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-   -   Rant about non allaince ticketing (https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/air-canada-aeroplan/1880969-rant-about-non-allaince-ticketing.html)

lcohen999 Dec 4, 2017 7:46 pm

Rant about non allaince ticketing
 
What a frustrating afternoon.

I booked myself home via MEL (from SYD) on 38. With the new AC/VA partnership I was able to book a SYD-MEL with ease and then connect the next day.

I arrived at SYD 5 hours earlier than planned. Thought I would try and get on an earlier flight

Problem A). VA won't touch 016 ticket stock, even same day with their flight number and won't let me standby
Problem B). I called AC and asked to be changed. That process took more than an hour at which point the earlier flight I wanted was closing and decided running and the stress wasn't work it.

So, just a quick warning, if you book on 016 on a foreign non *A airline, don't make any changes...it isn't worth it

Stranger Dec 4, 2017 7:49 pm

You mean 014 perhaps?

(I believe 016 is United.)

lcohen999 Dec 4, 2017 8:11 pm

Yes, along with my poor spelling in the subject

Par for the course today , I'm afraid

songsc Dec 4, 2017 8:37 pm

Who said AC is consistently inconsistent? This is where AC and *A in general being consistently consistent.

Codesharing is a nice concept. However due to the incompetence of the agents and the buck passing between airlines, very rarely code sharing or multi-airline ticketing works smoothly for customers.

I heard things are generally better for OW carriers.

flybit Dec 4, 2017 8:38 pm

what made you think AC would be good at this? I assume you are well aware this is not something AC has been capable of for 10+ years. Anything that is unusual or abnormal is impossible.
I do connection cities with UA, both Virgin and Qantas and i have on many occasions changed my Virgin tickets to an earlier or later flight with no issues. I have not however had to change a connection Qantas ticket.

lcohen999 Dec 4, 2017 8:49 pm


Originally Posted by flybit (Post 29135125)
what made you think AC would be good at this? I assume you are well aware this is not something AC has been capable of for 10+ years. Anything that is unusual or abnormal is impossible.
I do connection cities with UA, both Virgin and Qantas and i have on many occasions changed my Virgin tickets to an earlier or later flight with no issues. I have not however had to change a connection Qantas ticket.

Well Virgin was the one who told me me no, that since the ticket was 014 they can't touch it and they don't do standby tickets. I had to get AC to change.

flybit Dec 4, 2017 9:14 pm


Originally Posted by lcohen999 (Post 29135151)
Well Virgin was the one who told me me no, that since the ticket was 014 they can't touch it and they don't do standby tickets. I had to get AC to change.

yah not sure how they do it with UA tickets. But they just switch the flights in a few seconds no issues, they dont seem to care. Once there were 5 of us all changing flights again no issue.

RangerNS Dec 4, 2017 9:20 pm


Originally Posted by flybit (Post 29135217)
yah not sure how they do it with UA tickets. But they just switch the flights in a few seconds no issues, they dont seem to care. Once there were 5 of us all changing flights again no issue.

It well seems possible that *A friends have access and understanding of the tickets booking rules, and that codeshare arrangements are for an exact named body in an exact seat (or at least cabin) for an exact flight.

canopus27 Dec 5, 2017 6:03 am

I'm not going to try and defend AC (or VA), and I do have sympathy for the OP's situation.

I actually raised a similar issue (broadly speaking, their management of partner & codeshare flights - from seat selection through airport checkin) with AC, when I was talking to them at the SSL pre-opening event, a couple of weeks ago.

They acknowledged that there are all sorts of problems today, and (they claimed) that was one of the primary reasons why they recently announced they are moving their reservation system to Amadeus. Only time will tell how well it works out, and of course I'm sure there will be plenty of opportunities for new problems to creep into the mix ... but they did at least acknowledge there were problems today, and they do at least have a plan to address it.

Which is better than nothing, one hopes.

RangerNS Dec 5, 2017 6:14 am


Originally Posted by canopus27 (Post 29136216)
the primary reasons why they recently announced they are moving their reservation system to Amadeus.

That is at least a consistent rumor/justification. Amadeus (apparently) is a single system for all its customers. With proper configuration, a given airlines representative could see all the other airlines ... well, whatever is in the CRS. With Sabre(??) , not just is Sabre different, but every specific airlines Sabre is different.

So, an interairline Amadeus rebooking might take the same amount of time for an agent as rebooking internally, say, 5 minutes. Rebooking someone whose records are in Sabre might take 15 minutes.... If you had an agent trained with Sabre. Or, for that matter, 5 minutes and 30 seconds. Spending the 10 minutes (or 30 seconds) of a more highly trained agents time might be unreasonable from the perspective of the 21st century airline using Amadeus. Especially when it is to only make a PAX who isn't really their customer happier.

Plumber Dec 5, 2017 7:36 am


Originally Posted by RangerNS (Post 29136252)
Especially when it is to only make a PAX who isn't really their customer happier.

While I agree that this is probably the sentiment, if I am on their flight then I AM their customer.

Fiordland Dec 5, 2017 8:11 pm


Originally Posted by RangerNS (Post 29136252)
That is at least a consistent rumor/justification. Amadeus (apparently) is a single system for all its customers. With proper configuration, a given airlines representative could see all the other airlines ... well, whatever is in the CRS. With Sabre(??) , not just is Sabre different, but every specific airlines Sabre is different.

