Will American & JetBlue Fully End Their Partnership?
With a judge having recently blocked the American Airlines and JetBlue Airways Northeast Alliance, what does that actually mean for the partnership between the two airlines? Does it have to be discontinued altogether, or just scaled back? Well, the airlines and the Department of Justice (DOJ) seem to have different takes on that…
Can American & JetBlue still have a “normal” partnership?
For some context, in early 2021, American and JetBlue launched the Northeast Alliance, which was in many ways a first-of-its-kind partnership in the United States. With this, the airlines coordinated their schedules, swapped slots and gates, and had frequent flyer reciprocity.
The DOJ under the Biden administration took issue with the partnership, and filed a lawsuit to block this alliance, arguing it hurt competition and was bad for consumers. There was a lengthy court case regarding this, and a judge ultimately ruled in favor of the DOJ. As part of this ruling, it was decided that American and JetBlue had 30 days to end their Northeast Alliance.
The question is, what exactly constitutes the Northeast Alliance? With the latest update, clearly the parties have different takes on what that means:
American and JetBlue have asked the judge to be able to continue to codeshare and offer reciprocal frequent flyer benefits, just without coordinating schedules and swapping slots
The DOJ is arguing that the two airlines should have to completely cut ties, not offering any sort of frequent flyer reciprocity or codeshare agreement; the DOJ is just demanding that existing tickets be honored
NEA update: @AmericanAir & @JetBlue ask court to keep codesharing and reciprocal frequent flyer programs. DOJ says huh? We won, they lost – end the NEA now (but honor existing tickets). — David Koenig (@airlinewriter) June 9, 2023
I’m sure a lot of people are invested in the outcome of this, so I’m curious to see what happens next.
The Northeast Alliance has been blocked by a judge
My take on the American & JetBlue partnership
The American and JetBlue alliance was no doubt shady behind the scenes and intended to squash competition, especially after reading all the documents contained in the lawsuit. The issue wasn’t a codeshare agreement and frequent flyer reciprocity, but rather the slot swapping, schedule coordinating, etc.
In the ruling, the judge stated that the partnership between American and JetBlue should have instead looked like the one between American and Alaska, which included frequent flyer reciprocity and codesharing, without the other things that made the Northeast Alliance problematic.
That brings us to this point:
American and JetBlue are now trying to essentially get what they could have had all along, without any issues
Meanwhile the DOJ seemingly wants to declare victory altogether and punish the airlines by forcing this partnership to fully end
It seems to me like a frequent flyer and codeshare agreement would actually be good for consumers, so I’m not sure what exactly the benefit would be of trying to force the airlines to end that? I mean, as an American flyer, it gives me more choice and value as a consumer when I can take advantage of perks on either American or JetBlue, even in markets where the airlines compete.
Can the two airlines maintain frequent flyer reciprocity?
Bottom line
The American and JetBlue Northeast Alliance was challenged by the DOJ, and after a lengthy court case, the government ended up winning. The Northeast Alliance now has to be discontinued. The question is, what exactly makes up the Northeast Alliance?
The DOJ is asking the judge to totally discontinue the partnership between the two airlines, while the two airlines are asking to be able to continue their partnership in a way that would have been allowed all along.
How do you see this playing out?
Source: One Mile at a Time
