American Expanding It’s Codeshare With Cape Air, Too
After posting just a couple hours ago about American expanding its codeshare relationship with Alaska Airlines, I ran across a piece of news about expanding codesharing in the Caribbean.
American has been slowly pulling out of the Caribbean, consolidating its flights out of Miami instead of splitting them between Miami and San Juan, Puerto Rico. Now, there’s an announcement that Cape Air will essentially take over that business from American and codeshare with them on it. It’s not that Cape Air is taking American’s customers, but American has moved from a dominant position in the Caribbean to one that’s a bit more guarded. Someone was likely to fill in at least some of that capacity, and Cape Air is one of those.
Overall, this is a small bit of good news, since it essentially means American hasn’t really given up that part of their network. Most of the flights out of San Juan were regional jets, so a codeshare arrangement here is essentially the difference between two regional jets or turboprops. We need a few more details to emerge on this, but it seems a positive, if not significant change.
I’m actually in SJU now on a DL ticket and used Avios to hop from SJU on Eagle. The AC here is great and there are a bunch of destinations served, and both my flights to/from SJU were pretty full (though that isn’t a way to say how profitable a route is). Doesn’t the move from Eagle to codeshare take away AC access that requires AA metal + Avios redemptions?
Amol, I’m pretty sure you’re correct about the lack of AC access in the future. Frankly, I’m kind of surprised they kept that AC open when they selected the other clubs to close last year. The slow march away from SJU almost mandates it from a profitability standpoint. It’s a shame. I’ve always liked that club.