BA + AA = another codeshare nightmare

Airlines love code-shares. They allow them to advertise a larger route structure than they actually have, offer more mileage awards, and capture more potential fliers, which means more money.

Experienced passengers, on the other hand, know code-shares are at best a mixed blessing. They may get decent fares and frequent flier miles, but the potential for travel problems seems to go up exponentially, especially when flying on code-shares involving international flights/
United/Lufthansa and Delta/KLM-Air France code-share and connecting flights cause the most problems in our office, but now we might have to add oneworld alliance partners British Airways/American Airlines to the “buyer beware” list.

With this new transatlantic alliance the problems don’t even need to be booked online or by a travel agent to have code-share confusion reign supreme. The mix-ups are growing organically. Here’s the sad story of BA/AA cooperation between JFK and Heathrow, two of the airlines’ biggest hubs.

It started when my client got to JFK last night for a British Airways connection through London to Entebbe, Ugantda. British Airways canceled the JFK to London flight.

They rebooked her on a American Airlines code-share JFK-London flight, which would mean a tight, but potentially makeable, connection in London. A backup option was a Kenya Air flight from London through Nairobi.

The solution was not ideal, but the best BA could do. The British Airways agent exchanged her electronic ticket and sent her to American. Then the fun really started.

American, despite the fact that British Airways had made a reservation, refused to honor the ticket since they said they were overbooked, and sent her back to BA.

Back at BA, the gate agent found a flight one hour later, but by this time, THAT was full, and BA said, “Sorry, we can’t do it.”

At this point, my client emailed me and I made her a reservation on the last American flight of the evening. However, I couldn’t change the ticket because British Airways had already taken control of it.

The client raced back to American, where they acknowledged the new booking. But said (even though my client had a ticket that was for an AA flight, albeit the earlier one), “Sorry, it’s too late, check-in is closed.”

At this point it was nearly midnight and the only option was a KLM flight the following day. (Fortunately I have the capacity for issuing tickets from home.)

To add insult to injury, since British Airways had exchanged the ticket internally, my agency couldn’t even refund it. Which means going through a convoluted process faxing the refund department, explaining the situation and waiting (however long it takes) to get the money back.

Clearly, stuff happens, and flights get canceled; even when no code-shares are involved. But it is particularly frustrating when flights that are marketed as being on the same airline, clearly aren’t.

The blame game is the rule of the day whenever there are code-share problems. At JFK, the American Airlines staff made that point strongly, saying that the flight was booked as a British Airways code-share, that British Airways had messed up the ticket, etc, etc. The customer service adventure was amazing as AA and BA agents all worked hard to find reasons reasons why they couldn’t put her on a flight where she supposedly had a reservation rather than trying to figure out how to help.

Curiously enough, British Airways and American have also announced that in April that they will basically run a joint shuttle-service between JFK and London starting in 2011, with flights as close to 30 minutes apart — an ambitious undertaking to say the least, fraught with potential problems.

But so far, it is not exactly the “one-stop shop for transatlantic travel regardless of how you book” that the two airlines promised in their original propaganda announcing the alliance.

Passenger and travel agent beware.