Originally Posted by
Schultzois
AFAIK international partners don't sell "basic" fares for domestic AA flights, just AA does, and they publish precisely the types of warnings that I advocate. As does BA for their HBO fares. And neither cross-sells to the other as a "business fare." You seem to forget we are talking about several thousand dollar minimum business class fares l
Further, under "flight details" it is almost universally disclosed what meal service is going to be offered (Dinner, lunch, "meal", snack...). Lounge access on international flights of any sort (such as we're discussing here) always include lounge access... so again domestic matters are somewhat irrelevant to the original discussion. Many countries no longer even offer domestic business (apart from the US most I travel do NOT) so that's another red herring.
It's clear to me that you've totally missed the point that the OP is being subjected to $800 in charges that, if it were anything else on any other partner, most would expect to be more transparent.
i disagree with nearly all of your points above.
1) codeshares are often used on domestic itineraries. I may very well buy a F ticket on ba with the following routing:
15/6: LHR-JFK F op BA
18/6: JFK-MIA F op AA
24/6: MIA-LHR F op BA
in that scenario I would not be eligible to lounge access at JFK on my F itinerary.
2) i think you should have another look at booking websites on ba.com and Qatar, neither of which will specify what you consider to be ‘almost universally disclosed’.
And my point is not a purely theoretical one, I can tel’ You I have known many people genuinely surprised and shocked not to have a meal on a two hour flight in F and not to have lounge access when booked in paid F.
3) except for the example of basic that we can leave out if it makes you more comfortable, all others would occur in itineraries worth thousands and thousands in paid J (QR lounge access, etc) and in fact the ones pertaining to AA lounge access and onboard food can even occur in the most expensive itineraries possible, ie full fare paid F which obviously is not the case with seat selection.
So no, I’m not missing the points that you make about the costs of things or how frustrated someone might feel about it, but you are asking for a deliberately humiliating phrasing of the ‘unlike almost everyone else’ type which completely misses out the fact that other airlines also have their own idiosyncrasies which can equally shock, surprise, and upset people buying codeshares of thousands and in some cases even tends of thousands in business and first class.
the fact that ba’s seating policy uniquely upsets you does not make it uniquely idiosyncratic. A lot of other idiosyncratic choices (including good ones by the way like serving free actual Champagne in AF Y or formerly keeping two F seats per passenger on non retrofitted planes in LH F) can be made by airlines that set them apart.