Originally Posted by
NYC Flyer
Will be interesting to see. I suspect what's been announced will run more smoothly, but there are some real limitations to the partnership that will continue to keep it in the incidental/occasional use "bucket" for many high value customers. Flexibility for standby/same day changes to code-share flights (or even re-accomodation due to schedule changes/IROPS) seems like a big sticking point at the moment.
I continue to believe each partner will maintain hurdles that protect against their best customers becoming indifferent to operating carrier (or worse: grow to prefer the other partner's offering).
I can confirm first-hand that IROPS is still a massive sticking point.
TLDR: The systems are not integrated to where they need to be, and as I predicted when the NEA was launched, IROPS etc will be highly problematic. I let the Exec Liaison folks know that this really needs to be worked out because if I was on Delta, I’d be able to go to the Sky Club and get it sorted out without jumping thru hoops or buying a ticket at the counter to get where I need to be.
My BOS-DCA evening flight was cancelled on Monday after rolling delays. This was about 2 hours before the re-scheduled departure time, and just missed the last AA departure. (Reason was maintenance per EF, but they flipped it to weather when it was actually cancelled.)
The EP line had a 90 min plus wait so I DM’d en-route to the airport to see if I could get on one of the B6 flights (they were all delayed as well) as the app didn’t provide these as options. The Twitter team said they got me on a B6 flight - great. I got to terminal C to check in and the Jet Blue staff said my ticket wasn’t actually ticketed so I couldn’t check in. They were very nice about the whole thing, but said I’d need to go over to terminal B and talk with AA if I couldn’t get them on the phone. Meanwhile, seats were going fast.
Twitter team said they fixed the issue and gave me a new PNR, which also had this un-ticketed issue. I’m sure this would have been sorted out if I could’ve gotten through to the EP line or easily gotten to / from terminal B versus walking thru the garage.
At this point, time was running out / inventory dwindling so I bought a ticket outright. Fortunately it was $40 more than my current fare.
Once through security, I was able to confirm directly onto an earlier flight (delayed three hours, but still said on time…) and grabbed an EMS seat, though that change seemed to have dropped my EP number. In flight was okay, but no power on the E 190’s. If I ever fly on Jet Blue again, I’ll need to pretend I’m on a LUS plane and pack my power brick