yyzflyer

Air Canada and United Airlines Expand Relationship to Make Transborder Travel Easier, With More Choice (newswire.ca)

Air Canada and United Airlines sign deal to expand relationship (msn.com)

From the press release:

Under the joint business agreement, subject to compliance with U.S. and Canadian regulatory and antitrust requirements, the two airlines will now be able to:

• Coordinate their networks and schedules, enabling the carriers to offer customers more choice, including more flights throughout the day and more access to each airline's seat inventory.
• Enhance codeshare on transborder flights, excluding certain U.S. leisure markets and territories. The carriers anticipate customers will be able to connect to 46 transborder codeshare destinations with more than 400 daily frequencies in 2022 – with opportunities to add more codeshare destinations for domestic routes within Canada and the U.S.
• Sell seats on each other's transborder flights and share revenue on flights between hub markets (where regulatory authorities and antitrust requirements allow), allowing the carriers to grow their overall capacities.
• Align customer policies for greater consistency and enable the seamless provision of onboard products, establish airport co-locations where available and provide extra value to each carriers' frequent flyer programs.
• Allow the two carriers to work closer together to advance their sustainability objectives.

The Lev

Not a lot of details of what this truly means - in some ways it sounds like it brings us back to say five years ago when there were way more offerings of UA flights on the AC website.

This drew my attention:
"Align customer policies for greater consistency and enable the seamless provision of onboard products, establish airport co-locations where available and provide extra value to each carriers' frequent flyer programs"

I wonder if this will mean:

• UA premium members can get free access to AC preferred Y seats and AC premium members get free access to UA Economy Plus
• When we book a Flex fare on AC.com on a connecting flight it maps to a UA fare that actually gives us 100% miles.
• SE's get a free drink and snack on UA flights

lcohen999

United has gotten much better in recent years. That said, a lot of their flights with J out of YYZ are usually regional planes with no real meals (unless you are lucky to get a 737). The only thing that seems to always happen is

Land in ORD, 25 minute walk to the next gate
Land in DEN, 35 minute walk to the next gate

E+, moving to T2 at DEN would be great starts. I know it won't count towards MM status but given the 2 year loss on travel, it would be nice to see AC extend that somehow a little bit. I am sure none of the JV will save pax any money but if it means better integration, I am all for it.

While I am typing this, it would be great to show up at the airport on a UA flight on a 016 ticket and swap to a AC plane if it was leaving a bit earlier (which really doesn't happen much)

mahasamatman

And I was thinking the opposite. Until AC gets E+, I try to minimize my time on them.

Won't happen. E+ has value, while "preferred" seats don't.

canadiancow

I think you misunderstand what a Preferred Seat is on AC.

It's the equivalent of E+. It has substantially more leg room.

ChrisA330

Curious what's the difference between E+ and AC's Preferred Seats.

Adam Smith

Indeed. What a useless announcement.

If that's the case, will they actually be priced reasonably? I frequently see UA options that I can book with AC that cost multiples of what UA would charge to book it directly with them.

pprrff

Oh man if only that would mean AC would move to T2 at DCA. Right now they're not connected airside so using the UA lounge is a pain and Terminal A/1 has nothing (except for convenient short security lines)

gigafishing

Lots of fluff. Maybe it means more partner award availability for each other's flights, maybe. Until they announce tangible benefits for each other's elites aside from *A Gold this doesn't seem all that exciting.



Perhaps this is paving the way for the fact that the MLL at EWR is gone forever and will be co-operated by the United Club in the new Terminal A as rumored?

The Lev

Not much difference for narrow bodies:
A320 -- AC: 35" (36 seats), UA : 35" (42 seats)
B737 -- AC: 34" (54 seats) UA: 34" (42-54 seats)

Widebodies is the big difference where AC's "Preferred" are limited to just the bulkhead seats whereas a United 777 can have over 100 E+ seats. But a bulkhead AC seat will be as good or better than a UA E+ seat.

trek604

I hope AC does not produce a Economy Basic fare like UA where FF's can't even select seats and those aren't worth any AQM/AQS.

HerpaYvr

Living on the border or near the border, those cheap basic fare flights on regional jet where you always get a window or aisle are not so bad with flights less than an hour. Those fares are perfect for quick trips to a ball game in a US city

ChrisA330

Thanks, although my question was slightly on the rhetorical side

trek604

True but was thinking about the amount of 737's now operating with unavoidable middle seats

ezefllying

I don't think Air Canada has any incentive to move to the B/C concourses at DCA. United treats DCA as an O/D market and doesn't sell connections through there, so neither carrier will perceive any synergies from co-locating at DCA. Plus, the DCA United Club is small and already at capacity, so UA won't want to share it with AC. And United's DCA gates are some of the worst in their system — a crowded mess that makes LGA circa 2010 look spacious. If AC is in B/C, they won't be that convenient to the United Club, if they can get gate space at all.