What is codesharing?

[philip2004uk]

O.k i know the general bit of it. but why do they have a codeshare?

could anyone give me it in quick simple answers apart from the fact that for example united can fly bmi routes but why cant united fly washington to manchester without codesharing is it a legal thing.
I wasnt choosing united or bmi for any reason and its just because i know they are a codeshare.

[Middle Seat]

Codeshare is a marketing thing. United can now "fly" from IAD to MAN (in your example) and sell tickets on that route using the UA code. More $$$ for them.

Despite what the marketing department tells you, its isn't to make travelling any easier.

[slim_slag]

Tend to agree with you middle seat, but it can be used to the passenger's advantage. I used to book passage on Virgin metal from LAX-LHR using a CO codeshare for about half the price that VS were charging for the same seat. I generally think codeshare was designed by the airlines as a smokescreen to reduce capacity and therefore increase fares, but competition is such a wonderful thing and put paid to that.

[Middle Seat]

agreed, slag. I've done the same thing, booking the code share operator, rather than the actual operator.

Its also convenient when cashing in miles. I loathe a certain currently-in-bankruptcy airline based in this country. Deciding it was time to part with my miles, I used them to book passage on a partner carrier. It made for a much, much more enjoyable trip than flying on the "friendly" skies.

[philip2004uk]

thanks everyone it helped.

[Momo]

Theoretically, you could create a 100% codeshare airline, owning no aircraft at all. It would be a negotiation challenge with the airlines concerned. In effect, this is what many big travel companies that do not own aircraft do, but for package tours.

Not sure why any regular airline should agree to it, unless they had occupancy issues for particular routes.

Maurice

[The SSK]

Codesharing is a way to boost an airline's position on the reservations computer screen. Generally speaking, when a prospective passenger asks for a particular journey, travel options are listed in the following order:

Nonstop flights
Direct multi-sector flights
Online (=same-airline) connections
Interline (=different airline) connections

Codesharing effectively changes an interline connection into an online connection, moving it up the screen where it's more likely to be proposed by the agent.

You will also sometimes find that airlines will take two connecting flights and give them a separate through-flight number, moving them up from level 3 to level 2 in the above list. That's when your booking conirmation will include 'plane change at intermediate point' on what looks like a through flight.

[Pax Vobiscum]

I can cope with codesharing, but the marketing gimmick of a 'pretend' through flight that actually involves an intermediate aircraft change really annoys me! When I'm doing my own bookings, I can recognise and avoid this trick, but when others are booking on my behalf and I find that I've got an extra couple of hours to cool my heels at O'Hare/Minneapolis or wherever ... :mad:

Are there any advantages that I may have missed to such arrangements? For example, will the departing flight be held if the arriving flight is (slightly) delayed??

[Globaliser]

Pax Vobiscum: I can cope with codesharing, but the marketing gimmick of a 'pretend' through flight that actually involves an intermediate aircraft change really annoys me! ... Are there any advantages that I may have missed to such arrangements?Agreed - I hate flight number fraud too, and it is no more and no less than that. The only advantage that I can see is that it allows airlines to pretend to offer services that they're not allowed to offer and don't actually offer.

[barit1]

In the days when DL and SR had codeshare, the Swiss were wirebrushed by the FAA for overflying Iran with Delta pax on board. It was against US rules which SR had agreed to observe.

[Final 3 Greens]

SR wirebrushed eh?

Ah, of course, too much risk of being splashed by a US warship.

[WHBM]

Further nuisances of codeshares :

Completely fills up airport departure boards and makes them confusing to passengers. Probably the worst are the UK Teletext flight arrivals pages where each flightnumber gets a separate line so a BMI arrival from LHR at Glasgow takes half a page or more to display bogus flight numbers for UA, AC, LH, SQ, UncleTomCobbleyAir, etc. By the way, if you ask any airport staff about the arrival of an SQ flight you will get complete blank stares.

Passengers sometimes genuinely have no idea who they are travelling with. Was in Finnair recently LHR-HEL, who seem to get a lot of BA codeshare tickets. Pax next to me had BA tickets, checked in with BA in T1, saw BA 6xxx flight number at gate, boarded by jetway so did not see aircraft livery, then said to each other that flight attendants uniforms were new and accents "funny".

Accidents to codeshared commuter aircraft are IMMEDIATELY disowned by the main airline, who must have pre-prepared texts all ready saying it was a flight by a different carrier, the actual AOC operator. Happens every time. The press releases of course make no reference that the aircraft in question was marketed as the main airlines' own flight, with their own flight number, own livery, own FA uniforms, own frequent flyer mags in the seats, etc.

Theoretically, you could create a 100% codeshare airline, owning no aircraft at allUnited Express, and similar, maybe ?

[Globaliser]

WHBM: United Express, and similar, maybe?Or, to be controversial, Ghana International Airlines (http://www.gcaa.com.gh/gia.htm)? :D