Originally Posted by
tth6133
If by long haul you mean transpacific flights out of SEA, there're plenty of competition to DL: JL, HU, KE, NH, MU, MF, BR, CI with the first three being AS partners.
But JL doesn't fly out of SEA, so now what was SEA-XXX is SEA-SFO/LAX/YVR-NRT-XXX for a number of routes, or SEA-PEK/ICN-XXX.
Not to mention that DL also flies to AMS and CDG, so now you're flying FI (not great J product) or BA (not great hub if you're connecting), or you're back to adding a connection to YVR/SFO/LAX to hop on AF/KL. I'm not just talking TPAC, TATL counts too.
Whereas if you stick with DL and just credit everything to them (and stick with DL on SEA domestic) you still get a bunch of DL nonstops... oh, and KE/CI as partners too.
This is getting way way way WAY off topic though...