Hi all,

Thought I would post my question here since Alitalia was a partner with CO longer than it has been with DL.

I am flying on a DL-coded flight from JFK to Milan on Wednesday. This flight will be operated by Alitalia. I went to the ticket office to make adjustments to my return when I asked about the code-sharing agreement.

According to the agent, DL buys a block of seats from AZ (known as a hard sell). Once those seats are sold, they are gone. DL can't get any more. She also told me that they never overbook the DL portion because it isn't their flight. In other words, their capacity equals authorization.

So, what happens if the flight is oversold? That would mean that AZ overbooked their portion in this case. Did Continental have only a block of seats? Did they only look for AZ customers to volunteer when the flight was oversold? Did they take CO ticket holders? What was the compensation like? I am afraid that it would be a credit voucher good only on AZ-operated flights. JKF is the closest gateway to me, but that is 250 miles away!

Thanks for any info.

The ticket you hold is a DL ticket or AZ??
I presume AZ.

All DL passengers will be accommodated as DL does not oversell. If needed AZ will "buy" seats from DL -- if any availabe or
if AZ oversells the 1st flight they will re-accommodate on AZ 7603 ---

AZ rarely (very) gets into vouchers. They will re-accommodate passengers.

Actually no, I have a DL ticket since I am a government employee and have to fly on a US carrier. Looks like they won't use me if I offer. Darn, becuase the flight looks pretty booked.

Wouldn't AZ have to offer some kind of compensation for bumping someone off the flight they are confimed on? I think that is unfair.

If DL do the same with AZ as CO do with VS, then they *do* oversell Y. I've been in this situation flying IAD-LHR on a CO ticket (VS metal).

Unfortunately, I usually fly back to LHR on a sunday night, so that I can arrive fresh and ready for work on a monday morning so bumping isn't an option.

CO do not like upgrading anyone from Y to J on their own metal, but if they've already bought a block of J seats, and have a choice between paying additional costs for a hotel etc. or using up another hard seat the following day why shouldn't they put people in J?

Now if they could just do this on their own metal...

[edited to switch LHR & IAD - I've *never* been moved up to J out of LHR despite a 40% (out of 12 flights since 1/1/02) success rate out of IAD]

[This message has been edited by steveda (edited 06-28-2002).]

Why? If its a DL ticket, and a DL oversell, then its a DL problem. I've learned this the hard way with CO/VS when CO have messed up.

You gotta love hard codeshares instead of 'real' ones