Delta/ Alaska Deal?
 

On the Delta board, there's speculation about a code share deal with Alaska. (Sorry I'm not clever enough to post a link.) Has anybody heard anything? Thanks

Here's the thread in the DL forum

[QUOTE]Originally posted by ConnFlyer:
[B]Delta, Alaska Air Prepare To Ink Partnership Deal

Aviation Daily 10/17/2003

Delta and Alaska Airlines, as early as today, are expected to unveil a new marketing and domestic code-share partnership, sources tell The DAILY. Delta has been looking to boost access to West Coast destinations, and Alaska has been working to win East Coast passengers with new transcontinental routes.

Whoa! If this is true, it's huge. How long can AS play both sides like this? They are in deep with oneWorld already, especially having just added new partner CX. Now this would also cement their involvement with SkyTeam. I hope they can pull it off and remain a partner with the OW airlines...

AS is not part of the oneworld alliance. We partner with oneworld partners, but are not in oneworld.

Hmmm...I am not sure how I feel about this possible code-share idea with DL. Wouldn't AA get a bit bugged by this arrangement?

Big deal. NW already codeshares on AS metal to a much larger extent than any other airline.

ALK (AlaskaAor Group) is independent and does what it so d@mn well chooses.

I know that. I said that Alaska was in deep with oneWorld, which is true. They are partnered with AA, BA, QF, LA and CX, leaving out only AY, IB, Aer Lingus and (soon) LX.

My point, as also stated by PointWeasel was that there are potential bumps ahead with the oneWorld partners (especially AA) in light of this new deal, if true.

In regard to the point about NW, was AS partnered with them before AA or the other way around?

Long long before. I was earning NW miles for AS flights in the early/mid '90s. AA's partnership with AS came about after AA started to dismember the QQ operations which competed with AS. Definitely no AA partnership before late '90s.

Personally I hope not as Delta seams to give an image that they do not appreciate their customers and frequent flyers. I would hate it to rub off on to Alaska.

Actually, AS/AA had probably the original "code share" situation 15+ years ago on services from DFW. I don't know what/who's mileage was earned when flying the shared service.

Interesting. Way before my time. I imagine that lasted until AA bought AirCal (1987) and didn't help when AA bought QQ in the mid '90s after bringing it into the AAdvantage fold.

True...but if we gain more possibilities to the frequent flyer program that is good, right?

But at some point this code-sharing thing is going to result in basically 2 airlines and is that not anti-competitive at some point?

It would appear this isn't a major concern of the current executive administration. Otherwise the CO-DL-NW deal most likely wouldn;t have "flown".

I was just trying to recall the details of how that all worked. I never did "the AS/AA interchange" personally, but IIRC, Alaska and American operated ANC-SEA-DFW as codeshare route starting in the early 80s. What was interesting is that a mixture of AS and AA 727-200s plied the routes, but I believe only AS crew flew the SEA-ANC sector while AA crew flew the SEA-DFW portion. I know by the time I was flying AS regularly (early 90s), SEA-ANC was operated by AS crews on AS metal. However, I think AS metal continued to visit Dallas into the mid 90s.

I believe AS/AA had a similar agreement on the SEA-ORD route for a time in the early 90s. I'm not sure AS metal ever made its way to ORD, but it was definitely a codeshare route for AS.

[This message has been edited by EIPremier (edited 10-20-2003).]

DL already killed their FF program; they've pressured CO into doing the same; they're applying similar pressure to NW.

DL is bad news for AS and the rest of the FF community.