sfozrhfco

Maybe something for the medium to long term but counting on this is pure folly for the next few years. They already have their hands full with VX and dealing with competition on the West Coast. The East Coast already has a lot more incumbent players. AS is giving up on premium traffic between the coasts already. It would take a lot of resources they don't have to open up an operation of any size outside of the West Coast.

alphaeagle

Missy did answer it in the consolidated questions thread, no miles will be earned on domestic flights when connecting to an international flight.

All these partners with AS and almost no benefits with any of them. Pretty disappointed with Alaska right now. This is a huge loss. Other airlines cover most of Alaska's route network, so it may make sense to switch. Will lose some mileage earning (the flights AS would have otherwise operated) but would still get access to OK seats worldwide and other benefits.

ryandc99

Wow. This is a complete gutting of the AA relationship with this. I am glad I moved on to Delta.

felicidad76

I am still beyond words. I assumed that when part of international ticket you would get miles. I fly almost business so this is a no no. I have to seriously think it over.

lg20

What are the baggage rules for a flight that starts with an AS marketed AA segment? I tend to fly AS SEA-ORD connecting to AA ORD-CID, sold as an AS codeshare. I assume outbound as an MVPG I would get two bags free. On the return, since I start the trip with AA, but on an AS codeshare, would I have to pay for my bags?

channa

So then you have to put your AS number in there, get credit for the INTL legs only, then later contact AA for AA credit for the domestic legs? An administrative headache on top of it...

PV_Premier

AS is really doubling down on being the go-to airline for the west coast. Perhaps this is a viable strategy, but the competition from WN and DL is formidable and the latter offers a comprehensive home-metal international network and a true alliance.

A compounding issue is that while there are a lot of domestic road warriors, there aren't that many high value ones who concentrate 90% of their flying in the ANC-LAX corridor. The VX acquisition isn't going to allow for a rapid expansion in the east except for JFK, DC, and FLL.

ashill

Most likely. I hope that AA and AS will in fact allow the reciprocal elite checked bag fee waiver to continue on codeshare flights, since they're treating codeshares quite differently than partner prime flights (a situation that has never been the case with AS's partnerships before). However, I don't know of any reciprocal checked bag fee waiver in the US that has been like that before and there's no indication in the materials from either AA or AS that this will be the case. So I'd be pretty sure that it will be the standard situation: your ticketed allowance and bag fees will be determined by the ticketing carrier, and any waivers of checked bag fees will be applied by the airline you check in with each day (ie the operating airline for your first segment).

rustykettel

From the blog:

Points Scrounger

Can you really split an itinerary (PNR) like that?

PV_Premier

if certain flights on your record come back "declined" for credit from one carrier, you can submit them to another carrier for consideration, generally speaking.

ashill

It's noteworthy that this takes effect on January 1, 2018, the day VX's Elevate program ceases to exist. So either AS thinks that their network is now viable enough for their primary customer base (those based between SAN and AK inclusive) that they don't need AA as a full partner anymore or AA isn't willing to hand out miles and status benefits to the much-larger set of CA-based flyers who had been VX customers but are now AS customers (since CA-based flyers are AA's market in a way that WA, OR, and AK-based flyers aren't).

B787938

Premier status match just submitted to UA. Buh bye Alaska.

channa

You wouldn't "split" it, you would post the declined segments to another carrier manually.

lg20

My read on this whole situation is that this is another requirement for merger approval, since it matches with the codeshare changes on AA flights. There's not really a great business case from either AA or AS to do this. I don't know that there's a ton of AA fliers that really just credit everything to AS, and if there are, they aren't costing them a ton. The reciprocal elite benefits can't cost more than the drive in revenue, so it's kinda a lose lose for both. That's why it seems as if this is more a ramification of merger approval.

AS isn't yet situated to be a full competitor to the big three, so hopefully this pushes them to do more non-NW regional flying, since that's really the biggest loss here. Or, find some way to make AS codeshares on AA have the old benefits. They're usually expensive enough.