Last edit by: Keter
After Amadeus moved to a single PNR for code share flights there are issues in selecting seats for such flights unless a marketing airline paid to have access to the operating airline seatmap and show that in Amadeus.
This only applies when both airlines are in Amadeus, for example, the issue shall be in place for AY op by BA/ CX and vv.
The pair AY op by AA shall work fine as AA uses Sabre and you shall be OK to select seats via AA, however, you need to get a record locator for the AA operating booking first of course.
Amadeus has a very simple command to select seats when seat map is not available (or when there is no contract rather with Amadeus to store seatmaps). It is very simple and called 'seat wish'. Here is the documentation from Amadeus:
https://servicehub.amadeus.com/c/por...ke-a-seat-wish
The posts in this thread indicate that not all agents are trained to use this option. It shall normally be the marketing airline who you ask to make a seat wish.
This only applies when both airlines are in Amadeus, for example, the issue shall be in place for AY op by BA/ CX and vv.
The pair AY op by AA shall work fine as AA uses Sabre and you shall be OK to select seats via AA, however, you need to get a record locator for the AA operating booking first of course.
Amadeus has a very simple command to select seats when seat map is not available (or when there is no contract rather with Amadeus to store seatmaps). It is very simple and called 'seat wish'. Here is the documentation from Amadeus:
https://servicehub.amadeus.com/c/por...ke-a-seat-wish
The posts in this thread indicate that not all agents are trained to use this option. It shall normally be the marketing airline who you ask to make a seat wish.
Unable to book seats on codeshare flights
#1
Original Poster
Join Date: Jan 2011
Location: HEL
Programs: AA Plat Pro, AY Lumo, Hyatt Explorist, National Exec Elite
Posts: 152
Unable to book seats on codeshare flights
I just booked an itinerary on aa.com which includes the AY-operated HEL-ORD.
Usually, when I want to change seats on such a flight, I call AA customer service and ask for the AY PNR and then change the seat on the website (or call the customer service when website does not work, which is often enough).
In this case, I called AY directly (because AA customer service is busy), and they claimed that since April this year it has not been possible to book seats on flights which involve codeshares because of some system upgrades that are going on.
Has anybody heard anything about this? Is there a workaround? Can't say I am very thrilled with the idea of being unable to book seats on the longhauls...
Usually, when I want to change seats on such a flight, I call AA customer service and ask for the AY PNR and then change the seat on the website (or call the customer service when website does not work, which is often enough).
In this case, I called AY directly (because AA customer service is busy), and they claimed that since April this year it has not been possible to book seats on flights which involve codeshares because of some system upgrades that are going on.
Has anybody heard anything about this? Is there a workaround? Can't say I am very thrilled with the idea of being unable to book seats on the longhauls...
#2
Join Date: Mar 2000
Posts: 938
I faced similar issue last week. BA issued ticket, CX operated flight with AY code. I could not book seats on CX website (because it is AY flight). I could not book seats on AY website (because it is not AY operated).
Contacted Plat desk and they were able to assign me the seat I wanted. They gave the same reason of ongoing system upgrade for this issue.
Try calling AA again. If you can not get AA nor AY to book you a seat then it is indeed bad
Contacted Plat desk and they were able to assign me the seat I wanted. They gave the same reason of ongoing system upgrade for this issue.
Try calling AA again. If you can not get AA nor AY to book you a seat then it is indeed bad
#4
Original Poster
Join Date: Jan 2011
Location: HEL
Programs: AA Plat Pro, AY Lumo, Hyatt Explorist, National Exec Elite
Posts: 152
I faced similar issue last week. BA issued ticket, CX operated flight with AY code. I could not book seats on CX website (because it is AY flight). I could not book seats on AY website (because it is not AY operated).
Contacted Plat desk and they were able to assign me the seat I wanted. They gave the same reason of ongoing system upgrade for this issue.
