Cape Air Nonsense
 

Last night I booked a flight IAH-San Juan-St Croix. I got the first email saying it was processing. The second email had only the IAH-San Juan and return. Went to bed figuring would hear something. Called CO this AM and they contacted Cape Air who said no seats available to St Croix. I know the planes are small but if the website lists the flight as available assume it would be. So I told them to cancel whole thing and booked on American. Its a group trip where everyone is getting their own air. Getting my $ back. The agent agreed it didnt make sense.

So how can I book a flight to a destination but they only ticket part of it. Doesnt seem logical.

By the way I looked at the Cape Air site and the flight was available. Do these people want to sell seats to codeshare partners?

Never had this happen before

Family flew probably 8 years ago on Cape Air (the rest of the family called it Cape Fear Air) from SJU to STT. It's probably better not to fly them-we have been back and chosen alternatives. At check-in they actually weighed every person and then made one ticketed passenger stay in SJU do to weight limitations-luckily all four of us made it on.

The flight was very rough and the surprising thing for us was they had my 10 year old daughter (asked my wife first but she refused-not a great flyer) sit in the co-pilots seat which they used as a passenger seat since there was no co-pilot. Admittedly, it was a small prop but until this point in time, I did not realize a 'commercial' airline could fly w/o a co-pilot and the cockpit wide open to the passengers.

I don't know if it is still the same but for me the flight was very interesting.

That's standard - they have weight limitations, given the size of the planes.

Yup, still that way, given the small size of the planes.

Cape Air has been a challenge for ticketing over the last year or so

I was in an extended discussion on reward ticketing with SMI/J and his henchmen......got nowhere.

I also am taking my business for these routes elsewhere.

Why not just book the tickets separately and then merge the two reservations? I did that for a trip last week to VQS and it was painless.

9K (Cape Air) is in the process of upgrading their back-end IT systems, which is what's most likely causing the disconnects between the two systems.

Cape Air operates mainly Cessna 402s, which are 8 seat passenger planes. Like every plane they are affected by weight and balance, it's just a lot more noticeable because the planes are so (relatively) small.

It is very common to put the lightest passenger (usually a child) in the "right" seat for weight and balance issues as the luggage is loaded in the nose of the plane.

They run a good, safe, reliable operation that gives you access to some pretty random locations. If you don't like flying on a prop, that's very much a matter of personal opinion.

I thought about doing separately but cost was issue. Only reason I flew CO/Cape on this route was for miles. The rest of the group is on AA. I just went with AA with the group. Will be more fun anyway.

I'm betting the reason Cape Air's fare are so high is because CO probably pays them at most $30 per passenger they fly for CO

I've flown Cape Air in the past several years from BOS to SLK. I've found it a very professionally run operation. It's definitely challenging on their northern routes across New England and northern New York, particularly in the winter. I don't believe they've lost a passenger yet.

I think had you called Cape Air yourself they could have tracked down the problem in less time than you spent holding on line with CO by a factor of 4

is Cape Air really a reward partner?
 

I too am up in arms with trying to use reward miles with a segment on Cape air.
I'm trying to book IAH-SJU-AXA. The website errors out with no seat availability for any dates I put in (IAH-SJU has nice availability). I call the premier line and the agent in India puts me on hold for 10 minutes and comes back with a line that I have to call some other number- one used for non-star alliance bookings. I call this number, and this us-based rep (he first asked if Anguilla was in the Caribbean?) is totally confused and says that he can only book EVA flights, and thinks that, of all of the non-star partners (there are 8-9 listed on the website) you really can use miles on just EVA.
What happened to the days where you call the 713 Houston number for the One Pass service center, the agents were extremely knowledgeable, had great ideas for finding ways to get you where you want to go?

Bottom line: can we book award travel on Cape Air? It seems silly to spend $400/person for the SJU-AXA flight if I could just use miles. ODDLY enough, the UAL website will happily sell you the IAH-SJU-AXA flight (with Cape Air) for $900.

Help!

United codeshares with CapeAir on only certain routes out of SJU. A list can be found:

http://pss.united.com/CMS/en-US/mark...spx?ItemId=252



However, the reason you can book a ticket in United.com, is that United has access to sell tickets on all CapeAir flights, regardless if a codeshare agreement exists.

I am sure if you booked a paid ticket IAH-AXA, the SJU-AXA segment would show as a CapeAir (9K) flight number, and not a UA flight number.

Mostly ----- No.

I tried (and tried and tried) to get CO to help in award booking with Cape Air, but failed despite numerous and extensive conversations even involving Mr. Smisek's assistant.

Here is when I first discovered the problem: http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/conti...rd-ticket.html

at that point I thought it was just an IT glitch....... I wish.


SO it escalated :

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/conti...rd-travel.html


Eventually, after many hours of effort and many months of waiting I was rewarded with .......... nothing :(

Cape Air is basically off the grid for reward travel with CO (United) atm. Maybe they'll fix it soon, but I wouldn't hold my breath.

I mean, in their defense, CapeAir has a grand total of NINE seats for sale.. How many do you really think would be released for "free" travel?

How about 2 seats a day on a route they fly 10 times daily?

ignore my original reply, I misread 2 seats a day as 2 seats a flight.


Seeings how it is a largely tourist destination, I would think that a single seat might not work for many, as many people travel with at least a +1