Is this normal for codesharing tickets?
 

Hello, and I am new and I am happy to be apart of this forum. Also to the mods I hope this was posted in the right section but if not then feel free to move it.
So just today I had to book directly with Qatar airways due to some issues with Jetblue. So what happened is I originally booked a "codeshare" ticket with Jetblue. I normally don't do this but it was enticing due to how much money I would save. And I would be flying with Qatar(one of my preferred airlines) and not Jetblue. So why not? My Uganda(and Rwanda) trip is in August(and so luckily I caught this in time), but just yesterday I found out that my Uganda connecting round trips from Doha and vice versa was REMOVED from the itinerary and thus only a JFK to Doha roundtrip. When I looked on the Qatar airways website they still had that same exact flight itinerary... The route and time/date. I called Jetblue and they said something about Jetblue codesharing no longer offering that route and that they couldn't restore the ticket. They offered me a full refund which was nice but I had to pay more to book directly with Qatar. Now when I do enter in the month of August for Uganda on the Jetblue website that ticket/flight no longer shows up.

So my question is... How common is this? And is this a good reason to avoid codesharing tickets? Hopefully this doesn't(it SHOULDN'T!) happen with the official QR tickets because QR airways officially has routes to Uganda and even mentions so on their website. But I never seen this happen before. And pray my Uganda flight from Doha doesn't get removed from this ticket. Anyways, thanks in advance. And once again thank you for allowing me to join.

Welcome to FT!

So you accepted a full refund from JetBlue and booked new ticket with QR? Rather than doing this I would have challenged JetBlue removing your DOH to Uganda flight from the itinerary. Once ticketed it is really not your problem if JetBlue stops offering a codeshare flight for DOH-Uganda. JetBlue can just ask QR to ticket it if for some reason JetBlue is not able to ticket is anymore. You were way too gentle with JetBlue here, but if already cancelled and refunded, there is nothing you can do.

To your Q: No this is not common; I would say it is extremely rare for codeshare partner to cancel tickets already issued with the reference that the codeshare agreement has ceased for the flight.

Rest assured that you will travel with QR to Uganda without any risks of the ticket being cancelled.

Appreciate the welcome and response but yea its too late now. But they did try restoring the flight that was ACTUALLY their original goal but they said they tried but couldn't. But the bolded is what really allows me to rest my head. As long as I am still good. I asked Jetblue additional questions of why it happened and again they said they are not offered routes to Uganda anymore with Qatar.

Again, appreciate the response!

I'm seeing this more often in the world of wet leasing (where one carrier leases a plane and crew from another carrier, who dispatch and fly the flight), particularly in Europe. When this happens, the US govt rules get in the way, so the non-US carrier cannot offer the US carrier a codeshare any more, so the ticket gets rebooked. I've personally gone though this several times with AA, when BA swaps the plane to a wet lease from Air Belgium, DAT, Titan, etc, and they are unable to book it on the 'prime' flight numbers. (The economics of this can be debated, but airlines are rapidly growing post-covid, and can't quickly get more planes and crew themselves, so they go to other carriers to operate part of their schedules for them.)

You don't mention specific airports, but the only QR route to Uganda is to Entebbe (EBB). In August, this route now appears to be operated by Oman Air on behalf of Qatar Airways (Using an Oman Air plane and crew, but Qatar will still provide the 'soft' product, eg amenities and catering). As such, the codeshare can no longer be offered to JetBlue, hence why they "cancelled" the flight, and why it's no longer bookable. As it's just this one daily flight, there are no other options, hence why they aren't able to get you there. Whether or not you could have pushed back and had JetBlue ticket on Qatar prime flight numbers (eg QRXXXX instead of B6XXXX) is debatable, I haven't been able to get AA to rebook me on the same flights when it happens with BA.

Many thanks for explanation. Makes sense that JetBlue may no longer have a codehare flight No. for a flight wet leased from Oman Air, but still beyond me why JetBlue can't rebook to the QR prime flight No.for tickets already issued (surely, the DOH-EBB flight has a QR flight No despite being operated by Oman Air). Would DOT really allow airlines to cancel and leave pax hung out to dry in this situation? (when the flight is operated but issuing carrier is no longer able/allowed to book it under its codeshare flight No.)

I found this guide for TAs https://www.jetblue.com/travel-agent...ange/interline which seems to say it's possible (you just can't change operating carriers), but that's for travel agents (who you pay specifically to deal with this sort of situation). Whether that applies in this situation, since the operating carrier did technically change, I'm not sure, I'm just curious about this situation myself.

Yes, it's a QR flight number, the only reference to Oman Air is they are operating it, from the best of my searching, it does not have an Oman Air flight number, codeshare or not.

The DOT allows airlines to fully refund an unrefundable ticket to "make passengers whole" instead of transporting them, so yes, this is completely allowed. It might be different if OP was already mid-journey and was otherwise being stranded, but they likely would have to book directly with QR and then sort out a refund with a DOT complaint against B6. Just look at what happens when airlines go bankrupt, I had a ticket with Lynx and they just told me to do a charge back with my CC company, they wouldn't refund or book alternative transportation.