Never use Easyair to book American-Quantas Code Share Flights

[gottagocit]

This has been a lessoned learned for us and thought I’d share a bit of it. 

 

We have r/t flights (6 total) from the USA to Australia for upcoming cruise and depart on the first flight tomorrow. 

All flights are with AA except the first transpacific from Lax to Brisbane. After booking months ago we paid extra at aa.com to move to extra legroom economy seats for all flights but found we couldn’t do this for the one Qantas flight. So we called Quantas and were told we could not select xtra legroom seats until the day before our flight. Not convinced this odd info was correct we called twice and were told the same thing each time. We then called AA and were told they could not accept money for changes on a qantas flight and only qantas could change our seats. 

 

We fly tomorrow so we called Quantas today and now we are told they flight is now under “airport control” and seats can only be chosen/moved at the airport (LAX) tomorrow.  They also tell us all extra legroom seats are booked and we were told we had seats but on row 50+.

 

It appears the codeshare flight setup is the core problem based on what we were told by qantas and neither airline could/would help with the problem. Meanwhile those who booked directly with qantas have chosen their seats, leaving the back rows for those who haven’t done so. 

 

Take my advice and avoid codeshare flights between these two airlines if you care were you sit and can’t afford to purchase premium or bus/first class seats. It’s not going to ruin our trip as we are looking forward to it so much but we surely do dread that 14 hour flight a lot more now. 

Edited February 10, 2019 by gottagocit

[AF-1]

I hear and feel your pain.  I will never again book a international flight on a foreign carrier;  and your issue is why.  Why the US carriers can allow you to pick your seat months in advance; but foreign carriers do not is beyond reasoning.  I fly either American, Delta or United proper overseas;  sorry about your situation.  It really stinks; especially when you pay upfront and get nothing until you arrive at airport.

Edited February 10, 2019 by AF-1

[Coral]

I think there are issues with Code sharing and flights in general - nothing to do with EZ Air.

 

I used FF miles recently. First flights were AA/AA/British and second round was Swiss/Swiss/United.

 

I couldn't get seat assignments for British even the day before. I was able to get seat assignments for the 2nd Swiss flight but not the first one the day before.

[Alaskanb]

Some of the issue may depend on how many of their frequent travelers are on the flight. I know that British Air has a pecking order of when passengers can book seats with no cost. We have a British Air TATL flight, business class, in October using AA frequent flier miles and booked through AA.  BA seats will currently cost us from $111 to $164 depending on where in the cabin we are. I can also wait and snag a seat 24 hrs prior to the flight.

All airlines have their own rules; At times some appear to be attached to ticket class. 

Edited February 10, 2019 by Alaskanb

[Alaskanb]

Just re-read your original comments. Were you able to select regular Quantas economy seats when you originally booked? 

Edited February 10, 2019 by Alaskanb

[NavyVeteran]

As stated previously, this problem has absolutely nothing to do with Carnival Corporation, Princess Cruises, or EZAir. You would have the same problem if you booked the Quantas flight of the American Airlines website. I have had a similar problem selecting seats on a British Airways flight booked on the American Airlines website using American Airlines miles. I could select seats in advance on the American Airlines flights but not on the British Airways flights.

[Colo Cruiser]

41 minutes ago, gottagocit said:

This has been a lessoned learned for us and thought I’d share a bit of it. 

 

We have r/t flights (6 total) from the USA to Australia for upcoming cruise and depart on the first flight tomorrow. 

All flights are with AA except the first transpacific from Lax to Brisbane. After booking months ago we paid extra at aa.com to move to extra legroom economy seats for all flights but found we couldn’t do this for the one Qantas flight. So we called Quantas and were told we could not select xtra legroom seats until the day before our flight. Not convinced this odd info was correct we called twice and were told the same thing each time. We then called AA and were told they could not accept money for changes on a qantas flight and only qantas could change our seats. 

 

We fly tomorrow so we called Quantas today and now we are told they flight is now under “airport control” and seats can only be chosen/moved at the airport (LAX) tomorrow.  They also tell us all extra legroom seats are booked and we were told we had seats but on row 50+.

 

It appears the codeshare flight setup is the core problem based on what we were told by qantas and neither airline could/would help with the problem. Meanwhile those who booked directly with qantas have chosen their seats, leaving the back rows for those who haven’t done so. 

