Responsibility for codeshare connection
 

Hi everyone,
I have a question regarding airline's responsibilities when you have a connecting codeshare flight.

I have one itinerary booked through Lufthansa which consists of a leg from BNE->SIN (operated by singapore airlines) and a second leg from SIN->FRA (plain lufthansa flight).

I want to book a connecting flight from FRA->MLA. There is an appropriate flight operated by lufthansa 4 hours after landing in frankfurt. However, it is much cheaper to buy a ticket on this flight through Air Malta.

My question is, if I book a ticket on the lufthansa operated flight from FRA->MLA through Air Malta, what will happen if either of the first two legs are delayed? Who holds responsibility?

I have done some googling and discovered this on wikipedia "Under a codeshared flight, the second airline is unlikely to charge extra fees or deny boarding should the first, cooperating airline cause a delay." But I'm not sure it applies to my scenario and don't trust it 100%.

I also have no idea about checking in etc - would I be able to get my luggage checked all the way to malta?

I would appreciate any advice,
Thanks,
mel

Responsibility for codeshare connection
 

Codesharing doesn't really matter, you will be protected either way in case of a misconnect as long as all flights are on the same ticket. If the FRA-MLA flight is booked separately, then there will be no protection and you will be considered a no-show.

In this case ACflyerDE is right, if you are on separate tickets you won't have any protection. You'll be at the mercy of how nice the GA or airline rep is feeling to re-accommodate you.

However if you were flying OW airlines you would be protected, even if you were on separate tickets. Something to remember for next time perhaps.

Oh, and welcome to FlyerTalk!

The BA people seem to think that the protection guarantee is only on AA for OW multiple tickets and not for other OW carriers. In other words, if you are flying BA connecting to AA on separate tickets, AA will protect you while, if flying AA to any other OW carrier on separate tickets, you won't be protected other than as a matter of CS.

In some parts of the world, not sure about your own insurance companies, you can purchase travel insurance that would cover if you miss one flight because another arrives late, even if they are not on one ticket (mine states I must have a minimum of 2 hours between flights to be covered).

But, be very careful and read the definition of "connection." These travel interruption policies often don't cover separate tickets because they're not connections.

By bad for phrasing it that way, I was using 'connections' to mean what you actually are doing, rather than the official 'connecting flight' terminology of being on one ticket.

That is, my insurance will cover 2 separate airline tickets, or even things like a train to plane connection (I looked into this extensively last year when I had a 2 hour train ride, and bad weather conditions hit the country, then a flight - I spoke at length with the insurer, and provided my train ticket had me scheduled to arrive at the airport more than 2 hours before the flight departed, I was covered!) Same with flights, provided there is a 2 hour cushion scheduled, it is covered.