Book Alaska directly or AA codeshare?
 

Looking at a non-stop on Alaska that is the same price booked either directly through Alaska or through AA as a codeshare ticket.

I am AA gold traveling with 3 others.

If I book through AA (Alaska metal) does the group get 4 free checked bags?

It looks like if I book directly through Alaska the Ruby benefits are 2 free checked bags for me but nothing for companions.

Other reasons to book one way or the other?

TIA

I'm pretty sure that your baggage allowance -- and those of your companions -- will be determined by the rules of the operating carrier, not the marketing carrier.

If you book under the AA codeshare flight number, you will earn 7 miles/LPs per dollar of pre-tax fare. If you book under the AS flight number, your earnings will be based on distance and fare-booking code, plus a 40% bonus for your AAdvantage Gold status.

In general, it is always best to avoid a codeshare booking when possible. Less chance of ticketing issues, schedule change weirdness with partner flights, etc. Especially if there is not a significant price difference or mileage earning factor. I'd say book directly with Alaska.

Generally massively more LP's/miles from booking through Alaska with your AAFFN. AS awards based upon mileage, and that goes to your LP/AA miles. I got nearly 10,000LP for a domestic first flight AS DFW-SEA-LAX R/T at $525, where if I'd done it via an AA codeshare purchase I'd get just 3,600LP as a Gold.

Given the question raised by the OP re: checked-baggage allowance, I think that we can safely assume that the OP will be traveling in Economy. AAdvantage earning chart for AS-coded flights here:

https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...c02481c9c2.png

Thanks, all - sounds like booking direct with AS is the right move. Appreciate the input

Don't want to start a new threat but this should fit under this. I just noticed that not all flights that are operated by AS that were normally codesharable with AA are available to book e.g., AS 383 (SEA - SFO) is normally bookable on AA numbers and up until what I noticed now you were able to buy all seats (except basic economy) if they were available on AS. But now I'm seeing that these are available on AS (both in economy and first) but not available to purchase as AA codeshare. So it seems that now you can buy just a subset of seats/fares as AA codeshare (e.g., AS 383 pops up as AA 9342 on April 14th). That would be a major decline in benefits as I valued a lot that I can basically buy any seat on AS as AA codeshare provided that the flight was codeshared (some were not). Anybody knows if this is just post AS/HA integration mess or are they going to start limiting codesharnig and slowly dissolve the collaboration? Given that I'm based between SEA/SFO and ATL and has been flying AA for years that would be a major bummer for me.

AA codeshare options on AS are often frustrating and asymmetric (SFO-PDX is mostly just 2 evening flights across the calendar, with many more flights in the opposite direction), and can vary over time. It’s annoying to book a codeshare, have it get dropped in one schedule update, and then get brought back the next (so contacting AA is necessary to get rebooked back onto the original flight).

Another consideration if you think you might cancel is that if you book via aa you get an aa credit and if you book via as you get an aa credit. You can also use aa credits for the codeshare or as credits for their prime flight if you have any.

Your post is a bit confusing. It looks your issue is that you are able to book a fare as a codeshare but not select specific seats when booking on aa.com? Note that AA and AS are not allowed to codeshare on all routes due to a consent agreement with the DOJ which forbids codesharing on certain "overlap" routes -- https://www.justice.gov/atr/case-doc...5971/dl?inline
This agreement was for 10 years, so it should expire at the end of this year.

At any rate, you are not actually purchasing a specific seat on a flight when purchasing a fare on a flight. Yes, it's frustating that you aren't able to select a seat, but that's not really the same thing. Further, when you purchase a "fare" on a codeshare flight, the fare is actually the codeshare airline's fare, not the operating airline's fare. Each carrier mantains their own separate fare filings on routes. Also, since AA and AS don't have antitrust immunity, they are aren't allowed to coordinate fare filings on routes. While they may end up matching each others fares and competitors fares on routes, they are not allowed to internally discuss or pre-coordinate this in any way. Also, it's not at all unusual to limit seat availability on flights to codeshare partners (as below). This has been standard practice for a number of decades (you can find a number of articles on the internet about codesharing and how it works).

https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...27b2fc1503.png

I see. Maybe they are just selling out more now but I swear that historically (like few months ago) I was able to purchase non BE codeshared AA tix on selected (codeshared) flights so long AS was still selling anything. I did many of these SEA-SFO flights over the past year and never run into situation that I could not book AA numbers on codeshared flight when AS was selling tix (and some of these flights went full and was buying my tix like 48h before departure). Today I noticed that there is nothing for either today or tomorrow as AA codeshare even though AS is selling plenty of tix. Maybe I was just lucky earlier or maybe this is collaboration cut. That's why I asked.

Have noticed the same going back to a year ago, at least. Only a sub-set of the flights on SEA-SFO and reverse have AA-codeshare flight #s. Possible this extends to other routes also.

You mean you get AS credit when booking via AS?

Main consideration for me (when AA-codeshare is an option) is LP earning potential.