 

Take my advice and avoid codeshare flights between these two airlines if you care were you sit and can’t afford to purchase premium or bus/first class seats. It’s not going to ruin our trip as we are looking forward to it so much but we surely do dread that 14 hour flight a lot more now. 

I deal with the same crap from Lufthansa. Wait until 24 hours prior and then be told "its under airport control".

IE: issue is the same when booking a United flight operated by Lufthansa. Many of these international flights do not allow seat assignment period unless you are a status airline member with Lufthansa.

 

BA is notorious for this as well.

 

The only way around for us is to book an actual United flight operated by United which is an issue as United does not fly directly to many of these cities.

 

I agree it is not an EZ AIR issue, it is an airline issue.

[billco]

When I book international flights on EZ AIR I get to:

Book with out making a payment until final payment is due.

Make changes without fees until 45 days before the flight.

Book much cheaper than if I was booking on an airline site.

Princess help if I miss a flight (Haven't had to try that)

 

More than offsets the frustration of not selecting desirable flights that have segments with a partner foreign airline. If I can't select seats on all segments on the main airline website after booking, I cancel and start over.

[Colo Cruiser]

1 minute ago, billco said:

When I book international flights on EZ AIR I get to:

Book with out making a payment until final payment is due.

Make changes without fees until 45 days before the flight.

Book much cheaper than if I was booking on an airline site.

Princess help if I miss a flight (Haven't had to try that)

 

More than offsets the frustration of not selecting desirable flights that have segments with a partner foreign airline. If I can't select seats on all segments on the main airline website after booking, I cancel and start over.

If one chooses the flexible option.

[Astro Flyer]

1 hour ago, Colo Cruiser said:

I deal with the same crap from Lufthansa. Wait until 24 hours prior and then be told "its under airport control".

IE: issue is the same when booking a United flight operated by Lufthansa. Many of these international flights do not allow seat assignment period unless you are a status airline member with Lufthansa.

 

BA is notorious for this as well.

 

The only way around for us is to book an actual United flight operated by United which is an issue as United does not fly directly to many of these cities.

 

I agree it is not an EZ AIR issue, it is an airline issue.

We considered using AAdvantage Miles for Business Class which for a Saver award was on BA.  The BA website stated that in BC passengers except for their upper tier FF were required to pay to make an advance seat assignment.  We opted to not pay over $500/pp in taxes/fees (plus nearly $100/pp for an advance seat assignment) for a one-way flight to Rome.

 

On Lufthansa we paid for an Economy seat assignment & when the aircraft type changed discovered that we no longer had seat assignments.  Our paid seat assignments were gone & had to battle with them to get a refund.

 

As posted, the OP’s experiences are not an EZair problem but are caused by airlines’ policies.

Edited February 10, 2019 by Astro Flyer

[Redhaven]

On the positive side, we have booked flights to and back from Europe through EZAir, business class, on Air France code shared with KLM and have had no problems with seat selection even 11 months in advance.  Maybe it's because of business class.  We have no FF status with Air France, KLM, or Delta (all in the Skymiles program).

[Coral]

4 minutes ago, Redhaven said:

On the positive side, we have booked flights to and back from Europe through EZAir, business class, on Air France code shared with KLM and have had no problems with seat selection even 11 months in advance.  Maybe it's because of business class.  We have no FF status with Air France, KLM, or Delta (all in the Skymiles program).

I was Business Class with my FF miles that included British Air and Swiss Air. Didn't make a difference. Though one flight I could get seat assignments with British Air and another I could not. These were all at time of booking and also at time of checking in. 

Edited February 11, 2019 by Coral

[Colo Cruiser]

6 minutes ago, Redhaven said:

On the positive side, we have booked flights to and back from Europe through EZAir, business class, on Air France code shared with KLM and have had no problems with seat selection even 11 months in advance.  Maybe it's because of business class.  We have no FF status with Air France, KLM, or Delta (all in the Skymiles program).

Yes sometimes it is  business Class that allows that not always.