Try calling AA again. If you can not get AA nor AY to book you a seat then it is indeed bad
Contacted Plat desk and they were able to assign me the seat I wanted. They gave the same reason of ongoing system upgrade for this issue.
Try calling AA again. If you can not get AA nor AY to book you a seat then it is indeed bad
Has anybody had any success on booking AY seats through AA customer service? I might try my luck, but the queue was about 30 minutes this morning when I called them..
#5
Join Date: May 2013
Location: HEL
Programs: AY+ Platinum / OWE
Posts: 112
I had similar issue too. AY issued ticket, on AY flight number, but operated by CX.
Called AY CC and they said they can't assign me the seat and I have to call CX.
Just called CX and they were able to do the seat assignment in few seconds.
Shouldn't operating carrier be always able to book the seats even though the ticket is sold by other carrier?
Maybe u should try HUACA?
Just tell ur AY PNR and ask to get the seat assignment.
Called AY CC and they said they can't assign me the seat and I have to call CX.
Just called CX and they were able to do the seat assignment in few seconds.
Shouldn't operating carrier be always able to book the seats even though the ticket is sold by other carrier?
Maybe u should try HUACA?
Just tell ur AY PNR and ask to get the seat assignment.
#6
Join Date: Jul 2015
Location: Austin
Programs: WN ALP, CP; AA Gold, Hilton Diamond, SPG Gold
Posts: 62
I had a similar experience flying BA/ Openskies booked through AA. In my case, the issue was that the operating carrier had not received the proper info from AA. I had to call BA customer service, get my ticket # (not PNR), and call AA CS with that info. Once that was done it took AA about 3 hours to correct on their end, after which I could select a seat.
Hope that helps.
Hope that helps.
#7
Join Date: Jun 2015
Programs: AA EXP
Posts: 52
Adding a data point of a BA issued ticket, all flights with BA numbers and 2 flights on the itinerary operated by AY.
I ran into the same issue about a month ago, called BA who said I needed to contact AY to get my seats assigned. I tried AY chat and the agent said they were unable to book seats for me at this time. I then called AY (USA number) and spoke to a very helpful agent who assigned me seats, confirmation email received in a matter of minutes and seats updated on both BA and AY site.
I would say HUACA because it definitely can be done by AY, might just take a few attempts.
I ran into the same issue about a month ago, called BA who said I needed to contact AY to get my seats assigned. I tried AY chat and the agent said they were unable to book seats for me at this time. I then called AY (USA number) and spoke to a very helpful agent who assigned me seats, confirmation email received in a matter of minutes and seats updated on both BA and AY site.
I would say HUACA because it definitely can be done by AY, might just take a few attempts.
#9
Join Date: Nov 2015
Location: HEL
Programs: AY GOLD, HH GOLD
Posts: 411
#10
Join Date: Apr 2017
Location: C2
Posts: 651
Same here, but opposite solution
I had similar issue too. AY issued ticket, on AY flight number, but operated by CX.
Called AY CC and they said they can't assign me the seat and I have to call CX.
Just called CX and they were able to do the seat assignment in few seconds.
Shouldn't operating carrier be always able to book the seats even though the ticket is sold by other carrier?
Maybe u should try HUACA?
Just tell ur AY PNR and ask to get the seat assignment.
Called AY CC and they said they can't assign me the seat and I have to call CX.
Just called CX and they were able to do the seat assignment in few seconds.
Shouldn't operating carrier be always able to book the seats even though the ticket is sold by other carrier?
Maybe u should try HUACA?
Just tell ur AY PNR and ask to get the seat assignment.
Unable to change seat in my booking. I mailed CX dk-office. They answered, Yes we can normally change your seat. But in this case AY has already assigned you specific seats. So, we (CX) can't do anything.
I called AY CC, after a minute or two the cc-staff was able to change my seat succesfully.
Don't know why AY assigned me some random seats in my initial booking, this seemed to be the reason why CX didn't want do undo the seat selection.
