tonei

That seems like the most likely potential new partner to me – Mexico is really the only place that AS has enough destinations to be able to connect outside the US, and Interjet‘s focus cities and US destinations align reasonably well with AS’ route network. AS not serving MEX could be an issue though.

(Volaris could also work route wise — they fly to SEA, PDX, SFO, and LAX —but since they’re a large LCC and have no frequent flier program to speak of, a partnership seems unlikely).

I also wouldn’t be surprised if American (or Oneworld more broadly) sought to strengthen their relationship with Interjet in light of LATAM’s departure. AA, BA, IB, JL, and QR have codeshare agreements with Interjet.

I imagine Avianca and Copa are off the table unless their proposed three-way JV with United falls apart.

sullim4

My first thought when I heard about this news was getting going on a booking to SCL or EZE. I've been wanting to go there for some time and I just get the feeling that LAN is going to go away.

I don't think this is the straw that breaks the camel's back, but AS's strategy of being a free agent is starting to show serious cracks. I just got back from TLV for business this weekend and I couldn't book El Al due to Shabbat and Rosh Hashana holiday. I had to take LH, which is the first time I've flown them for something other than intra-European flights. I was quite pleased with the soft and hard products, particularly in comparison to BA which both run 747s to SEA. The connection experience at FRA was a lot better than BA's at LHR as well.

They need to partner up with one of the alliances... I'm having a hard time cobbling together itineraries with their partners when they participate with just a fraction of an alliance's partners. For instance, I can't fly AA domestically or Iberia internationally, but I can fly BA. I can fly Condor to FRA (who knows how long this will last), but I can't connect on LH and earn miles. I can fly EI to Dublin, but their connection times with the SEA flight are very hard and the only other option in DUB is really RyanAir. South America is likely going to get a lot tougher as well. I continue to think OneWorld is the best option for AS...

eponymous_coward

LOL, "Hey, AA/UA/DL, can you make us, a direct competitor in your markets, stronger by allowing us into your alliance? We, uh, promise that we, uh, won't compete with you? Yeah, that's the ticket!"

It's simply never going to happen because you are literally expecting someone to take action that is directly against their best interest as an airline. UA has no reason to make life easier for AS customers who want to fly California-NYC. Neither does DL. Neither does AA- they have no reason to want to give AS customers miles, benefits or baggage on LAX-JFK or DFW-SEA. If they did they wouldn't have gotten rid of the expanded partnership back in 2017. There is zero chance AS is going to be let in as a full OW member without AA's assent, and there's no sign they want to assent to that- all indications are that they (correctly) view AS as a competitor in key markets, not as someone they need for Pac NW feed.

Eastbay1K

And so, as the person most affected by this, the one who has redeemed 2M++ AS miles on Lan Chile / LAN / LATAM, here's my take.

1) I've been at this miles and points game for over 33 years, so I just gotta roll with the punches.
2) If you want to redeem a LATAM award, do it sooner rather than later. This applies to all airlines and all the excess miles and points in our banks.
3) I can't stress about how my life may be different in a year or two with what may or may not become of the partnership. I'll adjust if and when there's a change. I may not be happy about it, but there's not a thing I can currently do about it.

Like sands through the hourglass, so are the miles of our lives.

eponymous_coward

Good news, you will soon be able to redeem 2M++ DL SkyPesos™ for a single J one way ticket SFO-SCL.

bkkth

I am not sure how much of a partner LATAM really is. I've tried to book using AS miles a number of times without success. I finally got a LATAM credit card and have been building miles and also sometimes paying for tickets. Booking a mileage ticket on the LATAM website doesn't seem to be a problem for me, although the price in miles varies considerably.
And if you have the LATAM credit card, you receive a 20% discount of the first ticket purchase of the year.