Dear Alex,
My father recently booked, through a travel agent, a return ticket from Cape Town to Nice via Johannesburg and Frankfurt. He ended up with South African Airways (SAA) as far as Frankfurt then Lufthansa for all the other sectors on to Nice and back to Johannesburg. [The carriers codeshare on routes between South Africa and Europe.]
The problem came when we tried to check in online for the flight out of South Africa. Because the SAA flight carried a Lufthansa code, call centre staff said he couldn’t use flysaa.com. When we contacted Lufthansa for help, we were told we couldn’t use lufthansa.com for check in because it was an SAA-operated flight.
I thought the idea of alliances and codesharing was to make travel easier. Or am I wrong?
David Settle, Cape Town
Alex replies:
You must have been unlucky on this occasion. Lufthansa says that normally you would have been able to check in for your SAA flight even though it carried a Lufthansa code. The carrier provided a “screen grab” from flysaa.com displaying online check-in information. But Lufthansa adds: “When the passenger travelled there may have been a technical glitch or he may have tried to check in too early.”
Human error may have been a factor. Lufthansa says: “We also presume there was a misunderstanding with the call centre staff (either ours and/or SAA’s).”
Yet again, here is an example of why travellers must check the operating carrier of their flights at the time of booking. Never assume that the carrier whose flight code appears on your ticket will be the operating airline.
I agree that a possible technical glitch would not have helped but the check-in process would have been less troublesome had you known in advance what procedure to follow.
