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

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.

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

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.

After reading all the posts on ZED, I would like to add that if you travel within Asia, airlines will only accept a ZED if it shows the origin and destination which must match the route of the flight you hope to board.

They can but will not re-issue a ZED ticket.
ZED agreements clearly state that an airline that has a ZED agreement with the issuing airline can re-issue a ticket if there is a change in the required routing and can collect any extra costs.

I recently wanted to travel BKK - BNE on TG (non stop flt). I held a BKK - SIN (TG shown as carrier) ticket and a SIN - BNE ticket both ZM fares. The TG staff would NOT accept both coupons and put me on their non stop flight which was wide open....totally rediculous...but believe the TG staff are just not taught or empowered to make decisions like this (even supervisors). This mentality is prevalent within asia..

So make sure you hold ZED tickets in all combinations if your routing might change due loads etc.

Originally Posted by flassher

ZED agreements clearly state that an airline that has a ZED agreement with the issuing airline can re-issue a ticket if there is a change in the required routing and can collect any extra costs.

Actually, the ZED agreement states that the airline may, at its discretion, either reissue the existing ticket or issue an entirely new one. The primary responsibility for exchange and reissuance falls to the original ticketing airline (generally the employing airline). If the ticketing airline is not present (i.e., the employee is at an off-line location) then a request can be made to the airline shown on the ticket but they have every right to refuse, and most will, given that the process can a bit complicated and, in some cases, contrary to what that airline might do for their own staff.

Also, I'm not sure that its fair to make a blanket statement that airlines within Asia will only accept ZED travelers on the ticketed routing. Most tell their staff that they can accept on alternate routines, within certain guidelines. As to whether the agents follow the recommendation is another story, but ultimately up to the individual agent (as is the case with many things).