There were actually two separate American things.

First, Midwest had a frequent flyer hookup with American for several years in the "between Northwest" era. (YX/NW had FF deals in the early 90's after they dismantled the NW minihub and YX dropped MKE-DTW, and then YX/NW came together again in the mid 00's). The American deal was pretty much limited to you could spend YX FF miles on AA. Definitely no code sharing, no cross-airline earning, no elite-qualifying segments, etc.

The other American thing was actually a deal with American Eagle only. It was code sharing to something like 35 markets out of DFW and 12 markets out of LAX. By far the biggest two were MKE-DFW-IAH and MKE-LAX-SAN. (This came after YX ended SAN service.) But it also included YX* to places like Santa Barbara, Fresno, Fort Smith, Lawton, San Angelo, etc. Because it was only American Eagle, it did *not* include places like Austin or New Orleans because those were AA metal, not AA* metal. That deal lasted from the later 90's until about 2004 or so.

Personally I'd very much like to see oneworld / AA as the hookup, but that's just my personal wish.

I've been seeing comments from JetBlue through their earning statements about them adding another airline to their interline agreement and found the source article from Oct. 1. Seems interesting. I wonder who it will be...

http://atwonline.com/airline-finance...et-button-0929

Interesting...Frontier seems a pretty reasonable candidate.

I don't think that adding JetBlue would do tons for travelers based in Denver or Milwaukee in terms of new destinations. Certainly there are several they serve that F9 does not (esp south of Florida) but a lot of those flights just don't dovetail well for connections.

Where it can be of bigger benefit to Frontier is to tap into JetBlue's customer base for their travel to non-JetBlue cities. When someone in Boston has to go to Omaha, they have a reason to choose Frontier.

That can benefit Denver, KC, and Milwaukee travelers because it helps to support more flights and more destinations overall. And perhaps there will be new or expanded links from the key Frontier cities to JetBlue hubs in JFK, Boston, Orlando, Fort Lauderdale and Long Beach.

So while I still would like to see international and (ideally) more domestic alternatives, JetBlue would be a great addition. We can hope!

If this would happen, it would be nice to se4e JetBlue add MKE to their portfolio. They are really lacking in the midsection of the country. A codeshare with Frontier would really broaden their route map.

Absolutely...either on B6 metal or F9 metal with the E190.

JetBlue's massive gap between the coasts would be filled pretty well with Frontier's system.

One of the biggest compliments between the two carriers is the on board experience. Both carriers have Direct TV/WIFI. Jet Blue customers who have never heard of Frontier will be able to transition to Frontier easy.

I think JetBlue and Frontier would compliment eachother perfectly.....both do similar things in the region they operate and have similar feature as someone else mentioned.

My only question about Jetblue is why don't they serve MSP, MKE, STL, CMH, DTW, ATL and OMA?....seems to me they are missing out on a gold mine but I'd have to guess they are looking at expanding to these markets in the future. I personally think JetBlue would take off in MSP to the leisure traveler for east coast destinations and possibly business travelers as well depending on flight times/connections.

What about USA3000? Maybe not as a partner but as an acquistion. They operate 5 A320s and target similar passenger segments (northern leisure flyers to southern sun destinations). F9 already has a decent operation to CUN and some more P2P routes would fit their business model. You could move USA3000's ORD operation to MKE (maybe a few to MDW) and it would give F9 access to some Carribean destinations and increase their presence on the East coast.

Funny I mentioned this about a year ago, because it looks like this is what may be happening. I've heard that F9 will be getting at least 2 of USA3000's A320s, and with the increased flying they will be doing for them this winter, I think it still is a good match.

But, don't they have an inordinate amount of overlapping cities, other than Montego Bay and Punta Cana?

I don't think USA 3000 is in the type of situation for an acquisition as they are being liquidated. However, there decrease in service leads to some routes opening up that Apple still would want to fly.

Well not in the sense that they are being purchased, but in the sense that most of their flying looks like it will be replaced with F9, and some of the route authorities for international flying will be picked up by F9 and F9 will be able to sell tickets on those flights too.