This thread reminded me of a question I had asked myself when this policy was first announced. Knowing that Delta had decided to do this for some bottom line $$ reason, I was trying to understand why DL might get more or less for a ticket on a particular flight covered by the JV, depending on who sold the ticket.

My sense is that there are probably a number of variables at play, including the formula for splitting JV revenues (i.e., maybe the marketing carrier gets a better slice than the operating carrier?) and the specific price that each JV partner sets for the flight (DL might not like that SM members try to book a lower priced partner coded DL metal flight). I don't play the game enough with ST to know if the second factor is significant, but with OW carriers/fares we play this game all the time, sometimes getting on a codeshare flight for a fraction of the cost of what the actual operator is seeking.


If DL is trying to undermine the ability of flyers to do that (or even just penalizing them under the SM program), then it starts to look like Delta is trying to effectively set the price for what its customers should have to pay the JV, not price fixing exactly, but definitely interfering with the element of price competition that should be present under the JV. I also bet there was some verbiage in the initial filing that DL made in support of the JV that touts the benefits of frequent flyer program recognition under the JV, that is undermined by the MQD development.

It makes sense that the DOT monitors this.