How good is ZED Light when it comes to swapping airlines?

**Nick** · 05-Apr-2010, 05:34 AM

Interesting thread, just got to it as I had been on vacation.

I have also noted everything has a tendency to depend on the relevant staff at the airport on the day... someone at AA once said to me "look for the younger ones!" but personally i've found older staff to be far more interested, accomodating and knowledgable than their younger counterparts.

Age aside, i've seen / had several thing happen:

- Had someone on the AA listing line tell me it would be "an exception to the rule" to allow one to switch destinations, even if in same zone. Arrived at the airport and was told this is no problem. I do note however that our agreement with BA specifies this is not allowed - and appreciate they took the time to communicate that to people

- Asked a ticketing officer if our agreements are ZL or ZM, and got told they are "zonal". Explained I understood this and that was not what I asked. Re asked the question but got same reply. Not everyone understands ZED tickets it appears

- Held a BAH-DXB/DXB-LHR coupon and had an airline accept both to travel direct BAH-LHR. Slight tax increase they could have raised an MCO, but I was happy to let go of a small value BAH-DXB coupon to save them the trouble. Their late departure however left a lot to be desired (made DL LHRATL checkin by 3minutes!)

- My gf is listed as my companion and a certain airline here in Aus told her that "she'd better keep that coupon" - and didn't lift her ticket but let her fly. They clearly didn't know what was going on there as they very rarely deal with interline tickets, and I have the ticket in my posession and need to find some way of returning it to them for processing

- I've been denied check in on my own airline on a taxes only FOC ticket, and told that "SFO and LAX are in different zones, so you cannot change destinations". On a taxes only ticket, the tax is the only relevant factor... the zone is totally irrelevant. I also pointed out the arrival taxes into SFO and LAX happen to be the same. Regardless, a note was put in my PNR not to accept me for travel, and I had to contact my local ticketing office for advice and some PNR auth codes. I got on the flight I wanted in the end though, but it was a totally needless effort. Help your fellow staff and understand the system.

- I've seen OAL staff present at a counter with J tickets from their own airline and complain that another airline will only accept them into Y class. Why this seemed odd to them I cannot fathom, as there is no J class ZED ticket... you front up with your own airline J ticket, you'll be lucky to be accepted by most airlines, so deal with Y class

- I've seen a companion *BEG* the LAX QF staff to accept her for a flight. Be professional please... inform companions that they aren't guaranteed a seat and not to sook if they can't get on.

I'd love to work in a pass bureau as the mechanics of it all interest me. Not so much now, but I was particularly interested during the GFC when J class loads were down, the chance of creating a J class ZED between airlines. That would be a great benefit in my view

**italgreco** · 09-Apr-2010, 09:54 PM

[QUOTE=Nick;56500]

Nick - There is and there are. We have quite a number of C/J class ZED agreements. UA do not permit a refund if we utilise a C class ticket in Y on another carrier so the rule of thumb is
to have 2 sets of tickets issued and at the gate, swap coupons.

**aazed** · 13-Apr-2010, 11:48 AM

Originally Posted by italgreco

Nick - There is and there are. We have quite a number of C/J class ZED agreements. UA do not permit a refund if we utilise a C class ticket in Y on another carrier so the rule of thumb is to have 2 sets of tickets issued and at the gate, swap coupons.

Which is exactly why most airlines do not have J class ZED. The ideal situation would be to sell ZED upgrade vouchers (e.g., x% of the ZL, ZM, or ZH fare for each zone), but that idea has not caught on, unfortunately. That way the employee buys one ticket (YIDZM) and one voucher for ZM zone 1, that the agent can return to the traveler if they cannot accommodated him in the higher cabin. Not sure, though, how that would work in an electronic enviroment.

