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Alaska / AS joining oneworld 31 Mar 2021, AA launching SEA-BLR/LHR

Old Feb 13, 2020, 8:29 am
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Alaska Airlines is expected join the oneworld Alliance as a full member summer 2021 end of 2020, pending regulatory approval*.
  • Alaska Airlines intends to join the oneworld® alliance, the world's fastest growing and most highly rated global airline alliance, by summer 2021, which will connect Alaska guests to more than 1,200 destinations worldwide.
  • American will launch the first service from Seattle (SEA) to Bangalore, India (BLR) beginning October 25 2020. A new American route from SEA to the global business hub London Heathrow (LHR) will begin flying in March 2021.
  • The airlines will continue their domestic codeshare that offers customers hassle-free booking and travel between the two networks. The codeshare will expand to include international routes from Los Angeles (LAX) and SEA.
  • Alaska and American loyalty members will enjoy benefits across both airlines, including the ability to earn and use miles on both airlines’ full networks, elite status reciprocity and lounge access to nearly 50 American Admirals Club lounges worldwide and seven Alaska Lounges in the U.S.
*The implementation of the expanded relationship and other arrangements described herein is subject to the negotiation and execution of definitive documentation and governmental review.

link to earning EQM, EQD, EQS and Award Miles flying Alaska Airlines as AS marketed flights. (If flying as AA marketed flight (codeshare), earnings are as if flying AA.) As of April 1, 2020.

Seattle’s first-ever direct flight to BLR will be available for purchase later this month, with daily flights beginning October 2020. Daily service between SEA and LHR will be available for purchase in May 2020 for flights starting March 2021.

link to full release, 13 Feb 2020
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Alaska / AS joining oneworld 31 Mar 2021, AA launching SEA-BLR/LHR

Old Feb 13, 2020, 9:40 am
  #61  
 
Join Date: Aug 2008
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Originally Posted by rvolkcpa
As a Seattle-based AAdvantage member, I am thrilled with this announcement. We sometimes have had to take very long routings from SEA to earn AAdvantage miles. Having AS as an option again is great. I'm also looking forward to being able to fly from PAE and earn AAdvantage miles.

I echo this sentiment indeed!! Based in SFO, and having to "make it work" for west coast flights, like SFO-PHX-LAS, SFO-LAX-YVR, kinda get old but I endured it!! Now, I'm much more ready to stick with AA earning perks rather than go with UA or AS alone... Missing VX bigtime!!
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Old Feb 13, 2020, 9:50 am
  #62  
 
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Originally Posted by joeyE
I really wonder how long this has been in the works? Did AA dissolve the old Alaska partnership solely to leverage Alaska into better terms for this new one? Or is this only an opportunistic response to the Delta/LATAM thing...
I like that AA could change their perspective from just five months ago on AS. Good on them. Still, I feel this is more about getting traffic up on routes including from LAX as AA indicated to work than pushing against Delta because it is going to be very hard for AA to do international at SEA even with AS ground support. AA can try to fight DL, but if it becomes costly, AA could lose quickly.

I like how AA can launch this route with more corporate support and less marketing than perhaps before.
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Old Feb 13, 2020, 10:00 am
  #63  
 
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Originally Posted by rasheed
However, I feel this is more of a temporary plan until AA can acquire AS.
I really hope that is not the case, hope AS will remain as a separate airlines. AA does not have good track record concerning what happened after the merger. There is not much of what used to be AirCal in current AA system, there is not much of what used to be Reno Air in current AA system, beside trans-Atlantic flights there is not much of domestic portion of TWA in current AA, look at STL today. What used to be US Airways is still around today at AA, fingers crossed. I don't want to see AS ended up like AirCal, Reno Air, or domestic portion of TWA. For that reason hoping AA and AS will not merge.
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Old Feb 13, 2020, 10:04 am
  #64  
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We shouldn't get too exciting about the news.
Its most likely that AA takes over the second (almost) daily flight LHR-SEA from BA. Three oneworld flights SEA-LHR would have been an overkill.
So no increase in real seat capacity! However, pax will have a joice of a better J hard product and better lounges at LHR (T3 lounges are way better and less crowded than their T5 counterparts).

AA has a JVA with BA -> hence, even the slot may even come from BA.

<off-topic discussion>

Last edited by JY1024; Feb 13, 2020 at 5:46 pm Reason: redacted off-topic discussion
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Old Feb 13, 2020, 10:07 am
  #65  
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Originally Posted by rasheed
I like that AA could change their perspective from just five months ago on AS. Good on them. Still, I feel this is more about getting traffic up on routes including from LAX as AA indicated to work than pushing against Delta because it is going to be very hard for AA to do international at SEA even with AS ground support. AA can try to fight DL, but if it becomes costly, AA could lose quickly.

