DL and AA No More Interline Agreement; Then Interline Agreement Returns January 2018
Sep 12, 2015, 4:17 pm
#91
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Sep 12, 2015, 5:28 pm
#92
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While I understand the dispute over rebooking rates, what I don't understand is the failure to allow interline ticketing and bag checking, which is rather unusual, particularly as one can envision a number of scenarios where someone may wind up on an interline itinerary as a result of lower cost or availability.
DL is posturing to get more money. Meanwhile AA wants to send the message that they can't be bullied and will make deals with WN and B6 if they have to.
Either way, everyone loses with this development.
Sep 12, 2015, 6:03 pm
#93
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Definition of very expensive/very cheap is relative. The settlement amounts are designed to represent the approximate value of a passenger coupon over a wide sample. Perhaps the people you know in Revenue Management have bi-lateral agreements which are "expensive", but the industry agreements are certainly not.
It's certainly "heavily discounted" from a full Y fare.
If people really care about the whole process and the rates the ACH website has plenty of public info:
http://www.airlinesclearinghouse.com...ettlement.aspx
That's the kicker. Last-minute inventory is valuable inventory and AA was using a lot more of DL's valuable inventory for IRROPS than DL was using of AA's. There's the argument that for IRROPS the re-booked inventory is about to perish anyway so it's incremental revenue, but given DL's recent actions I'll bet DL views that inventory as highly valuable and therefore being taken advantage of by AA.
It's certainly "heavily discounted" from a full Y fare.
If people really care about the whole process and the rates the ACH website has plenty of public info:
http://www.airlinesclearinghouse.com...ettlement.aspx
That's the kicker. Last-minute inventory is valuable inventory and AA was using a lot more of DL's valuable inventory for IRROPS than DL was using of AA's. There's the argument that for IRROPS the re-booked inventory is about to perish anyway so it's incremental revenue, but given DL's recent actions I'll bet DL views that inventory as highly valuable and therefore being taken advantage of by AA.
Sep 12, 2015, 6:27 pm
#94
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Or, maybe Richard Anderson should quit and make you CEO.
Sep 12, 2015, 7:59 pm
#95
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While I will miss the one time every two years or so I won't be able to switch to an AA flight, I am excited to learn that the multitude of AA pax that are taking up valuable seats on DL flights won't be competing with me when I have flight changes on Delta.
Honestly, this could be a net positive for DL pax given the rather substantially higher net transfers DL was seeing!!
Honestly, this could be a net positive for DL pax given the rather substantially higher net transfers DL was seeing!!
Sep 12, 2015, 8:39 pm
#96
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Neither of those options will happen. WN has decided that it's in its best interests not to interline with anyone and have done good for decades.
Sep 12, 2015, 9:12 pm
#97
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Let's look at this geographically: It is a kick in the groin for DL frequent flyers in MIA, ORD, PHX (who don't even have a SkyClub!!!), PHL and DFW (DFW and MIA having particularly large DL FF populations due to geography and former hub). Conversely it really hits AA FFs hard in SLC, ATL, DTW - but those are very small FF bases for US-AA.
If you are a MIA or DFW Medallion Member you ought to remind DL that it would be nice to occasionally take AA and actually get where you are going when things on the ATL-bound 757 go sour.
If you are a MIA or DFW Medallion Member you ought to remind DL that it would be nice to occasionally take AA and actually get where you are going when things on the ATL-bound 757 go sour.
Sep 12, 2015, 9:47 pm
#98
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Last minute inventory is valuable but also moments away from spoilage. Sure, there are times when AA or other airlines get that space at a discount rate and DL can't sell it, and in the process they lose out on the difference in price. But there are other times when that inventory would have otherwise gone unused, in which case the $$$ from AA is incremental revenue they otherwise would not have earned. It's not quite so clear cut that AA grabbing last minute space even at a discounted rate is a bad thing. DL must think so though.
Sep 12, 2015, 11:36 pm
#99
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Yes. We can turn the ability to automatically oversell at a certain time prior to departure. Supervisors and red coats can still go over manually. Revenue Mgmt still has control
Sep 13, 2015, 4:55 am
#100
Join Date: Jun 2006
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Let's look at this geographically: It is a kick in the groin for DL frequent flyers in MIA, ORD, PHX (who don't even have a SkyClub!!!), PHL and DFW (DFW and MIA having particularly large DL FF populations due to geography and former hub). Conversely it really hits AA FFs hard in SLC, ATL, DTW - but those are very small FF bases for US-AA.
If you are a MIA or DFW Medallion Member you ought to remind DL that it would be nice to occasionally take AA and actually get where you are going when things on the ATL-bound 757 go sour.
If you are a MIA or DFW Medallion Member you ought to remind DL that it would be nice to occasionally take AA and actually get where you are going when things on the ATL-bound 757 go sour.
Sep 13, 2015, 11:46 pm
#101
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But can you turn it off to AA buying tickets for IRROPS while still allowing walk-up full-cash-paying customers to buy?
Sep 14, 2015, 12:13 am
#102
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No. The only time we can turn away an INVOL was if they were overselling us. Other than that, if there was an actual seat, it was up for grabs by anyone.
Sep 14, 2015, 12:18 am
#103
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That was my question: suppose there are no actual seats available (the flight is overbooked) but it's still (e.g.) Y2. Is there a way to block AA from grabbing the non-existent seat, but still allow a walk-up who pays full price (thereby making it profitable to pay VDB) to buy it?
Sep 14, 2015, 7:16 am
#104
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The airline still has right of refusal before the booking is made.
Sep 14, 2015, 7:54 am
#105
Join Date: Jul 2015
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In my experience as a reservations agent I can say the following about off-lining in general and specifically AA
1) Off-lining is supposed to be done with Y class only and it cannot be a code-share. Even with AF/KL it is supposed to be the KL flight number not the DL coded version of the same flight. Do some people do that, yes, does it work, sometimes but often times the inventory that shows up for the code share is not updated as frequently as the regular flight and that can result in the space cancelling.
2) I would long-sell in the AA flight and get the space back confirmed. I would issue the ticket and then 20 minutes later the space would be cxld an unconfirmed. This happened at least 50% of the time when I tried to offline with AA. It got so bad I would tell people if they wanted AA to ask at the airport.
3) Airlines can pull OAL space right from their reservations system. So AA didn't always ask DL if there was space available. If there was Y1 they would grab it and reissue the ticket. As we all know if the flight is showing Y1 it's probably actually oversold by 3-10. That would lead DL to have to pay VDB/IDB to protect an AA passenger. DL was probably willing to pay VDB if they could get $1300 for a full Y purchase but not the amount AA was paying DL.
1) Off-lining is supposed to be done with Y class only and it cannot be a code-share. Even with AF/KL it is supposed to be the KL flight number not the DL coded version of the same flight. Do some people do that, yes, does it work, sometimes but often times the inventory that shows up for the code share is not updated as frequently as the regular flight and that can result in the space cancelling.
2) I would long-sell in the AA flight and get the space back confirmed. I would issue the ticket and then 20 minutes later the space would be cxld an unconfirmed. This happened at least 50% of the time when I tried to offline with AA. It got so bad I would tell people if they wanted AA to ask at the airport.
3) Airlines can pull OAL space right from their reservations system. So AA didn't always ask DL if there was space available. If there was Y1 they would grab it and reissue the ticket. As we all know if the flight is showing Y1 it's probably actually oversold by 3-10. That would lead DL to have to pay VDB/IDB to protect an AA passenger. DL was probably willing to pay VDB if they could get $1300 for a full Y purchase but not the amount AA was paying DL.