Not 100% sure how I feel about a new non-OneWorld, non-EQM-earning partner. You only have to go back ~8 years to get to when all international partners became EQM-earning. (Era/Ravn never got on board.) When I started flying with AS, I remember being frustrated that BA, CX, and QF only earned RDM.

I think I'd be more concerned if they'd announced that a OneWorld member wouldn't be earning EQM at all. (Outside of S7 at the moment, obviously.)

This feels to me like TN is starting up SEA service and wanting to get a slice of the AS PNW base, without feeling they need to spend the marketing money to buy EQM from AS. Should AS have held firm and not allowed them to go half in? Maybe. Or maybe TN was ready to do the same thing with DL, who already has a super complex tiered set of partner levels.