However, my AY-issued "Value" ticket books into N-class on the CX-flight. N fare isn't allowed to select seats at CX, so this might have something to do why they didn't want to change my seat.
After I got the seat selection solved with AY, I asked the staff what the normal procedure on codeshare flights is. The answer was, normally it is the operating carrier you should contact, however It still depends on case to case. In some cases it is the ticket issuer you should contact. Lesson learned? It is a fifty-sixty situation which carrier to try with first in these situations. ^
#11
Join Date: Aug 2015
Location: Helsinki, Finland
Programs: Finnair (AY) Platinum, Air France Silver, Tallink Club One Silver :)
Posts: 1,655
What lkrt meant is that at least for those cases where both marketing and operating carrier uses Amadeus, there are no longer multiple, carrier specific reservation numbers.
In the past for a CX marketed, but AY, CX and KA operated itinerary, I had 3 separate PNRs to manage my bookings at each airline. Since April, AY updated their system and there is only one PNR, regardless of the number of carriers involved. This supposed to make things easier, since you as a customer would not have to jump through hoops and loops just to find the "right" PNR.
Of course, IRL, at least for now this just doesn't work. With the single PNR you in most cases (?) are not able to do seat selection on AY's site for flights operated by other carriers, nor can you use that PNR to log in to other carriers' site to manage your booking there...
So far this seems to be a great enhancement. #Sarcasm
With AY and AA using different GDS, there is likely a separate PNR existing, but seems like that since this upgrade all codeshare flights are a bit messed up.
In the past for a CX marketed, but AY, CX and KA operated itinerary, I had 3 separate PNRs to manage my bookings at each airline. Since April, AY updated their system and there is only one PNR, regardless of the number of carriers involved. This supposed to make things easier, since you as a customer would not have to jump through hoops and loops just to find the "right" PNR.
Of course, IRL, at least for now this just doesn't work. With the single PNR you in most cases (?) are not able to do seat selection on AY's site for flights operated by other carriers, nor can you use that PNR to log in to other carriers' site to manage your booking there...
So far this seems to be a great enhancement. #Sarcasm
With AY and AA using different GDS, there is likely a separate PNR existing, but seems like that since this upgrade all codeshare flights are a bit messed up.
#12
Original Poster
Join Date: Jan 2011
Location: HEL
Programs: AA Plat Pro, AY Lumo, Hyatt Explorist, National Exec Elite
Posts: 152
Indeed, the AY customer service claimed that everything was behind a single PNR after some unspecified "enhancement".
However, AA customer service still was able to provide me a separate AY PNR... I guess this is because the AA booking used SABRE instead of Amadeus.
Even with the AY PNR, I was unable to select seats.
However, AA customer service still was able to provide me a separate AY PNR... I guess this is because the AA booking used SABRE instead of Amadeus.
Even with the AY PNR, I was unable to select seats.
#13
Join Date: May 2014
Location: HEL
Programs: AY+Plat, ALL Plat, Scandic L2
Posts: 3,620
#14
Join Date: Sep 2011
Location: Northern Europe
Programs: BAEC Silver, Hilton Diamond, IHG Spire mainly
Posts: 100
Here's one datapoint, as an AA Exec Plat I was able to change my AA codeshare flight (operated by Finnair) seat just by calling the AA Exec Plat contact center number. I did call the Finnair US number earlier today, but they just said that it was not possible for them to change the seat reservation even though they located the reservation based on my ticket number and gave me their PNR for the booking.
Go figure...
Go figure...
#15
Join Date: Sep 2005
Location: HEL
Programs: AY Platinum, TK Elite, BT VIP, AA, BA, SK, DL, NT, WB + hotels
Posts: 8,757
Most times, when an airline agent tells you "I'm sorry, Sir, we can't do it", you should interpret it as "I don't know how to do it, don't care how to learn, and you're wasting my time". It pays off to be persistent.