So, an interairline Amadeus rebooking might take the same amount of time for an agent as rebooking internally, say, 5 minutes. Rebooking someone whose records are in Sabre might take 15 minutes.... If you had an agent trained with Sabre. Or, for that matter, 5 minutes and 30 seconds. Spending the 10 minutes (or 30 seconds) of a more highly trained agents time might be unreasonable from the perspective of the 21st century airline using Amadeus. Especially when it is to only make a PAX who isn't really their customer happier.

The key issue is "trained". I think the key difference now vrs 10 years ago is the agent use to trained do complex things. Today they are not.

YXE use to be my home base. A decade ago, you would show up at check in and need to do something odd. The agent would know how to do it. The AC agent might have to pull out their paper notebooks and look in their notes for what to type in connected to Lufthansa or some other airline, perhaps call over the agent at the next stand.

Today you ask for anything out of the ordinary and the agents don't know or even if it is possible. Especially at contracted outstations.

trooper Dec 6, 2017 2:39 am

I think the problem is that you were not in North America..... Airlines Down Under really don't offer same day flight changes the way (apparently) US based airlines do... QF is famous for being inflexible on any
thing but the most $$$ tickets.... I can't imagine VA is any different????

Plumber Dec 6, 2017 6:59 am


Originally Posted by trooper (Post 29140187)
I think the problem is that you were not in North America..... Airlines Down Under really don't offer same day flight changes the way (apparently) US based airlines do... QF is famous for being inflexible on any
thing but the most $$$ tickets.... I can't imagine VA is any different????

Its not just Australia-- I have had inflexible tickets on LH in Europe and NH in Japan....Both times I offered to pay more to move to an earlier same-day flight (one of them in Business) and both times the only option was buying a whole new ticket.

lcohen999 Dec 6, 2017 10:38 am


Originally Posted by trooper (Post 29140187)
I think the problem is that you were not in North America..... Airlines Down Under really don't offer same day flight changes the way (apparently) US based airlines do... QF is famous for being inflexible on any
thing but the most $$$ tickets.... I can't imagine VA is any different????

Yes, that is very true and yes VA is the same. I think part of the problem is they could not even see what fare class the flight was booked into. So even if they wanted to change, who knows if they could.

What I find odd though is (I assumed) the day of , they have control of the flight. They should be able to (given rules are met) change that without affecting anything else.

Either way, I lesson learned. I was happy to connect on a VA flight from SYD to PER as the times were fine and the extra AQMs are good. I will just leave it to that.

Calchas Dec 8, 2017 3:52 am


Originally Posted by lcohen999 (Post 29141573)
Yes, that is very true and yes VA is the same. I think part of the problem is they could not even see what fare class the flight was booked into. So even if they wanted to change, who knows if they could.

What I find odd though is (I assumed) the day of , they have control of the flight. They should be able to (given rules are met) change that without affecting anything else.

Either way, I lesson learned. I was happy to connect on a VA flight from SYD to PER as the times were fine and the extra AQMs are good. I will just leave it to that.

This change may require a ticket revalidation, depending on the airline’s accounting procedures. If there was a change fee to pay, it would require the operating carrier to take ownership of the ticket, calculate the penalty, and reissue onto their own stock.

The former case is relatively straightforward, but it still requires the operating carrier to tamper with etickets on the validating carrier’s server. Since these are financial documents you only tend to see that relationship expressed for close partners and within alliances. With a paper ticket it’s very easy, you just stick the revalidation sticker on and stamp it.

Ticket training has definitely gone downhill in most parts of the world and many agents are simply not trained or paid enough to care about interline problems.

A full reissue onto a different carrier’s stock is not going to happen in under an hour.

North American airlines implement same day change in a much simpler way, perhaps because they are used to doing it regularly. As far as I understand, it doesn’t involve altering the original ticket, only the relevant flight coupon itself, which the operating carrier already obtains from the validating carrier at check in. But I think most other carriers around the world don’t see a same day change as different from any other change and would require write access to the original traffic document.

Fiordland Dec 8, 2017 8:10 am


Originally Posted by Plumber (Post 29140738)
Its not just Australia-- I have had inflexible tickets on LH in Europe and NH in Japan....Both times I offered to pay more to move to an earlier same-day flight (one of them in Business) and both times the only option was buying a whole new ticket.

LH and catching an earlier flight. What can I say, never been able to make that happen.

On a short hop, go up to the LH counter, ask if you can catch the earlier flight. The answer is no. Say, "So this means I have to sit in the LH lounge for an extra hour or two drinking LH beer and food instead of being on my way. Have a ticket agent with a somewhat not-amused look at my, Go to lounge and drink beer."

If they can't do it on a Star Alliance ticket, perhaps it is hopeless to expect it to occur on an interline.

Plumber Dec 8, 2017 8:17 am


Originally Posted by Fiordland (Post 29149523)
LH and catching an earlier flight. What can I say, never been able to make that happen.

On a short hop, go up to the LH counter, ask if you can catch the earlier flight. The answer is no. Say, "So this means I have to sit in the LH lounge for an extra hour or two drinking LH beer and food instead of being on my way. Have a ticket agent with a somewhat not-amused look at my, Go to lounge and drink beer."

If they can't do it on a Star Alliance ticket, perhaps it is hopeless to expect it to occur on an interline.

One time i went to the check in counter, then the gate , then the transfer counter and then the lounge and tried each time to get them to make a change--- I was willing to pay...It was impossible...


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