DL and AA No More Interline Agreement; Then Interline Agreement Returns January 2018
 

http://aviationblog.dallasnews.com/2...greement.html/

Effective on 15 September AA and DL will no longer interline with each other. This also means that the two carriers will also no longer protect the other's passengers in the event of IRROPS.

Delta mad about losing SEA-HND to AA? :p

Wow, short sighted imo... will make both airlines less equipped to fend off the LCCs who don't have interline agreements...

I agree, bad move.

There is talk that AA may revive their interline agreement with jetBlue and potentially even start one with Southwest. DL may be reliable on most days but you never know what the future can hold and there surely will come a day when DL computers go down or there is a storm somewhere which impacts DL greater than other carriers and they will be stuck.

Brace yourselves. Enhancements usually come in multiples...

By that same measure, DL's decision makes sense. Since AA is more likely to incur IROPS, DL gets the short side of the stick in the (current) agreement (i.e. having to carry IROP pax from OA at a very reduced rate). Can't blame DL for wanting to even the playing field.

Anecdotal: In my last 500 or so DL flights, I've only been rebooked on pmUS once, because they had a non-stop PIT-RDU. Generally I'd prefer to stay on DL, but of course there are some times where OA makes better sense.

My wife was rebooked on AA just this week flying from MHT to SLC. There were no other options to get her there the same day... I guess that is not happening again.

In thinking about this for the last hour, I must admit it does make sense what DL is doing...total sense. I agree with the above poster.

If I am reading this and other forums correctly, DL can still send passengers on to UA, (if I am wrong, somebody please correct me). Time will tell how this plays out, but currently DL is making AA look good during IROPS, and DL is saying no more.

Again time will tell how this affects both DL and AA.

Wow, pretty major news.:mad:

I wonder if this affects AF/KL/AZ as well?:confused:

Actually AA would be making DL look good. If a passenger who would otherwise be stranded overnight--possibly sleeping at the airport if all hotels are sold out--could have used his/her ticket to travel in DL's otherwise empty seat, the passenger would be appreciating DL. They also may find that DL's flights are pretty good and take them again in the future when they may have always taken AA in the past. DL can play hardball with American and who knows if UA decides to do the same to DL--(Love field drama anyone?). This may finally lead to WN/B6/VX etc working more closely with UA/AA and of course AS is already moving closer to AA. May be great for DL's bottom line but how many passengers end up getting stranded leaving a bad impression of DL in the process?

This is huge, and impacts both AA and DL negatively. If I wanted to fly on a reliable airline that works great most of the time, but leaves me SOL when things go south, I'd fly WN. The advantage I always site to my penny-pinching colleagues about flying the majors is the interline agreements that save your bacon in IRROPS. DL and AA not playing nice all of a sudden leaves UA leading the pack in something. :eek:

I just skimmed through the thread on this on airliners.net. The issue seems to be that DL had asked for more money to renew the interline agreement with AA, at a time when all interline agreements were being renegotiated. In IROPs, the airline in difficulty basically grabs seat inventory on another carrier at the agreed discounted price. Since AA was sending more IROPed passengers to DL than DL was sending to AA, DL wanted AA to pay more for the service. AA refused and hence the interline agreement between DL and AA is ending.

It's generally unfortunate for passengers, but I can understand DL's viewpoint that it shouldn't essentially be subsidizing AA on average in IROPs.

I think a lot of posters seem to believe that these agreements provide for carriers rebooking pax at very cheap rates.

From several friends who work in revenue management at a US carrier, rebooking pax onto OAL during IRROPS is very, very expensive. Not full Y fare (it is discounted from that) but certainly not some kind of bargain basement price.

I know my opinion carries zero weight but I really don't feel bad for DL having to pay a higher price to get me where I paid Delta to take me. I see it as a penalty. Delta screws up their operations and therefore has to accommodate me on another airline. If Delta wants to avoid paying a high price on another airline then they need to work harder and make sure their operations go off without a problem.