Looking at a bit of an odyssey in January - GRU, LIM, BOG, MEX, GDL, MTY - probably a few others mixed in also. I can do most of the Mexico/LAM stuff on Avianca and AeroMexico.

Question for the community - am I better to buy it all through AC or do a bunch of one-ways through the operating airlines? I'd love to have the AQD of course, but I have seen a few of the "senior" contributors around here (people I generally listen to!) talking about avoiding code shares whenever possible. I still don't understand why though.

Any input is valued.

If you're booking the cabin you want to fly in, and it's priced sanely, there isn't much of an issue.

The problems tend to be related to upgrades (UA xxx operated by AC cannot be upgraded until day of departure, SAUA cannot be done on codeshares, etc.), or YYZ-TYO in J and then a codeshare to SIN in Y, on a J fare.

On the YYZ-SIN example (one I've done a lot of research on lately), AC.com always wanted to put me in Y for the codeshare connection. It was possible to book through AC on the native flight number in J for the same price, but it required more work.

And then that becomes my next point. It's often easy to book the true flight number for the same price. So just do that

But if you recognize the issues and are fine with them, I wouldn't worry. I've flown a bunch of UA ticketed UA marketed AC flights, and I've never had an issue.

Is there a trick to getting the native flight number booked through AC?

Thanks. BTW - you're one of the people I'm sure I've seen likes to avoid codeshares.

I thought this was a trick question, because the first response is: there is an upside? Really?

I hate them. Just book on the airline you are going to be flying on. If it is too complex, use a TA. If the TA finds it too complex, get a new TA.

BTW, the reason for my hate is simple: if things go off the rails, it is usually far harder to fix it than if you are booked on the operating carrier and flight number. And similarly, if you want flexibility (like you might get to depart or return early) then they are a PITA.

Code shares have no real advantage for the passenger. Only for airlines. This said, most of the times it makes little differences, apart from the examples above.

Still, at the end of the day, it's not like it's worth to go to great lengths to avoid codeshares if they cannot easily be avoided. Not usually worth spending more.

One case where it is important to avoid them: if planning to use Star Alliance upgrades. Which only works for flights booked under the original operating airline flight number. But these usually entail a B ot Y fare which are usually more expensive than one cares for.

"a bunch of one-ways through the operating airlines" implies, to me, not a single ticket (from anyone), but a bunch of individual tickets.

A bunch of individual tickets would be just that; carrier N will hold no responsibility for you if flight N!=1 is messed up. Interlining may tag your bags through on a good day, but no liability attached. Since the second last time I checked a bag, AC was itself unable to check a bag through YYZ OSS correctly, I hold out little hope for a random GA managing >2 hops.

A 3rd party TA might be able to link together on a single ticket a bunch of one way hops, but then any problems change from the carriers laughing you to ignoring you, at least long enough you are stuck in South Outer SH International overnight.

As for getting the ticket from AC? Call in and expect to HUCA

Specifically, I'm thinking of booking AC from YVR-GRU and from MEX-YVR. I wondered about using them for the Avianca tickets through LAM (GRU-BOG-LIM-GRU or something like that) and thought about going off alliance for the inter-Mexico one way flights because they are low mileage short hops so losing AQM and AQD won't be too annoying.

The J tix on Avianca are the big portion of the spend and I'd love to have the AQD for it. That's where all of this is coming from.

Also, despite it being a 3+ week trip there is no way I'm checking a bag on any airline. Hotels have laundry services.

Trying to change to an earlier flight on 014 stock with a non AC airline can be painful, let alone an AC flight number

Call in or use ITA-Matrix-PowerTools - Userscript for Orbitz/DL/UA/AA/BA/CZ/IB/LA/LH/LX/TK or some other means of deeplinking into AC's booking engine.

I generally avoid codeshares unless it seems irrelevant.

I bought MUC-YYZ-SFO-YYZ-MUC on United.com, 016 ticket, all UA flight numbers, but all operated by AC. So I earned AQD on everything, and since it was paid J, I was still able to access the Signature Suite, exercise free SDC on the North American segments, etc.

I also booked a couple YYZ-SFO segments through UA, but again, all AC-operated, and paid J.

The upside is generally "price" or "ease of booking".

But if I can book the native flight numbers (by calling in, or using the powertools script), I absolutely will.

Codeshares are a deceptive marketing practice that have no upside for customers. Sometimes the downside may be limited, in which case it may be fine to book them, but I would never go out of my way to book one.

I think you mostly have the answer from others as to how to do this. The one thing to note is just to make sure you can ticket the AV fares on AC stock - some airlines have restrictions, especially on cheap fares, on who can ticket them. With AV, it's generally not a problem, but in my experience, it can be difficult to ticket AV flights with AC, so it might be worth spending a bit of time with EF to check.

