Availability on Emirates operated flights (“EK”) and the equivalent Qantas marketed, Emirates operated service (“QF”)
While Qantas and Emirates have released joint fares from Australia for QF/EK Joint Coordination Agreement (JCA) routes , there may be availability differences between the operating carrier and marketing carrier on codeshare services across the Qantas and Emirates joint network. These differences are not uncommon in free-sale codeshare arrangements. Travel Agents may find that they can access booking classes further down the tariff on Emirates flights with an Emirates (EK) flight number operated by Emirates, while the same codeshare service marketed by Qantas with a Qantas (QF) flight number operated by Emirates has more limited booking class access.
Qantas and Emirates are aware of potential differences in availability between the Emirates operating code and the equivalent Qantas marketed flight. In Free-sale codeshare arrangements, Qantas and Emirates are unable to assist Travel Agents in adjusting availability access on the Qantas codeshare services.
A Free-sale codeshare arrangement is a relationship between two carriers that allows a non-operating carrier (Marketing carrier) to sell its code on another carrier’s service (Operating carrier). In this arrangement the Operating carrier maintains control of inventory management for the service.
Working towards An IT Enhancement
Qantas and Emirates are working to implement an IT enhancement that is unique to the Qantas and Emirates JCA partnership, which will minimise differences in availability between the operating and marketing carrier on these codeshare services.
This IT solution will deliver greater availability consistency and should take effect in June 2013. Qantas will keep its industry partners updated.
Note: the differences in availability between the operating and marketing carrier on Qantas and Emirates codeshare flights is separate to the technical issue which caused the status codes of some confirmed bookings on Qantas codeshare flights operated by Emirates to change from HK to HS/US status. This issue has been resolved.
