Codeshare runaround regarding baggage fee
 

Hey folks,
Hope you can wade through this rant... I made a reservation over the phone with Continental for an itinerary I could not get on Continental.com, which when I made the reservation over the phone, the agent said they had to charge me $20.00. Fine. At the end of the conversation they tried to sell me a credit card or something, which got me miffed and made me want to charge them 20.00 just for asking that. Anyway, all the way to my destination to Molokai, Hawaii, no problem. When I went to check in for the return trip, however, the agent wanted to charge me $10.00 for my FIRST (and only) bag on Island Air. I said, but this is a Continental codeshare, they never told me about this fee, you did not charge me the fee coming over... why should I pay it? (I am not supposed to pay for luggage, being a "Silver Elite" frequent flier on Continental ?...) They said I must pay the $10.00 and take it up with Continental when I got to Honolulu, and when I asked them to call Continental and check, they would not call Continental. I did pay by credit card, and I did take the agent's name on my reciept. When I got to Honolulu, the Continental Representative checking me in told me that I had to take it up with Island Air. I mentioned that I was going to blog this (which I have never done before), and the Continental agent did a small double-take, but made no further comment. I did a Google search and found this forum...hope I am posting in the right place...

The runaround... Do I have a case for being cranky? I know it is "only $10.00" but I think it is the principle of the thing. This is the kind of small stuff that made me leave United F/F years ago. Now they are joining forces. I can feel it already! Who would you contact? Any ideas? Thanks! :)
p.s. when in Vegas last year Continental cancelled a flight, was going to put me on U.S. Air...until U.S. Air told me they were going to charge me $25 dollars for my bag. I marched right back to Continental and refused to be put on U.S. Air. I get cranky about stuff like that. Sorry! :)

Welcome to FlyerTalk!

Sorry, you're out $10.

Codeshare/no-codeshare has nothing to do with it, with any airline. It's all the operating carrier of the first flight in that day's itinerary. If your "Continental" flight at your baggage-check airport is operated by JoJo's Flying Service, you follow JoJo's rules.

(Or United, or American's - yes you can have a non-codeshare flight issued on the same continental ticket on a competing non-partner airline).

It always follows the rules and fee structure of the airline with which you check the bags. The fact that 90% of the travel later that day, on which the bags are already checked, is an airline where by status or cc or cabin you would get free, doesn't matter.

Here's the one case when it does matter, usually - if your originating flight with JoJoAir/no-status/bag-fee airlines is on the same itinerary as an international (as in intercontinental) flight, in most cases you get the allowance of the international carrier. But not always.

It's just the way the system works. BTW, as a CO Silver you're a Star Alliance Silver, US should have waived your 1st 2 bag fees - that's US' policy (goes a bit beyond what *A requires for *S) - assuming this was after CO joined *A last November, and you were already a CO Silver.

Welcome to FlyerTalk!

As has been pointed out, operating carrier is the determining factor.

As for the $20 call center fee, you can always book using a third party website (e.g., Orbitz or Expedia) to avoid or find lower fees.

Thanks for the reply Mark...I just find it bewildering that in making a contract with an airline that hidden fees like that are allowed, and not explained in advance. The other thing that amazed me is that they would not issue me my boarding passes from Honolulu to Houston, nor check my bag to it's final destination. This meant I had to go through TSA on Molokai and Honolulu; twice in a completely U.S. system. Very not flyer friendly. Even in other countries this hasn't happened when I fly codeshare. If what you say is the case, and I rely on your experience, I will not fly them anymore. For me, it's cheating on a contract. Unfortunately, I am one of those flyers who believes if they expect me to fly by the rules, so should the airline. They should not codeshare with a company like that. Thanks again! :)

This is America -- they can do anything they can get away with. Then they complain when they get rules and regulations placed upon them.


That is very odd. If these were on the same ticket, CO and Island Air should have an interline baggage agreement. You may want to research this and complain to Island Air, requesting a refund of your bag fee as compensation for the hassle.


What part is cheating on a contract? They are following the rules, and as a culture, Americans don't like a lot of rules. So, stuff like this happens.

Thanks for the welcome to Flyertalk Channa, learning as I go, I am certainly not in your league or Mark's...I always tried to use Continental's website to get the booking miles, and I still don't understand quite why they don't give you other possibilities online...i.e. I didn't want to fly through Vegas and connect with Hawaiian Airlines...but that was the only possibilities they offered, and yet I could get other possibilities over the phone quite easily...it's like entrapment...

