Delta and Alaska Airlines Ending Their Partnership
Delta Air Lines issued a press release earlier this morning that they were officially ending their partnership with Alaska Airlines. That means a few things for frequent travelers and folks wishing to redeem miles. As reported by View From the Wing this morning:
- The partnership ends as of May 1st.
- Effective immediately, you won’t be able to purchase tickets and earn miles via the codeshare agreement for flights after May 1st.
- If you already have a ticket booked with Delta or Alaska on a codeshare for dates past April 30th, you’ll still be able to earn miles.
- You’ll still be able to redeem miles for awards on both carriers via the partnership for travel after April 30th. However, you won’t be able to make any changes that involve Delta or Alaska partner inventory. For example, using Alaska miles to book a ticket on Delta for travel on May 15th. You can change your flights to Alaska flights, but you wouldn’t be able to pick a different Delta flight after April 30th.
There’s a nifty little chart to help you navigate the dates on this one.
Alaska Airlines is keeping their partnership with other Skyteam airlines, it’s just the Delta tie-up that’s going away.
Frankly, I can’t say much here surprises me. Delta and Alaska were once best friends. Then, Delta decided to eat their lunch. They started adding flights to and from Seattle like crazy. That’s Alaska’s bread and butter. The friends turned enemies, spinning up flights to compete with each other. I’m just surprised the partnership lasted this long.
The Final Two Pennies
It’s sad to see the partnership go away. I know plenty of folks who prefer crediting their Delta flights to Alaska. And, Alaska had a very complimentary network for Delta fliers (before they launched a ton of their own service to overlay those routes). Now that Alaska has completed their merger with Virgin America, they’ll be competing with Delta on even more routes before.
Friends no longer.
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This reminds me of another unfriendly divorce > United, and many of it’s most loyal frequent flyers. Hard to believe it’s almost 5 years since UA/CO became one, and gutted their program.
dhammer, I think that was more like United deciding to put their loyal dog down after marrying CO and the new couple deciding they didn’t really want that cute dog anymore. Divorce just seems to simple to describe that mess.