What is a codeshare?

An airline codeshare is when airlines offer their flights to customers as one simple trip so it will appear to the traveler as if they are flying with one airline when they may in fact be flying with its codeshare partners.

The Good

The most important benefit is the ability to accrue frequent flyer miles on a partner carrier as if the flight was being flown by the marketing carrier. Arguably another benefit to a codeshare is the fact you are buying a single itinerary and can cut out a lot of the complexity that comes with multi-stop flights that include more than one airline. For less experienced flyers this can cause all kinds of confusion though, especially when they get to the airport and try to board the wrong plane.

The Bad

Codeshares can cause a great deal of frustration. When a passenger books a codeshare flight, it’s unlikely changes can be made to it, whether mileage upgrade, complimentary upgrade due to status, or a same-day change. This is very frustrating as airlines do not disclose these details at the time of booking, they are only required to disclose that a flight is being operated by another airline.

Most codeshare booking apply mileage credit based on the operating carrier booking class but you are unlikely to know the operating carriers booking class until you book it.

Our frequent flyer destination search system on the homepage is designed to give you an idea of how you can spend your frequent flyer miles with different airlines, including what you can get with partner airlines.

And The Ugly Truth

Sometimes you just don’t have a choice but to go with a codeshare but, in general, it’s wise to be aware of who the actual airline flying you will be before booking, especially when using third party websites like Opodo and ebooker. We don’t like codeshares unless there is a big price difference or a frequent flyer benefit. Otherwise, it tends to create more problems than advantages.