**italgreco** · 28-Apr-2010, 05:56 PM

Originally Posted by aazed

Which is exactly why most airlines do not have J class ZED. The ideal situation would be to sell ZED upgrade vouchers (e.g., x% of the ZL, ZM, or ZH fare for each zone), but that idea has not caught on, unfortunately. That way the employee buys one ticket (YIDZM) and one voucher for ZM zone 1, that the agent can return to the traveler if they cannot accommodated him in the higher cabin. Not sure, though, how that would work in an electronic enviroment.

Agree with that. But if it's the transporting carrier that issues a voucher they will have work at the front end. The way the industry is going, there will be a time, in the not too distant future, where ticketing outlets will be removed from airport locations. Along with that, Ticketing Experts will be deployed or worse. A Check In Specialist would then need to take ownership of verifying the agreement etc .. unless of course, money will be spent on upgrading self check in units to perform this task. Possible I guess.
On the other hand, if it's the issuing carrier that issues the voucher, that's work at the back end with multiple interline billings associated with the ticket.
Whilst there's no fee for employees to refund unused interline tickets, I think most are happy to have two sets of tickets issued if there's a 50/50 chance a seat is available in a premium cabin.
Since I last responded to this post, we have a further 2 carriers onboard with C class travel. I think most would agree, the actual fare is reasonable - the government taxes are a killer

**aazed** · 29-Apr-2010, 11:40 AM

I think if anything progresses on this front it would, almost certainly, require that the voucher be issued by the employing ariline. As you've very clearly identified, this feature creates compliations, which is exaclty why most carriers have not signed onto J class travel.

**flassher** · 13-May-2010, 11:53 PM

Just as an addemdum to my previous posts on Asian airlines & ZED tickets...
I found the following post by 29Palms that backs up what I have been saying.....

I figured that the same leg, which was MNL-NRT or NRT-MNL didn't mean a hill of beans. So when I tried to board a NORTHWEST/DELTA flight out of MNL, I was told I needed to fix the ticket to read MNL-NRT. I tried to explain that it was a ZED fare and shouldn't make a difference but apparantly at NINOY AQUINO AIRPORT, it does make a difference. So that screwed us out of our flight that day. I go to the ticket office of my company to straighten out my ticket but nobody there knows how to do it and I am told to return at 7:30 PM that evening. This flight I tried to make was at 8:20AM. How about that?

So I have to repeat, even if aazed is not fully in agreement.....get back up ZED tkts for all possibilities or you could be disappointed....

**Arlauckas** · 14-May-2010, 01:46 PM

As a rule of thumb, you should definitely carry backup ZEDs if you are heading to Asia. I have been there a couple of times and...concluded that most of the staff dont know the zed rules... :\

**aazed** · 14-May-2010, 08:17 PM

What might the other airline offer, at its discretion

To accept your ticket in an alternate market if the fare you paid is equal to or greater than the fare applicable to the new routing
To accept your ticket in an alternate market if the taxes collected and shown on your ticket are the same as the taxes applicable to the new itinerary
To accept your ticket if the fare level you paid is the same or greater than the fare level applicable had the ticket been issued under the conditions of that airline’s agreement with your employing airline
To offer you a seat in a higher cabin

Just to be clear, I never recommended against getting back up tickets. What I said was that it was not fair to make a blanket statement that all Asian carriers will refuse tickets issued with alternate routings. I make it pretty clear in my article (quoted above) that it's solely up to the airline to accept a ZED ticket on an alternate routing. The ZED agreement doesn't require it, doing so would be as a courtesy and, as many of us have experienced, not all airlines are willing to provide that courtesy, this includes carriers in every region of the world, including Asia. Yet, while there are also airlines in every region that are considerably flexibile, it is still best to assume airlines will not accept such tickets, so be prepared.

**flassher** · 11-May-2010, 04:28 PM

Originally Posted by aazed

Actually, flassher, I do and thanks for asking.

Thanks for that, your input as to what you know would be appreciated.

Thread: How good is ZED Light when it comes to swapping airlines?

LinkBack

Thread Tools

Display

Hybrid View

Thread Information

Users Browsing this Thread

Similar Threads

Wow....good to be here!

Bookmarks

Bookmarks

Posting Permissions