The Code Share from Hell

[BBoomer]

A great way to start 6 weeks travelling Europe in August. QF/EK, Mel-Dxb-Arl. Sitting at the gate in the plane for over 3 hours due to the catering truck hitting the engine. Arrive in Dubai and directed to the service desk with 100's of fellow passengers that have all missed their connections. Finally given a sheet of paper which I am assured is a ticket, for us to proceed about 10hrs later with Turkish Airlines, via Istanbul and onto our destination, Stockholm. Given a room & told to come back at 1:00am to check in with Turkish. Do that and then told that our piece of paper isn't a ticket and go to the Emirates desk near buy to get ticketed. The guy at the Emirates desk says this is a Qantas fare, and he can't authorise the Turkish ticket.
He spends so much time trying to do something that the Turkish flight departs without us. Ok, there's another one soon. He continues to try to do something until we miss the next flight. He then advises we go to Terminal 1, where there is Qantas staff, that could solve this. Ok, get on the bus, around the Terminal find an empty QF desk. The Emirates girl nearby says they have all knocked off and gone home. This is going well.
The emirates girl then tries to resolve this. We sit in the near empty terminal watching the Emirates girl working on it for nearly 3 hours.
Finally we are our on our way to Oslo with Emirates!! With an SAS flight through to Stockholm. Get to Oslo, and go to check in with SAS, and the lady says, that piece of paper isn't a ticket. I think I've heard this before, but I can't be sure because my brain is shutting down!
With minutes to spare we are ticketed through to Stockholm. Arrive at Arlander, to only get that sinking feeling when you watch the carousel go around and around, and everyone else is home eating meat balls by the time it dawns on you that your bags are somewhere between Melbourne and Stockholm. The lost luggage department at Arlander is about the size of the Tiger terminal in Melbourne. The Scandinavians it seems have taken loosing luggage to a new level. After a few hours of engaging in this fun Swedish game, we finally get to our hotel about a day late.
It took us about 20 hours to get out of Dubai. I personally loath Dubai, so any extra time there is not my idea of fun. And all due to the Code Share cough up that QF & EK have cooked up between them. The lost bags just added a bit of extra entertainment .. they turned up about midnight that night.
Never doing the QF/EK code share thing again.

 

[levelnine]

How is this related to the code share?

These sorts of problems can happen (even though they shouldn't imo) whenever you're flying on an airline that isn't the airline that sold the ticket (eg buy a Qantas ticket that includes a leg on BA with a BA flight number -- ie no code share).

 

[opusman]

Some paragraphs would be nice but otherwise I enjoyed the story, I give it 4/5.

 

[mannej]

Whilst I sympathise, the issue was due to the catering truck issue. The service recovery may be related to the codeshare.

Without the pesky catering truck you'd not be saying boo.

 

[moa999]

Agree EK should have done better.
That said without a proper ticket I would have been calling QF/EK to ensure I had a proper ticket before turning up at the airport.

A reservation without a ticket number is never good.

 

[RooFlyer]

How is this related to the code share?

These sorts of problems can happen (even though they shouldn't imo) whenever you're flying on an airline that isn't the airline that sold the ticket (eg buy a Qantas ticket that includes a leg on BA with a BA flight number -- ie no code share).

Well I reckon it's pretty obvious how it's related to QF/EK code share - in as much it was a code share flight involved and the " other " airline couldn't manage the reticket. If it occurred under the circumstances you mention, I guess the heading would have been different.

Its called a minor rant - some latitude should be given

 

[JohnK]

Sorry to hear you had issues. Service recovery should be a priority. Ignore the negative posters.

 

[serfty]

Lesson for all - get ticket number before you leave the desk ...

 

[ozbeachbabe]

Was the piece of paper just an itinerary with your new flight details or was it an actual FIM (flight interruption manifest) which the new airline needs before a ticket can be issued as it's a form of payment which the new ticket can be issued against?

 

[harvyk]

If an airline handed me a piece of paper stating it was my next flights after a disruption I would assume (rightly) that all is ok and properly handled. Me as a customer shouldn't have to know that the piece of paper issued by the airline requires certain numbers. Codeshare should not mean that you need to contact the ticketing airline since part of the reason for the codeshare is because the ticketing airline doesn't actually fly to the destinations.

 

[Himeno]

The only time I've had a codeshare booked and there was a problem because of the codeshare was a few years ago during a DONE3. Had an AY operated flight with an MH code. MH did something which caused the flight to disappear. When I turned up at HEL to check in, AY couldn't find me, but I had all the paperwork saying it was confirmed and nothing in the website MMB had changed.
AY staff spent about 20 mins fixing it.

As for fun in DXB...
A DONE3 shortly after the QF/EK tie up, when QF was still operating both flights through LHR and DXB at the same time (before DFW went A380 and the MEL-DXB-LHR retime).
I had a LHR-DXB-LHR out and back booked. BA out, QF back. 3 hours between flights (more then twice MCT). (HEL-xLHR-xDXB-xLHR-PVG - all showing up in the booking at connections)
BA aircraft went tech. They swapped the aircraft with one arriving from SFO, which then arrived late. Left LHR an hour behind. ATC delays at DXB, arrived 90 mins behind.
Of course, BA had refused to check me through to QF, and every transfer desk I went to in DXB wouldn't help. Got to DXB T3 and found a QF branded transfer desk. They refused to help and just said to go through the screening checkpoint.
Did that, got to the lounge and explained to them what had happened. They let me into the lounge while they poked at my booking. It took them a while to get in because of the mess MH had done (as above), so by the time they got in to the point they could issue a boarding pass, the flight had closed.
So the EK staff try to sort it out. They call BA. No answer. They call CX (ticker issuer), no answer. They call QF. Get someone in SYD. 24 hour delay, lose a day in PVG.
BA refuses to acknowledge that they did anything to cause it.