Qantas has today announced some changes to the operation of its joint venture with American Airlines. The changes affect its codeshare service on Sydney-Los Angeler, as well as Frequent Flyer earnings when travelling on American Airlines.
The two major changes that have been announced:
- Qantas will no longer codeshare on American Airlines’ services between Sydney and Los Angeles, for new bookings made for travel from 1 February 2017.
- Qantas will adjust its Qantas Frequent Flyer policy with American Airlines to bring it in line with other oneworld carriers from 1 May 2017.
The changes come as Qantas and American Airlines prepare to refile their Joint Venture arrangement with the US Department of Transport.
Codeshare Removal
Qantas is removing its code from the American Airlines service between Sydney and Los Angeles. Qantas will, however, continue to codeshare on American Airlines services where it does not operate its own services. This includes a range of US domestic services.
For passengers that have booked on the American operated Qantas codeshare, Qantas have advised:
- For services between February 1 and September 30, 2017 there will be no change
- For services from October 1, 2017 passengers will be re-accomodated onto a Qantas operated service
Frequent Flyer Changes
Qantas has flagged that it will adjust its Frequent Flyer policy to bring American Airlines into line with its other oneWorld partners. The primary effect of this appears to be that the number of status credits that will be earned when flying on American Airlines will reduce. At present, there is an earnings parity between Qantas and American when flying on the same routes, however, Qantas have flagged that they will be reducing Status Credit earn for AA marketed flights.
It is likely that Qantas will be providing updated earnings tables in the coming days. When the changes are announced, we will be sure to provide the updated information.