Qantas and American expand codeshare and frequent flyer benefits

Australia’s Qantas and American Airlines expand codeshare arrangements on each others services, in the latest development after their joint venture was approved. This will mean each carrier will offer more destinations than before and increase their network reach.

Frequent flyers are not left out either, with both airlines planning to add value for regular customers. There are a number of bits and pieces to this, so let’s have a look.

Qantas and American Expand Codeshare Arrangements

American Airlines is placing its AA code on Qantas services across the Pacific. The specific routes are Los Angeles and Dallas-Fort Worth to Sydney, San Francisco to Melbourne and Brisbane and Chicago to Brisbane. This should be good news for both business and leisure travellers. Qantas use a mix of Airbus A380s and Boeing 787s on these services.

Qantas passengers will see 28 new codeshare destinations added to the network out of DFW and ORD. Places such as Charleston, Savannah, Dayton and Spokane will be added from Dallas, while flights to New York, Boston, Miami, Washington, Philadelphia and Charlotte will be added from Chicago.

Frequent Flyer Benefits

For American Airlines AAdvantage members, there are additional benefits when flying transpacific on Qantas. You will see earning rates have been increased for all flights taken from 1 October 2019.

Australians enrolled in Qantas Frequent Flyer are not left out either. Their partner airline earning table shows a marked increase in points and status credits for flights to the US West and East Coast which you can see above. Qantas are also increasing the amount of award seats made available, which is welcome news.

Overall Thoughts

Since the announcement of the joint venture, Qantas have announced new services to the USA. I am still waiting to see what services American will be adding to Australia. I would expect at least one route to come online at some stage and hopefully it’s a long one.

American’s press release pretty much says what I have written here, and there is no indication of what may come in future. If American was to fly to Australia with their own metal, I would be curious to see if passengers would choose AA or QF given the same price point. What would you do?

What do you think of these new arrangements and are the benefits something that you think are valuable? Thank you for reading and if you have any comments or questions, please leave them below.

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Featured image by Quintin Soloviev and Qantas A380 by Phil Vabre, both via Wikimedia Commons.