Watch out for a ‘change of equipment’
Regarding “When It Comes to Airline Code Shares: Buyers, Beware” [Travel Insider, Nov. 7]: A bigger fraud than code shares is direct flights with a “change of equipment.” People favor direct flights so they won’t have to change planes.
Fliers may choose a direct flight so they won’t have to haul their carry-on luggage between planes, but when they arrive at the first stop they are informed that there is “a change of equipment.”
The worst experience I had was a flight to Taipei, Taiwan, with one stop in San Francisco. I arrived at LAX two hours early for my international flight, only to find it was a standard 737 commuter flight to SFO. The flight attendants welcomed everyone aboard “to San Francisco, with continuing service to Taipei and Bangkok.”
When we arrived in San Francisco, it was a 10-minute hike to the international terminal to get to our new “equipment.”
The airlines should not be able to use the same flight number for all segments of a flight unless it is scheduled to use the same aircraft.
Jim Gottlieb
San Diego
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