I like how AA can launch this route with more corporate support and less marketing than perhaps before.
I’m not sure AA changed their perspective; AA and AS were required to distance themselves by regulators when the Virgin America acquisition was approved. With AS joining oneworld, that pretty much changes to a full oneworld membership (not oneworld connect, as some had speculated) and all one world passenger reciprocal treatment.

It doesn’t look like international support is seen as much of a problem by AA, with new flights to BLR and LHR. BA et al do international longhaul flying without much apparent problems.
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Old Feb 13, 2020, 10:08 am
  #66  
 
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so why does AA say this?

Originally Posted by JJeffrey
Of course not, just like you cannot combine 10k BA Avios + 15k AA miles for a single 25k AA award.

The comment is pretty self explanatory, effective immediately you can redeem AS miles on AA flights.
from aa.com:

Alaska Airlines

Special notice

Mileage redemption on Alaska Airlines is ending effective February 29, 2020. All award travel must be booked and ticketed by February 29, 2020. Travel is valid for 1 year after ticketing date and must be flown no later than February 28, 2021. Ticket changes will not be allowed after February 29, 2020.
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Old Feb 13, 2020, 10:11 am
  #67  
 
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Will this be the only current BLR nonstop from the USA? Have there been other BLR/USA nonstops in the past?
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Old Feb 13, 2020, 10:27 am
  #68  
 
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Obviously great news for us West Coast flyers.

So far, the news I’ve seen focuses on AS bennies on AA flights I wonder how soon AA elites get baggage and boarding privileges again on AS flights?
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Old Feb 13, 2020, 10:36 am
  #69  
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OMG!! What a nice surprise!! I cannot not believe it!!!
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Old Feb 13, 2020, 10:36 am
  #70  
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Originally Posted by billgrates3
So why does AA say this?

from aa.com:

Alaska Airlines

Special notice

Mileage redemption on Alaska Airlines is ending effective February 29, 2020. All award travel must be booked and ticketed by February 29, 2020. Travel is valid for 1 year after ticketing date and must be flown no later than February 28, 2021. Ticket changes will not be allowed after February 29, 2020.
Because this is AA we're talking about, this news is only a few hrs old and they haven't updated aa.com accordingly.
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Old Feb 13, 2020, 10:47 am
  #71  
 
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Originally Posted by JJeffrey
Because this is AA we're talking about, this news is only a few hrs old and they haven't updated aa.com accordingly.
my bad ... how could I have forgotten the utter incompetence of AA's IT bozos?
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Old Feb 13, 2020, 10:52 am
  #72  
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Originally Posted by fgirard
And, AS is in T6 at LAX, so with AA in 4 and 5, one can walk between 4-5-6 as well as Bradley.
That is correct. You can walk from T4 to Tom Bradley. It's very easy for you. No need to re-clear at security.
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Old Feb 13, 2020, 11:04 am
  #73  
 
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Originally Posted by warakorn
We shouldn't get too exciting about the news.
Its most likely that AA takes over the second (almost) daily flight LHR-SEA from BA. Three oneworld flights SEA-LHR would have been an overkill.
So no increase in real seat capacity! However, pax will have a joice of a better J hard product and better lounges at LHR (T3 lounges are way better and less crowded than their T5 counterparts).

AA has a JVA with BA -> hence, even the slot may even come from BA.
I too wonder if the SEA-LHR flight will be at the cost of one of the BA flights, if so I hope they keep the 787-10 frequency from BA. Those flights tend to be expensive and full, so perhaps it will be in addition to the 2x BA flights but if I had to bet I'd wager on BA dropping one of their flights. On the plus side, AA J seats >>>> BA J on the 777/747 and only getting 20% EQDs on tickets spendy tickets.
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Old Feb 13, 2020, 11:16 am
  #74  
 
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Originally Posted by Kacee
I suspect they are hoping to pick up one-stop traffic from SFO/SJC/OAK. AS is the second largest carrier at SFO and has a strong presence at OAK and SJC as well.
And SAN.
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Old Feb 13, 2020, 11:30 am
  #75  
 
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Originally Posted by JJeffrey
Of course not, just like you cannot combine 10k BA Avios + 15k AA miles for a single 25k AA award.

The comment is pretty self explanatory, effective immediately you can redeem AS miles on AA flights.
Which of course was already true. The only change they had to make was cancelling their plans to end the partnership on Feb 29.

Presumably that made this change very easy to implement, which is why they could do it so quickly. Reinstating mileage earning should also be easy (especially for AS since they just have to remove the inhibition on crediting AA domestic flights, but AA also still has the crediting mechanism for codeshare flights at least), so the spring 2020 timeline stated by AS isn’t surprising.
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