CalanMan

I wouldn't hold your breath on that. Despite ashill's assertion that

That's really only true if you either include the hubs that VX brought or consider LAX an AS hub pre-merger, which is reasonable, but isn't exactly what we're thinking of here. LAX had a lot of AS connectivity to Latin America and not much else (the notable exception being DC). That leaves us with ANC, SEA and PDX as their true hubs, in the traditional sense, and AF/KLM doesn't have service to any of them, nor does Cathay Pacific, nor does JAL, Aeromexico, Fiji, LAN or Qantas.

Adding the VX hubs changes that, which is totally awesome, but I don't think that this partnership is any indication that Finnair will be adding service to SEA. Though I would love to be wrong about that.

eponymous_coward

Cathay, JAL, Air France and KLM don't serve SFO? Do you mean SEA?

jinglish

That was my guess. And AF actually did serve SEA until five years ago, when DL took over the route.

sdsearch

Except that AY on aa.com seems to be plagued by tons of "phantom" availability (availability that turns out not to actually exist once you try to book, even though it's returned in a search):
Let's hope at the very least that any AY availability that AS shows is real.

And if AS flyers can find the elusive real AY availablity in a straightfoward manner, while AA flyers (using only aa.com) have to sort through the gigantic "phatom" availability litter heap, that could give a bit of advantage to AS flyers.

Smiley90

AF&KLM also both still serve YVR, a quick drive/hop

3Cforme

IMHO you're stretching with that. There are a ~100 million AAdvantage members already disillusioned with AA's poor saver award availability, BA's fees, and who don't even think of Iberia because it isn't bookable online. Real AY award availability goes very quickly.

WhIteSidE

As others have stated these are mostly unlikely. S7, SriLankan and Malaysia don't fly to the americas (indeed S7 mostly operates a route schedule that wouldn't be too surprising from soviet times -- Russian neighbors and a few flights to European capitals).

RJ and AB do fly to the US, but mostly to AA hubs and not that frequently. They don't need AS feed and they're not going to do anything to rock the boat.

QR is the one that might be willing to partner with AS, particularly if their announced routes to SFO and LAS are actually launched. On the other hand, QR is a horrible partner even in OneWorld (go ahead, just try and redeem an award on them. Also, AA EXP? Forget about it, no first class lounge access in Doha for you).

For AS, expansion seems to be north south flying into Mexico and Central America. Even with more of an east coast presence from VX, AS would be insane to start transatlantic flights, even if the MAX will technically have the range. Transpac flights are out too. So where do they expand? Mexico, Central America and maybe even northern South America (Colombia, etc). There's a lot of potential there. Interjet partnership, anyone?

CalanMan

Bah, sorry, yes, I meant SEA. Fixed above. Just a brainfart. I definitely didn't forget that SEA was an AS hub.

ashill

I did mean to include LAX and SFO as AS hubs, meaning airports out of which AS provides some feed that is of some use to the partners in filling their flights that the partner can't easily get from other partners. Obviously their utility will be improved once the VX operation is folded into AS. But my main point is just that airlines which don't serve any AS airports aren't likely to see utility in an AS partnership, much as we might like AS to add overseas partners.

CalanMan

Well, I think you could say that SFO is also quick hop from SEA. It's about an hour longer, but it doesn't require any immigration, and often has much better saver award availability on AS than SEA-YVR, and certainly more frequencies.

YVR also has flights from Cathay, Aeromexico, JAL, Korean, and BA. I love Mileage Plan and its partners, and haven't had a lot of trouble with using them to get to the international destinations where I want to go, even if it occasionally means buying a positioning flight to/from YVR, SFO or LAX.

YVR is a good airport and an easy connection, but that's different than having partner flights into Alaska's Seattle home base, and Alaska definitely partners with lots of carriers that don't fly to Seattle.

CalanMan

Yes, this I totally agree with.

eponymous_coward

AF used to fly to SEA, though (before DL took the SkyTeam badged service over). Given that AF==AF/KL...

I would agree, though, that the Oneworld international presence at SEA is pathetic and sad compared to other alliances:

*A: LH, BR, OZ, AC, NH
ST: DL (hub), KE, AM
OW: BA

SEA is a viable airport if you're a *A/ST international traveler, especially to Asia. OW not so much. The problem is that AS has partnered more with OW than ST/*A. With DL pulling out your nonstop longhaul options out of SEA are mostly oddballs (HU, FI, DE) save for BA/EK/KE.

Smiley90

Of course - I was merely adding it to the list of possible connection points for airlines that don't serve SEA.

MAH4546

Only as a stopgap due to a pilot shortage. And Iberia is fine.

CIVET FIVE

So has anyone flown yet on an AY-coded BA WT+ ticket? I have a full-fare W class (booked that way because corporate TA), which AS thinks is only a 25% earner on AY, while I would obviously prefer to earn at 150% as its BA metal.

This sounds like an instance of saving the BP and send in for retroactive credit