Originally Posted by
rylan
Wait a second... so DL was selling the ticket as KE first but you didn't get the pre-flight benefits, just the seat? What kind of crappy bait and switch is that?
What did the ticket actually show for class? Or was KE being their own version of KL 'sorry that is not possible' rules sticklers?
If you are seated on KE First Class, you should be the first class lounge and other associated airport departure benefits. I'm not aware of a 'First Class Minus' with just the seat and nothing else. Did they even let you in the normal KE lounge?
Yes just the seat despite paying the same price. We were traveling as a group of 3, 2x KE flight numbers and 1x DL flight numbers with all three in First/F seated in the F cabin with regular F service inflight. The 2xKE booked the KAL Premium care (the 1x DL was unable to over the phone), and at the airport, they made a "one-time exception" to allow the DL-coded passenger through the expedited security line since we were travelling together. They made a point that since it was not a KE flight it was not included.
Then at the lounge, they said only the 2 of us could go into the First Class lounge, and the DL-coded person could only access Miler Club Lounge (the check-in agent asked for an exception but was denied). It was a bit awkward to have different ground service just based on the marketing carrier--we all sat in the Miler Club Lounge. They came by and made the metal name tags for the 2 of us on KE numbers.
I assume the same applies to any of their codeshare partners, not just DL, but I made this post because the delta.com website will clearly upsell to First without mentioning any of this while charging the same fare as the KE website for the same flights (subject to the MPM vs. published routing above). I had learned of the shortcomings of the KAL Premium Care after calling and finding an obscure travel guide that said codeshares couldn't get that service, but the lounge access was a mystery until we were at the airport and was a bit unexpected.