A bargain hunter's tour of Asia: the region's financial bust is a boon for U.S. travelers and shoppers

Kiplinger's Personal Finance Magazine, August, 1998 by Lynn Woods

RELATED ARTICLE: AN AIRLINE MATCH MADE IN HEAVEN

QUICK TRAVEL QUIZ: You've booked a westbound flight on what you thought was United Airlines. Suddenly, you find yourself boarding a Delta plane. You: a) grabbed the wrong ticket; b) took the wrong tram in the terminal; c) will be heading eastward if you don't make a quick U-turn.

Answer: Probably none of the above. Chances are you're flying Delta because that airline and United have reached an agreement to buy blocks of seats on each other's planes and sell tickets on the same flights. Continental and Northwest, and American and US Airways, have announced similar relationships, all of which are to be phased in by next year.

Such agreements, known as code sharing, let airlines expand their networks and increase their revenues without actually adding new routes or merging with other carriers. For example, as a result of their agreement, Delta plans to serve 17 additional U.S. cities, and United will add 39 locations.

That's clearly a benefit to travelers because it increases the number of destinations you can reach on your preferred carrier and lets you earn and redeem frequent-flier miles on more flights. A Delta passenger booking a flight from, say, Savannah, Ga., could fly to Green Bay, Wis., on a single ticket, earning Mileage Plus credit (on United) or Delta Skymiles for the entire route--even though segments of the flight might be on the other airline's planes. Delta will not code share with United on international routes.

Along with the expanded routes, however, travelers should also "expect increased confusion and inconvenience when making connections that require a change in airlines," says Tom Parsons, editor of Best Fares Discount Travel Magazine (www.bestfares.com). A connecting flight may depart from a different terminal or, on foreign flights, you may discover that although you booked a flight on a major U.S. airline, your seat is actually on a carrier from South America or Ukraine.

Code sharing can also result in hassles for travelers whose bags get lost en route or whose flight is canceled. (Department of Transportation rules require that the last airline that carried a passenger find a lost bag. Similarly, the carrier that canceled or delayed your flight is responsible for rebooking you.)

When booking a flight, ask if the flight is a code share and which airlines are participating. Code sharing carriers often price their tickets differently, even for the same flight, so call both airlines to find the lower fare. America West and Continental have had an agreement for some time, yet "we've found situations where a flight between Houston and Sacramento is $797 on Continental and $217 on America West, even though it's the same airplane," says Terry Tripler, publisher of Airfare-Report, corn, in Minneapolis (www.rulesoftheair.com).

Northwest has had a long and successful association with KLM, but the new alliances may not be so smooth, says Joseph Berman, senior aviation analyst at Avmark, an aviation research firm. Berman predicts that, as partners, Continental and Northwest will get along well because their equipment is similar and there's little overlap in their routes. But American and US Airways may have a bumpier relationship because of differences in their aircraft and frequency of service.