Emirates Skywards - Something to keep in mind with EK flights that have codeshares

Hi Guys

I'm not sure if anyone has picked this up when checking seatmaps and Expertflyer for seat availability, especialy if you are hoping for an op-up or to purchase a lastminute ticket on EK operated flights that also have codeshares with other airlines..

The EK Inventory may show F0J0Y0 etc. across all buckets leading one to assume that the flight is fully booked/overbooked/unavailable...

But when checking the Codeshare, in my case, the SA flight number for the same flight, Expertflyer shows F2 J4 Y9 ...

I am not sure how the different codeshares work, but I assume that if those seats are not sold closer to departure (in 13 days in my case), that they will revert to EK's inventory at some point unless the flight is already overbooked.

Anyone know anything more about how these codeshares realy work?

Funnily enough had this last week DXB-NRT which is a Japan Airlines codeshare, operated by Emirates. Emirates said business was full, but you could book into the flight in J on Japan Airlines. I also thought the inventory would move over but it didn't, and the flight was half empty. Bizarre.

There is an excellent explanation of the various methods used to divide inventory and revenue for codeshare flights written by B747-437B here (http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/12325991-post4.html).

That was an interesting read

I recently flew DXB-MRU, which is a codeshare with Air Mauritius. ExpertFlyer was spot on with the load.

In light of B747-437B's fantastic post, it may very well be that the codeshare arrangements between EK and SA, EK and JAL and EK and MK are not the same.

Given the above posts, sounds like JAL is possibly a ''hardblock'' and MK is either a "free sale'' or ''open sale''.