American Airlines and JetBlue Announce Strategic Partnership
American Airlines and JetBlue announced a new alliance on Thursday, teaming up in an effort to become more competitive in the Northeast market. The strategic partnership will also provide more choice for customers across their complementary domestic and international networks. In addition, the announcement notes that this new relationship is expected to accelerate each airline’s recovery as the travel industry adapts to new trends as a result of the pandemic.
For American Airlines, this will be a similar partnership to the one with Alaska Airlines that was announced earlier this year.
The partnership includes an alliance agreement that proposes codeshare and loyalty benefits that will enhance each carrier’s offerings in New York and Boston, providing strategic growth and driving value for customers and team members of both airlines.
“Pairing JetBlue’s domestic network with American’s international route map creates a new competitive choice in the Northeast, where customers are longing for an alternative to the dominant network carriers,” said Joanna Geraghty, President and Chief Operating Officer, JetBlue. “This partnership with American is the next step in our plan to accelerate our coronavirus recovery, get our crewmembers and our aircraft flying again, and fuel JetBlue’s growth into the future.”
“This is an incredible opportunity for both of our airlines,” said American Airlines President Robert Isom. “American has a strong history in the Northeast, and we’re proud to partner with JetBlue as the latest chapter in that long history. Together, we can offer customers an industry-leading product in New York and Boston with more flights and more seats to more cities.”
Partnership Details
Customers will experience a number of benefits from the new partnership that was revealed in the announcement today:
- New and expanded routes: The partnership enables new strategic growth opportunities for both airlines. As a result, American will launch international service from New York (JFK) to Tel Aviv (TLV) and to Athens (ATH), and JFK to Rio De Janeiro (GIG) will return as a daily seasonal route in winter 2021, in addition to continuing to serve popular long-haul destinations like London (LHR) and Madrid (MAD). JetBlue will also accelerate its growth in key cities, bringing its award-winning service to more customers. JetBlue will grow in greater New York City, adding flights at LaGuardia (LGA) and Newark (EWR), while also increasing its presence at JFK for seamless connections to American’s expanded international network. JetBlue plans to enhance service to strategic markets on the East Coast, West Coast, and in the Southeast, building on JetBlue’s recently announced service between EWR and nine markets, including Mint® service to Los Angeles (LAX) and San Francisco (SFO).
- More choice and loyalty benefits: Through their integrated networks, JetBlue and American will operate reciprocal codeshare flights, giving customers new options with improved schedules, competitive fares and nonstop access to more domestic and international destinations. JetBlue will gain connectivity to more U.S. destinations, a broad global network and an improved frequent flyer proposition, while American will complement JetBlue’s improved and expanded service with new international routes. JetBlue and American loyalty members will also enjoy new benefits while the carriers are exploring additional premium experiences for customers.
- Seamless experience: Customers will enjoy a seamless experience across both airlines, including the ability to book a single itinerary on either website, convenient connections and an improved on-the-ground experience — resulting in a compelling proposition for both leisure and corporate customers. Additionally, customers seeking more comfort in transcontinental service will have access to both JetBlue’s Mint and American’s three-class Transcon service.
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I wonder if my Gold for Life on AA will somehow benefit me on JetBlue – even free bags would be very welcome !!
So, can AA miles be used for JetBlue flights?
Not an expert on this, but my immediate reaction and hope is that this makes our AA miles more flexible and thus more valuable at least for those of us living in the Northeast/Mid-Atlantic, given so many of the AA flights to Europe we wanted departed from Boston, and the connections from DC/BWI to Boston were not that frequent; this will hopefully open up more favorable award travel schedules.