[trbarton]

I booked a flight through EZ Air from San Francisco to Sydney on Qantas & return on America Airlines from Hong Kong. I was able to get advanced seats 💺 with Qantas by paying a $30 per person fee. With Qantas after paying the fee you need to present proof of payment for your seats at the airport. I’ll know more once I’m at the airport. 

 

With American Airlines no problem. No charge for American Airlines. 

 

I tried to to get our seats upgraded on Qantas but I could only do it for myself as the other person is flying from somewhere else to board Qantas & the Airlines won’t allow it. 

 

I’m going to see if anything can be done once at the airport. 

 

Tom😎

[gottagocit]

4 hours ago, Alaskanb said:

Just re-read your original comments. Were you able to select regular Quantas economy seats when you originally booked? 

 

No. We each could only “request” either an aisle or a window seat which in itself is screwy as the plane has of 3 rows per side so if we chose either we are essentially asking to be separated. 

[gottagocit]

Just one final update:  This evening after we were inside the 24 hour window whereby we could check in online to get our boarding passes and lock in the boarding group/seat assignments we attempted to do so at AS.com. We always do this However this time we found we were not allowed to check in online.  After trying to do so the site displayed an error and informed is we could only check in at the airport.

 

Also to those who felt I was blaming easyair entirely for this problem in my OP, I wasn’t attempting to state they were entirely at fault in the matter but more trying to warm anyone booking there to avoid the situation we found when booking an AA flight that’s is operated by Qantas when using easyair to book. That is where we experienced the problem and not including that detail in the OP would have meant this thread would probably been removed and placed in the general airline travel board. I found codeshare flights are very common on easyair after reviewing flight options for this and other cruises down under. Until now we had no idea this could present such a frustrating issue but we have certainly learned a lesson. I was simply trying to share it with others to hopefully help someone from experiencing it IF they wouldn’t prefer to be able to choose their seats. 

[Cruise Junky]

I have to be very careful when I book seats for DH. No way I would consider codeshare or Easyair. I must have control of booking those seats before the masses. Sucks that it’s such a long flight to not get seats. Hope it works out. 

[satxdiver]

We have had problems with codeshare with both AA and UA.  One codeshare was with BA and the other one I don't remember.  When I found out the problem, I switched flights to all AA or UA flights.  I have priority with AA but not UA so prefer to use AA.  So far I love EZair but have to be aware of codeshare.  As stated it is not EZair problem but codeshare. 

[Gwendy]

Sorry have to say this.  It is QANTAS, Queensland and Northern Territory Air Service.  There  is no U as it is an acronym.

[FollowingTheSun]

On 2/11/2019 at 1:20 PM, gottagocit said:

We each could only “request” either an aisle or a window seat which in itself is screwy as the plane has of 3 rows per side so if we chose either we are essentially asking to be separated. 

That is a typical Qantas 'option'

We booked codeshare Qantas/Emirates through Qantas recently and that was our choice. On the Emirates website, it insisted that our tickets have to be issued before we could select seats. The (inexperienced) travel agent insisted that tickets had been issued.

When I sent the travel agent a screenshot of my Emirates screen, she finally talked to Emirates and got the tickets issued. Then we were able to select our seats (for a fee). The Qantas leg still doesn't allow seat selection but it's only a one hour flight so no big deal.

 

We were stuck in the back row on one leg of a long flight once and the wife says never again.

 

Jim

[gottagocit]

On 2/11/2019 at 9:27 PM, Gwendy said:

Sorry have to say this.  It is QANTAS, Queensland and Northern Territory Air Service.  There  is no U as it is an acronym.

 

Sorry for the mistake. Was typing fast on an iPad and didn’t self check as I should have. Looks like I at least spelled it correctly once in the body of the OP. Lol. 

 

[Gwendy]

10 hours ago, gottagocit said:

 

Sorry for the mistake. Was typing fast on an iPad and didn’t self check as I should have. Looks like I at least spelled it correctly once in the body of the OP. Lol. 

 

Once is better than never. Lol.  

[cruisequeen4ever]

This makes me happy our transatlantic flight is on United, and only our little Europe hopper is on Lufthansa. For a 1.5 hour flight, we don’t care, but for an 11 hour flight, it’s not cool to not be able to choose your own seats! 

 

I’m sorry this happened to you, and thank you for sharing, so we can all learn from it.