American Airlines and Jet Blue partnership

[bigfrank Administrator Find all posts View Profile Close bigfrank]

http://news.aa.com/news/news-details...O%7c%7cJetBlue

[billymach4 Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close billymach4]

Saw that. Like JetBlue. Not so much American

[T. R. Oglodyte Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close T. R. Oglodyte]

And on the West Coast, shortly before the pandemic, American and Alaska did a 180 on their breakup and now building a close relationship, with Alaska scheduled to join One World. Essentially Alaska is going to cover the west coast and Alaska for American. Yet to be decided is how they are going to work things out where they do overlap, on east-west flights into and out of the major west coast airports.

I wonder if the announcement that JetBlue might also wind up in One World.

[Carolinian Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close Carolinian]

Saw that. Like JetBlue. Not so much American

American was great while until USAir took it over. Mergers really screwed up the airlines. Northwest was great until Delta took it over.

[T. R. Oglodyte Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close T. R. Oglodyte]

American was great while until USAir took it over. Mergers really screwed up the airlines. Northwest was great until Delta took it over.

Ostensibly, the impetus for merger has been reducing cost. So the Alaska Airlines saga has been quite interesting.

Alaska has traditionally charted an independent course. Until recently they have stayed out of the big alliances. Alaska had partnering, frequent flyer arrangements, and some codeshare relationships with many other airlines. I recall when their FF program intersected with Delta, Northwest, Frontier, Continental, and American in North America.

The mergers thinned that crowd, and it ended up with Alaska and Delta being cozy together, with Alaska basically being the west coast arm of Delta via codeshares. The close relations extended to the FF programs.

Delta then decided to acquire Alaska, so that they could own the west coast routes, and so that they could use Alaska's Seattle base as a hub for Asian service. Alaska turned down the offer, and given Alaska's greater underlying profitability, Delta could not feasibly do a hostile takeover. That led Delta to terminate the existing relationships with Alaska, and they began to build Seattle as a new West Coast hub, and as their main portal for service to Asia from North America.

Skipping through some of the details, that has now resulted in Alaska getting very cozy with American - so that Alaska now effectively is the west coast arm of American. Moreover, Alaska is now joining Oneworld, so that Alaska will be filling the North American west coast presence that was a huge void in the Oneworld network.

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My general impression is that on the West Coast the COVID pandemic has ravaged Delta more severely than Alaska. Alaska has been closely working with unions to avoid layoffs using early retirements, voluntary severance, and mutually agreeable furloughs, measures which I think will yield significant rewards.

It's probably worth noting that the only effective competitor with Alaska in West Coast US routing is Southwest. Since Southwest eschews these alliances, Oneworld will now be the best alliance for west coast NA coverage (until such time as one of the other Alliances can entice Southwest to join). That should give Alaska some leverage as they negotiate terms and conditions for joining Oneworld.

[lesliemoor1979 Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close lesliemoor1979]

My general impression is that on the West Coast the COVID pandemic has ravaged Delta more severely than Alaska. Alaska has been closely working with unions to avoid layoffs using early retirements, voluntary severance, and mutually agreeable furloughs, measures which I think will yield significant rewards.

It's probably worth noting that the only effective competitor with Alaska in West Coast US routing is Southwest. Since Southwest eschews these alliances, Oneworld will now be the best alliance for west coast NA coverage (until such time as one of the other Alliances can entice Southwest to join). That should give Alaska some leverage as they negotiate terms and conditions for joining Oneworld.

I also think so, that in this case Alaska is in a winning position.