The major U.S. airlines frequently partner with other carriers on creative ways for passengers to conveniently book flights.
In this spirit, American Airlines (AAL) -) has just now taken a leap into one area that many of its customers will greatly appreciate.
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Often a part of agreements between airlines that develop alliances, aviation industry codesharing involves carriers who market the same flights as part of their schedules.
Regularly, the flight is run by one airline while seats are sold for it by one or more other airlines using their own designator and flight number.
Using precisely this approach, American Airlines launched a new codeshare partnership with Philippine Airlines (PAL) on Dec. 12.
It is the first codeshare partnership introducing marketed flights by a Philippine carrier to several U.S. destinations. And it allows American's customers to travel to Manila, American said in a statement.
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How the agreement benefits passengers
American noted that the Philippines is one of the quickest moving economies in Asia and explained how the arrangement will work.
"Philippine Airlines has placed its 'PR' code on American's flights between Los Angeles and seven U.S. cities: Atlanta, Denver, Houston, Las Vegas, Miami, Orlando and Washington, D.C., enabling excellent connectivity with PAL's trans-Pacific service," American said.
Philippine Airlines also explained its perspective on the agreement.
"This partnership with American Airlines unlocks more options for customers traveling between Asia and the United States," PAL Chief Commercial Officer Eric David Anderson said. "We are delighted to deliver on our long-term strategy of continuing to build our global reach. We look forward to creating more opportunities for travelers to discover the wonders of the Philippines."
Philippine Airlines already has nonstop flights from Manila to Los Angeles. It also operates flights out of Manila to San Francisco, New York, and Honolulu.
One travel expert explains a challenge with the deal
Acknowledging that the deal could be "huge" for American's customers, Gary Leff of View From the Wing explained one challenging aspect of the agreement.
"So far there's only the option of earning when booking an American Airlines codeshare for travel on Philippine Airlines flights," Leff wrote. "There's no ability to earn miles without the American code attached, and no ability to redeem for travel on Philippine Airlines."
"That's too bad because in my experience Philippine Airlines nearly always has business class award space available on their U.S. to Manila flights, and because the only viable options for redeeming this in recent times has been ANA Mileage Club (an American Express transfer partner) but ANA has suspended these redemptions," Leff continued.
Leff also added a few other notes to consider:
With the dismantling of Los Angeles as American’s transpacific gateway, once-rumored Manila service on their own aircraft seems even less likely now. And even their plans to launch transpacific service from Seattle have not materialized.
One complication with the codeshare has been that United Airlines (UAL) -) was locked in a pitched regulatory battle with Philippine Airlines – United wanted better landing slots at Manila to offer viable service, and had been frustrated.
They were pushing back against Philippine’s expansion into the U.S. United sought to have the U.S. government punish consumers and competitors because it was unable to get what it wanted from the Philippine government. United Airlines has launched its own-metal non-stop to Manila.
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