+ FM Shanghai Airlines joins 2007 (date yet to be announced)
+ TK Turkish Airlines is in talks with Star Alliance
+ BMed may possibly join or have flights under franchise with bmi (with bmi's purchase)

The biggest alliance keeps on growing. More destinations in China, and probably also Turkey, Eastern Europe, Africa, Middle East and Central Asia. A loss of Varig leaves a big gap in the network with extremely poor options for South America.

My travels

Apologies for the lack of recent posts. I'll try to do better. The start of the year has been busy travel-wise for me, although differently from other January's.

With lots of stuff on I have been busy with many short flights instead of international longhaul. In the past few weeks I have flown several different airlines and aircraft types, which keeps me on my toes for selecting good seats, different processes for check in, lounge access, and so forth.

My travel plans for the upcoming year are starting to take shape and I've booked some nice awards on the first date released for next Christmas / New Year period as well as finalising some paid trips. I find I tend to cash in miles regularly since the frequent flyer programs regularly devalue - hoarding miles is not "investing" for future travel. That said, some significant changes to alliances (more on that soon) will open up new opportunities for both earning and redemption.

I have taken a small gamble with one of my upcoming hotel stays. It is a new hotel currently expecting to open a month before my visit, although the opening date has already been pushed back several times. The hotel award looks very cheap compared with paid rates, and I've already confirmed an executive suite. So fingers crossed the hotel opens on time and is fully functional from the outset.

I've also been working to earn more miles with various promos, some of which were not well advertised. It really does pay to actively search them out. On one stay by booking hotel through an airline website, for the same heavily discounted rate as the hotel discount websites I get the same room and 2000 miles, not counting miles earned when paying the bill on the credit card. Not a bad return on 5 minutes work to do the comparison. Another trip I booked flights + 1 night of hotel as a package, got the same great sale fare on the flights as I would get booking just the flight, plus hotel for $120 with $100 rebate. So the hotel in the central city cost me $20, far below what the same hotel or any others for that matter would cost on a hotel discount website.

There was a period a couple of years ago when it seemed every few flights I would be asked to complete a survey. Then it dried up with very few surveys. I recently got emailed a travel survey which I thought was poorly designed. It was very long, more like something you'd get in a focus group - it took me about 40 minutes to complete. Many questions where confusingly written. Imagine airlines were people, for each of the listed airlines select which of the following types of people they would be. And the types would be something wierd like "sensible". Huh? I normally like doing surveys as I see it as an opportunity to give feedback so they can improve. However this one left a sour taste - too long for what they were giving for it, badly worded questions and a focus more on branding and advertising perceptions than on the actual product at hand.

Passenger Rights

The events of American Airlines flight 1348 late December (when in bad weather passengers were kept in the aircraft on the ground for 9 hours) has led to a renewed call for improved passenger rights. A glance at the blog of Coalition for Stranded Airline Passenger's Bill of Rights suggests they are asking for more rights than those provided to passengers of EU airlines under their regulations.

Update on the UK Air Passenger Duty (APD) tax rise

I earlier posted about the doubling of UK's Air Passenger Duty (APD) tax effective 1 February 2007, and the retrospectivity of it. The airlines have now had time to consider how they will deal with the practical problem of payment of the higher taxes for those who had already ticketed when the increase was announced for flights on or after 1 February 2007.

The BBC reports on the decisions of some UK airlines:

• Ryanair has advised passengers must pay the increase by the day before departure - there will be no facility to pay at the airport and they won't bear the cost (booo)
• Jet2 will just take the money off passenger's credit cards (wonder how many disputed payments the credit card companies will get from that nastiness?)
• British Airways has advised they will bear the cost and not attempt to collect it (presumably the costs of collection are excessive and besides this is a chance for some good PR after a string of recent bad publicity)
• Easyjet didn't advise what they intend doing - I hope they make up their mind soon!

With such diverging approaches, one thing we can count on is confusion and chaos at the UK airports come 1 February. It is not yet too late for the UK government to stop the nonsense by removing the retrospectivity of the tax increase.

Happy New Year, and more website dumbing down

Apologies for the lack of posts. I have been busier than I'd anticipated, and also had more time away from the internet (mostly travel-related).

But I'm back - happy New Year everyone.

For those readers who have been using the T and T availability tool (ie expert mode) will have noticed they have joined the increasing number of websites in dumbing down and removing functionality. Help is at hand. Flyer Talker SchmutzigMSP has provided a replacement at http://availability.publicbackup.com. Thanks SchmutzigMSP, boo to T and T.