As I mentioned to Mark, I won't be flying them anymore! And for the two agents of each airline to say that I would have to take it up with the other airline is misleading as well. Thanks for your time! :) And airlines wonder why there is no customer loyalty...

Hi again Channa....Hope I am doing this right, like I said I'm a first time user...I like rules, but I want to know what they are, so I can make an informed decision. Your help and Mark's help allows me to make an informed decision not to fly Continental again.

I think that if you buy a ticket from a company that says you are a valued frequent flyer and they don't charge for your bags because you are an elite member, nor is there any mention in the ticket that there will be a fee for the bags at any point in the journey...and they don't charge for the bag outward bound, but then the codeshare that they sold you steps in and charges you for the return trip...there is something immoral if not illegal in that....though I am not a lawyer. Why codeshare with a company that does not "share" your policy?

Also in the fact that I was never advised of the fact until I arrived at the airport steams me. I was wondering why Continental did not email me to do the 24 hour advance check-in to print my boarding passes for the return, etc. like they did on the outward bound and on EVERY flight I have taken with them. Did they knew about the baggage fee and that prevented me from checking in online? .... I am glad for the forum which helps bring yet another cheesy practice in the airline industry into the light for those of us who do not have Mark's or your experience....

Because your return flight begun with a codeshare, and you were not to checkin with CO. You were to check in with Island Air, so CO emailing you to tell you to checkin at co.com like you typically do would be misleading. In fact, the website might not even handle it with the inbound OAL connection.

I see it more as a lesson learned for $10. I don't think any airline would have handled this differently. If you're flying not on your home metal, you're always at risk of being charge bag fees, not getting upgrades, not getting bonus miles, or even worse, not getting miles period.

Yes, it can be frustrating on these multi-airline itineraries, especially if the only way to get ticketed all the way to where you're going is using an airline that isn't a "full partner" (e.g. same-alliance member). The average customer shouldn't be expected to know all this.

In almost all cases, though, it's not a violation of any contract. Usually the airline has language like "baggage policies and fees may differ if your flight is operated by another airline," somewhere on their website's "baggage info" page.

There's language like that on Continental's "Checked Baggage Fees" page: http://www.continental.com/web/en-US.../checkbag.aspx.

"What if I am connecting onto a codeshare or Star Alliance partner?

When a customer travels on a codeshare flight or on an aircraft operated by a Star Alliance member airline, then the policy regarding checked bags follows the rules determined by the originating operating carrier."

Of course, since you bought on the phone, it's entirely reasonable for you never to have read the website. If the agent didn't disclose this policy, perhaps you could request a courtesy adjustment from CO. I don't know if you'd get it, but a politely worded, succinct letter to CO might be worth it.

I'd let go of the "two agents of each airline to say that I would have to take it up with the other airline" and contract violation stuff - the first is reasonable - Island Air has no reason to know or care about CO's fee policy and no obligation to be your advocate with CO, and vice-versa for CO with them. The second isn't true - nothing was violated, except the old standards of air travel courtesies, customer-friendly policies, and built-in amenities. Unfortunately that's not the world of any of the airlines these days. One way or another, they're charging fees wherever they can.

Even Southwest - they're just rolling them into much higher fares than everybody else while hiding their fares only on their own website so nobody can easily compare them with competitors all at once. I've never seen a WN fare less than $50-150 more than a UA, US, CO, DL fare for any of my routes that are in/out of WN-major cities, on 7-30 day advance bookings. Big deal that 2 bags are free.

Good luck with future travels, and keep participating in FT - lots of great people and good info to pick up here.

Not to go too off-topic, but.... PHX<->ELP on an 8 day adv purchase fare.

Normally US and WN are the exact same price in this situation: WN gives two free bags; US does not.

It depends on the market. I'm flying PHX-RDU later this fall. WN flies the only non-stop flights and priced out at $340. Other carriers require a connection and charged approx. $310. However, the baggage fees (one bag) would be $50 roundtrip. So, I took WN nonstop and, even with Early Bird Check-in, is the same as the other carriers. Plus, WN announced a double credit promo to/from PHX today!!