One more case of partners not talking to each other

Yesterday I talked about how United and US Air couldn't get their boarding pass formats in sync as I started on United and then picked up a US Air flight to get me to my final destination. Well today, on my return trip, the roles were reversed and I started on US Air and finished on United, but more problems ensued.

Last night, when I tried to check in to my flights via United's website it let me check in to the second leg on United but would not check me in on the first leg via US Air. The message told me to check in for this leg at US Air's website. So if United is first and US Air is second, United can check you into both flights, but forget it if it is the other way.

Trying to get everything done before heading to the airport, I went to the US Air website and tried to check in. It did suggest I could check in to the US Air flight, but then failed to complete the transaction with some sort of undefined error. This forced me to get my US Air boarding pass at the airport, killing the whole point of on-line check-in.

One more rant on US Air / United integration (or lack thereof). When I landed after my US Air flight and checked the screens for the gate for the United flight, my flight was not listed. In its place was a different United flight number (clearly marked as the UA flight number) going to my destination at my scheduled time. I made the assumption that this was my flight and either the flight number was wrong or the flight number had changed and headed for the gate noted. As happened last time, the US Air screen was wrong and when I got to the gate, it was the right gate with the right flight number.

I know the airlines are under tremendous cost pressures, but when you decide to do something you might as well do it right and make the technology work for you and not against you.

Am I being too hard on the airlines? Let me know or share your thoughts on this topic.