Code Share woes
 

I have a Business Class trip booked for next week on a MH ticket for travel CGK-KUL-NRT-SAN, with the last leg (NRT-SAN) operated by JL, but bearing a MH code share flight number.

Now MH claims they cannot book me a seat as they have no access to seat maps on a JL operated flight; JL naturally claims that MH owns / controls the record and they are unable to access it to make a seat reservation.

So I am stuck in between with no desire to find out the (bad) luck of the draw at the time of check-in in Narita!

What is the best way of resolving this? And in case anybody is tempted to suggest that I call JL and/or MH again, I have already done so many times with no joy.

Do you have the JL booking reference/PNR?

If you have the JL PNR, you should be able to select a seat on the JL website. The JL PNR should be on your travel documents, but you may need to call MH and ask for it.

Yes, I have the JL PNR, but the JL online site does not display the booking :rolleyes: According to JL, this is due to the fact that the booking was not originally made with JL:td:

That is odd. I've had tickets issued by QF, AA and CX with JL sectors (both with and without codeshares). The only time I've had any issues getting the flights to show up on the JL site was for domestic Japan flights.

try www.checkmytrip.com

JL doesn't use Amadeus, so the JL PNR will not work on checkmytrip.

I think for JAL that would be viewtrip instead of checkmytrip. (Travelport version)

viewtrip, checkmytrip, virtuallythere et al are sites to view an itinerary - not ones where you can book or change seat assignments. My challenge is how to secure an acceptable seat on a JL operated, MH coded flight on a MH ticket :(

Did you try to call JL?

Please read my OP - wo ist die Deutsche gruendlichkeit?

Code Share woes
 

Are you sure that the PNR itself isn't being recognized? JL may require you to input your first and middle names (if you have one and that's how you booked the ticket) together in the first name field, like "johndavid" or "johnd".

I can relate to your woes. This is a standard problem of codeshares! It does not depend on the alliance or airline. I've had the same for UA op by NH, IB op by AA, and also MH op by JL on exactly the same flight as yours.
I never was able to get the seats I wanted on that JL flight. HOWEVER on IB op by AA I had one of the Admiral's club lady put a "request" for preferred seats and ended up having exactly what I had asked for.

As a side info, ask for a seat on the left on the outbound (NRT-SAN) and on the right for the inbound (SAN-NRT) or in the middle. The 787 has terrible electronic window shades. On the outbound it may be OK because most of the flight has a sun fairly in front of the plane. On the way back however, the sun is on the left and you get a fair amount of light and a rather strong infrared heat coming through the window! I am not actively avoiding the 787 for that reason! JL has some funny "stick by friction, static electricity" shades, but most of the time, they don't hold....

Nope, no problem with the PNR; JL agents can pull it up just fine. However, they claim they can do nothing to the PNR (e.g book seats etc).

Thanks - good to know that others face this problem as well, though it is not much of a consolation. I find it shocking that code-share partners, especially within the same alliance, do not iron out these kinks after all this time.

Yes, I too flew on an IB business class ticket with IB coded flights operated by AA flight last month, but although I had no problems with seats, the miles have not yet been credited to my AAdvantage account, athough the flights were well over a month ago. AA blames IB and IB I can never reach on the phone. Another codeshare trap...