The good news is that AV often has some quite good J fares and prices most things as one-way, allowing for interesting combos. For example, BOG-SCL; GIG-YYC (via BOG & LAX) recently cost me $4000. Intra-Colombia J round trips can usually be had, if booked a few weeks out, in the $200 range. And so on.

I think that's a bit extreme. I have GDS access and a few times a year I find codeshare availability lagging to my advantage. For example, I have gotten P class seats on a codeshare, where the original flight was already closed out in P. Ticketed, flew and credited with no issues. I always prefer booking the operating carrier's segment, but it's more nuanced than "no upside".

bawm

The biggest upside to codeshares for customers is that connections on partner airlines can be purchased on one ticket, providing protection in the case of a misconnect.

One of the downsides is that there is sometimes very limited availability on the codeshare. A few years ago I tried buying YHZ-YYZ-BRU with the second leg operated by SN. This was 6 months out, but AC didn't have the inventory to sell me 5 tickets - either on the website or talking to a phone agent. There was availability on the SN site but prices were much higher.

Another downside is that you can't use discount codes.

For single segment tickets, there is even less upside.

Seat selection can also sometimes be quite difficult (or impossible) to do on codeshared flights.

I try to book all AC metal/codeshares quite a bit for my PTY - Europe flights (through YYZ). The main reason for this is miles for Copa/ConnectMiles. Whenever I book an N fare from PTY, it books into P/D/Z from PTY-YYZ and then N from YYZ-X. Since I usually do 4 flights each way (for miles) the 2 intra European flights are normally on LH or LX. If I was to book without the codeshare, then it will book into Q (or so) with LH. This gets me 50% miles. However If its all booked with AC metal/codeshares, then it remains an N fare and will book into B on LH, which in turn gets me 150% miles

The difference in miles is around 1,300 per roundtrip, so it all helps for status:

PTY-LHR (via YYZ, MUC/ZRH, FRA) on AC AC LH LH (all AC metal/codeshares) on an AC N fare would net me around 9,500 status & redeemable miles
PTY-LHR (via YYZ, MUC/ZRH, FRA) on AC AC LH LH (but not AC codeshare) on an AC N fare would net me around 8.850 status & redeemable miles
PTY-LHR (via YYZ) on AC AC on an AC N fare would net me 8015 status & redeemable miles

So I definitely disagree with the statement of there being no upside for customers. There are definite downsides though, as noted above by others

[MENTION=740656]jasdou[/MENTION]

Exactly and thanks for pointing this out.

While it may not matter in some cases, a short hop for example, the inability to choose a seat or even get one assigned has been an issue with some of my AC trips this year.

I'll offer these 2 examples, both AC 014 tickets. I also had the BR PNRs.

Example 1:
I booked with ticket with an AC res agent. AC with BR codeshare and BR original flight number. As soon as it was booked, I was abled to use the BR app to select my seat and meal choice.

Example 2:
I booked this one on AC's website. AC with BR, but the BR flight has an AC flight number.

The BR app says the flight is not open for seat selection which is not true. Another attempt (on the browser IIRC) got a reply that the flight is operated by another airline.

I called BR. They claim I can only get my seat at the gate. They acknowledge the ticket is paid business class. I said waiting until the gate is ridiculous for a flight that is open now. Agent said he can't do anything.

I was in TPE recently and the BR agent there also said he couldn't assign a seat. The concierge had asked on my behalf and one answer was, wait until December. Well, the app still says the same thing.

I realize the flight is only a few hours and it doesn't matter where in J I sit. What matters to me is that when I arrive on my AC TPAC, and there is no seat. Some of you may say this won't happen. Things happen.

Further follow up with AC, the answer I was given is "If you want the pure EVA flight number, it will cost more and you can't change your ticket" - and that wasn't with an agent.

I have also had this problem with a few airlines on Aeroplan tickets. Even when I have the partner PNR, even when that airline has a great app, it is often an exercise in frustration trying to pick a seat or keep a seat if Aeroplan makes a schedule change and you lose your seat entirely. Calling the partner airline also doesn't always yield a positive result.

Example 3 (codeshare partner earnings):
I also booked an AC ticket that included codeshare partner CX. The CX Aeroplan miles never posted (not AQM eligible). I received one of those auto-replies but the hilarious part was, it said CX had no record of us on the flight.

Funny that, we had AC tickets, CX BPs (paper and digital - easily available on the app BTW) and yet....

It took more than a month for Aeroplan to sort it out and credit manually. I reminded them of what is posted on the Aeroplan partner page and really, how absurd it is to see an email saying we never flew the flight.

So, perhaps it depends on the ticket and the partner airline. Perhaps it's AC IT.

As always, YMMV.


(also waiting for the RCHHMP to trot along and tell me it was my fault for booking with AC. )