commavia

Ha, yeah - fun times. As I've said elsewhere - I totally get Delta's calculus when they cancelled the interline. In effect, they thought the "price" they were paying - in the form of disproportionately more IRROP reaccomm's from AA - was too high for what they were getting back in return. But that's the thing about insurance policies - which is, in a sense, what interlines are: you never really know for sure what they're worth. Looking back in hindsight, while it's impossible to ever really know, I'd be curious to know - since last August's IT meltdown - how that whole 5:1 ratio of AA-to-Delta interline reaccomm's would have changed had the interline have still been there. Something tells me it would have come closer to parity.

Now in this case, I totally get that AA's flights - especially in and out of ATL - are probably all full anyway given spring break and Delta flyers self-booking onto AA. But that said, regardless of what the financial analysts at headquarters concluded, I'm quite sure that Delta's operations people - gate and res agents - would love the option of even just a few seats on AA today, especially since, as already stated, the airline that most overlaps Delta in and around ATL in the southeastern U.S. is AA. With thousands of people disrupted, every seat helps.