Alaska Airlines to join Oneworld alliance

[Gardyloo]

Alaska Airlines has announced it will be joining the Oneworld global airline alliance next year.  (The only other North American airline in the alliance is American.)  This will mean Alaska's huge network will be available for partner and codeshare flights with AA, British Airways, and all the other Oneworld members, so things like mileage redemptions for AA miles, British Airways Avios, etc. to Alaska, Hawaii or Mexico will be expanded.  https://www.alaskaair.com/content/oneworld/alaska-airlines-to-join-oneworld

 

Here's Alaska's route map - 

 

[klfrodo]

Was only a matter of time that they join an alliance with their continued growth. As a Alaska Gold 75 for the past few years, I'm happy with the decision.

I like the SkyTeam partners better but no way was Alaska going to get into bed with Delta.

[fbgd]

1 hour ago, klfrodo said:

As a Alaska Gold 75 for the past few years, I'm happy with the decision.

 

Welcome to the oneworld Emerald club! The best (non-invitation) FF levels out there, IMO. 

 

As an Emerald myself I'm happy to have more choices when flying from NYC even if AS F is pretty woeful.

Edited February 13, 2020 by fbgd

[Zach1213]

12 minutes ago, fbgd said:

 

Welcome to the oneworld Emerald club! The best (non-invitation) FF levels out there, IMO. 

 

As an Emerald myself I'm happy to have more choices when flying from NYC even if AS F is pretty woeful.

 

OneWorld Emerald for life! Well, maybe not for life, but I have been for 14 years or so and it's really quite enjoyable. 

 

Funny thing is, I'm looking at this as a new, one-stop way to get from my home in Kansas City to work in Bengaluru, because part of the announcement is also AA starting SEA-BLR (and, I believe, SEA-LHR). Right now I have to double connect on AA/BA, but a single connect on AS/AA will be quite nice. 

[rkacruiser]

I'm one that I would have liked Alaska to join with Skyteam.  Not a fan of American Airlines.

[scottbee]

It's a nice enhancement.  AS was already a partner with a lot of the major OneWorld airlines (BA, JAL, Cathay, Qantas).  It brings back AA (who they had dropped previously), and will bring in Iberia, Latam and Qatar.  The only big changes I see happening is dropping Emirates (because of Qatar), and dropping Singapore & Korean (who have strong commitments in other global alliances).

 

As to what happens with some of the smaller players that AS partners with right now (Icelandair, Condor), your guess is as good as mine.

 

 

[Flymia]

18 hours ago, rkacruiser said:

I'm one that I would have liked Alaska to join with Skyteam.  Not a fan of American Airlines.

 

That was never going to happen. Alaska and Delta are certainly not buddies. 

 

This is 100% a move to compete against Delta. American adds Heathrow and to India. Alaska has been fighting with Delta in Seattle, but Delta has the upper hand as they do long haul, bringing in American and joining OneWorld gives Alaska a better shot against Delta along with giving American more power. 

 

Delta expanding in Miami will be very interesting as well. 

[Gardyloo]

3 hours ago, scottbee said:

It's a nice enhancement.  AS was already a partner with a lot of the major OneWorld airlines (BA, JAL, Cathay, Qantas).  It brings back AA (who they had dropped previously), and will bring in Iberia, Latam and Qatar.  The only big changes I see happening is dropping Emirates (because of Qatar), and dropping Singapore & Korean (who have strong commitments in other global alliances).

Unfortunately Latam is dropping out of Oneworld after Delta bought a big chunk of it.

 

AA's (that's American, Alaska's abbreviation is AS) language suggests this is part of making Seattle a second west coast Oneworld hub (after LAX.) Since both Cathay Pacific and Japan Airlines now serve SEA, AA's new Bangalore service would add yet another transpacific carrier, with Alaska serving to distribute connecting passengers through North America, often with significantly shorter flying times owing to great circle distances.  

[Zach1213]

5 minutes ago, Gardyloo said:

AA's new Bangalore service would add yet another transpacific carrier

 

Here's an interesting thought that has zero to do with the conversation...why would SEA-BLR be considered a Trans-Pacific? Great circle map never touches the Pacific. Eastbound SEA-BLR flights will almost certainly never touch the Pacific (probably not Atlantic either, but I know SFO-DEL does sometimes cross over the Atlantic and Europe). Eastbound BLR-SEA will almost certainly cross the pacific. So maybe it's a Trans-Arctic/Atlantic SEA-BLR, and a Trans-Pacific BLR-SEA 😉

[scottbee]

2 hours ago, Zach1213 said:

 

Here's an interesting thought that has zero to do with the conversation...why would SEA-BLR be considered a Trans-Pacific? Great circle map never touches the Pacific. Eastbound SEA-BLR flights will almost certainly never touch the Pacific (probably not Atlantic either, but I know SFO-DEL does sometimes cross over the Atlantic and Europe). Eastbound BLR-SEA will almost certainly cross the pacific. So maybe it's a Trans-Arctic/Atlantic SEA-BLR, and a Trans-Pacific BLR-SEA 😉

 

beat me to it.  It's trans-arctic or trans-atlantic.  You can get an idea of the typical routing looking at AC44 YVR-DEL.

 

 

2 hours ago, Gardyloo said:

Unfortunately Latam is dropping out of Oneworld after Delta bought a big chunk of it.

 

AA's (that's American, Alaska's abbreviation is AS) language suggests this is part of making Seattle a second west coast Oneworld hub (after LAX.) Since both Cathay Pacific and Japan Airlines now serve SEA, AA's new Bangalore service would add yet another transpacific carrier, with Alaska serving to distribute connecting passengers through North America, often with significantly shorter flying times owing to great circle distances.  

 

Senior moment on my behalf. While AA has dropped Latam, they've picked up GOL as a code-partner; so I expect South America as a whole to still be a big market for them (especially out of MIA). For that reason, I won't be surprised if/when we hear that AS are moving their south-florida flight from FLL back to MIA.

 

As for AS vs AA, did I mess up, sorry if I did.  I'm well aware of their IATA codes (and their ASA/AAL ICAO codes).

 

[rkacruiser]

7 hours ago, Flymia said:

Delta expanding in Miami will be very interesting as well. 

 

I was surprised at that announcement as well.