<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by ronin:
I need to book travel for four of us in November, CLE to SFO. I look at orbitz, and see that CO is about $432. OK, at least we'll get 4400 miles, plus elite premium , etc. I also happen to look at Delta- $128 round trip, via Cincinnati- same dates, nearly the same times. $1200 savings. Without the elite miles, I won't even look twice.</font>
Over $400 CLE-SFO? It's certainly not a Q or T fare, so normal rules would apply. If CO matched that DL fare, it would be a T, no doubt.
I don't like it, because a lot of the "aww geez, we gotta match WN" fares from CLE are Q fares.
This "test balloon" raises some interesting questions. Will CO be able to exclude K and V fares on NW/KL? Will CO be able to exclude the lowest fare categories on AS? Partnerships are great, but the logistics of this plan might be too unwieldy to implement. Or it might drive some customers into the arms of the partners 100%. Should be interesting to watch....