Booking Codeshare CO on CO.com
 

Hi all, I've been a long time reader of this forum but this is my first post so I appreciate the courtesy extended to a newbie...

I've done a search on this topic but couldn't find anything that seemed to answer my question, so I appreciate any help y'all can offer.

In anticipation of the traveling for the Christmas holidays I've found a great itinerary from AUS to YWG (that's Winnipeg, Canada) on Yahoo Travel for about $546 flying on NW metal but CO codeshare flight numbers, which is a hundred dollars cheaper than anything comparable I've found so far.

However, when I try to recreate the same itinerary on CO.com I can't pull up the same flights. They exist in the online schedule but the reservation engine refuses to find the appropriate flights. This might be a stupid question, but is there a reason why CO.com won't allow reservations on certain codeshares (it always diverts me to CO metal routings)? I try to book all my CO flights through CO.com for the bonus miles and keep all my intineraries in one place, but looks like CO.com only likes routings that include CO metal. :confused:

Here's the itinerary on Yahoo Travel:

DEC 20 - AUS-MSP - CO 5110 (NW Metal)
DEC 20 - MSP-YWG - CO 6622 (NW Metal)
DEC 29 - YWG-MSP - CO 5792 (NW Metal)
DEC 29 - MSP-AUS - CO 5058 (NW Metal)

Any explanation is appreciated... Thanks!

Some possibilities:
1. If you haven't already, try entering the itinerary through the multi-city search to force the connection through MSP rather than IAH.
2. Try calling the Co.com helpdesk. They may be able to enter the flights and then you can finish ticketing the reservation online.
3. I know that Delta/Continental codeshare agreements require connections so that one flight is on "native" metal. Does anyone know about similar rules CO/NW codeshares?
4. The NW website has generally been discussed as more complete for purchase of CO codeshare combos. Can you match the fare there?


Good luck!

This will never work, as the codeshare is not available with the connection.

As UpgradeMe says, I tried the multi-city route and wasn't able to pull the flights up this way either. The connection kills the codeshare routing.

Thanks for the advice seabrook... The Co.com helpdesk is my next stop, I was hoping that there was an easier, more direct way to get around this. I appreciate the help! ;)

Yeah, this is one of the most frustrating, and I think misleading, aspects of codeshares and indeed the whole "Skyteam" alliance. It frustrates me to no end that CO and DL/NW may have a codeshare that goes end-to-end on DL/NW metal, but heaven forfend you try to book it through Continental. While I understand that CO doesn't want us to all defect to the lovely DL/NW products and still get miles - what's the point of having codeshares if you can't use them?

This may also exist because of FTC/FCC rules which put those restrictions in place so that they could approve of the codeshare in the first place.

- HF

No, there's logic in co.com that is biased against codeshares. They want to sell you their metal flights.

If you want the codeshares, you have to call or use a third-party site.

Yes that may be true, but those restrictions do exist. I don't think you can book a CO codeshare on a NW flight between EWR-DTW unless you are connecting to a NW flight or something like that....

So it's a combo; CO restricting codeshare booking and that some routing are invalid because of restrictions setup by the FTC/FCC to get the codeshare approved.

- HF

With a few exceptions, CO/NW/DL codeshares are not bookable non-stop.

However an overwhelming number of logical NW options are not presented due to the co.com bias programmed in by CO. You will have an extremely difficult time finding something as efficient and straightforward as DCA-MSP-LAX at co.com.

NW has similar logic at nwa.com programmed against CO.

It's only the third party sites who don't care what you book. They're your best resource for researching codeshares.

Is there a particular attraction to buying a codehsare that I am missing though? Particularly for CO/NW. It's not like you'd be able to get 100% EQM on NW metal just by booking on CO.com right? So why does it matter so much if your NW segment has a CO flight number? My corporate travel dept could care less. I feel I am missing a big point of booking the codeshare that people here want...anyone help me understand?

My only problem is I'd like to stick to CO.com's interface, but NW's doesn't kill me. It's a heck of a lot better than flying SEA-IAH-MSP when the NW flights between SEA and MSP are all CO codeshared but unbookable.

Fares. When the fares in the market are different among carriers, you can use the lower-carrier's code to receive the fare, while flying either of the carrier's metal.

Say CO has a lower fare than NW, but CO is tight with inventory (i.e., they have the fare, but no seats available at that fare). If there are seats in the CO-coded fare class on NW, it may be possible to still get that good fare, but on NW. Whereas a NW code may cost you more.

The other advantage is schedules. Say you have a nice CO outbound, but the last return on CO is too early to meet your needs. The latest return on NW works for you, so you can book the CO out, NW back all under a single code, and still take advantage of a RT fare. This, among servicing additional markets, was the original logic behind codeshares.

I had a very similar experience a few months ago when booking IAH-ATL-IAH on co.com. Outbound was on CO metal. I needed a late return flight, and the best time was on a codeshare. (I forget which carrier it was - not DL - possibly one of their smaller airlines.) It showed up on the timetable, with a CO codeshare flight number, but would not show up on co.com to book it, no matter what I did or how I rigged things.

Frustrated, I finally got on the phone. First I called the Technical Support Desk, because I figured it had to be a technical problem. The tech support guy told me it should show up and he was going to put an order in to get it fixed.

I fiddled around with it a bit more, and still couldn't get it to work. I decided to phone the reservations folks to see if I could get them to help. (Several years previously when co.com wasn't showing something properly, they booked a flight for me and gave me the online booking bonus anyway.) The reservations agent told me co.com would only show flights on CO metal. End of discussion. I asked her why and she told me they didn't want people flying on any other carrier, because they lost money that way, so co.com would only show actual CO flights.

Somehow that just doesn't seem right. Very frustrating.

I asked her why and she told me they didn't want people flying on any other carrier, because they lost money that way, so co.com would only show actual CO flights.

Somehow that just doesn't seem right. Very frustrating.


The other thing that has not been mentioned on this thread (besides the difficulty in booking codeshare flights) is the unfair way these "CO" flights are treated in regards to OP milage and EQMs. I found a very nice flight out of CAK to LAX via DTW and IAH. However, 2 flights were codeshares on NW metal. The flights were bookable through CO.com, but the CAK-DTW and DTW-IAH flights were on NW metal and were considered NW flights and had 50% milage and no points. :td: I think that if I buy it from CO and it has CO numbers, then it should be considered a CO product and get full EQM and milage. My little rant (moo)