TravelTalkOnline Forums Travel and Vacation Forums St. Maarten - St. Martin Alaska Air and American alliance

This is great news for us West coast travelers.
"
I couldn’t be more excited to share with you that we are partnering with American Airlines to create a West Coast International Alliance—connecting our network to the rest of the world in a remarkable way. Our Global Partners have always provided guests with the opportunity to go global, but today, we are proud to strengthen our relationship with American Airlines, and in Summer 2021, plan to join the oneworld® alliance. This means traveling on Alaska, American or a oneworld partner will feel like one connected travel experience—no matter who or where you fly.

Most importantly, as a resident of this beautiful region, our new alliance will let you earn and redeem miles on an expansive list of domestic and international destinations out of Seattle, significantly more than any other airline or global alliance. This includes today’s announcement by American Airlines for the first nonstop flight from Seattle to Bangalore, India, starting October of this year, along with new service from Seattle to London in the Spring of 2021.

So when can you expect to see these benefits?

Effective immediately:
• Redeem Alaska Mileage Plan™ miles on all American Airlines flights.
• Access any of American’s 50 Admirals Club locations worldwide with an Alaska Lounge membership.
• Continue to earn and redeem Alaska Mileage Plan miles on our current portfolio of 16 Global Partners.

Starting Spring 2020:
• Earn Alaska Mileage Plan miles on any American Airlines flights, domestically and internationally.

Starting Summer 2021:
• Earn and redeem Alaska Mileage Plan miles on all oneworld airlines.
• Alaska elites will enjoy privileges, including priority boarding, premium seating, baggage benefits and more when you fly on American Airlines or any oneworld airline.
• Access 650 lounges within the oneworld network as an MVP Gold or Gold 75K member.

We will share more details with you as these benefits become available.

We are honored that you trust us with your travel needs. On behalf of Alaska and our 23,000 employees who work tirelessly to deliver their best to you every day, thanks for flying with us.

Andrew Harrison
Chief Commercial Officer"

I received that email this morning. Great news!!

I was thinking of you when I got my email.

I just bought it through Alaska Airlines at 450.00 verses 650.00 from American for the same lounge privileges.

This merger can only help American Airlines. Glad they did it.

Good for Alaska Air mileage members too.

From somebody that flies about 75k plus per year on Alaska per year it is pretty good news. The Alaska Miles are excellent for using with international partners, and with the status earned it is only $300 for the lounge per year. Seattle's new lounge in the N gates is pretty nice, I will be sitting in the lounge at LAX here in about an hour.
Cheers!

Yes that N gate lounge is pretty nice. Used it last August flying into Alaska for a fishing trip. And for only $25.00 with your Alaska Visa card.

We mostly fly internationally in business class on American, so we get lounge access anyway to most any destination EXCEPT the Caribbean. We fly to SXM in coach and first class, depending on availability. For those times we fly in coach, we have been looking for a credit card that allows access to AA lounges, so this might be a good fit.

I just splurged and used my Alaska miles to fly first class to a domestic location. Using the lounge at PDX was free under that scenario.

Had I known this was coming up, I would have saved the miles to use for a trip to SXM.

A first class ticket with AA or Alaska doesn't get you into the American lounges for Domestic or Caribbean destinations nor does AA honor that $25.00 charge for a daily pass at their lounges. That is why I went ahead and bought the full years pass with Alaska that is reciprocal with all American lounges and other world partners whether you're fly coach or FC.

If you don't mind me asking Scuba, how much is an annual pass with alaska/american?

450 with Alaska. 650 with American.

Thank you so much!

We have the Citi® / AAdvantage® Executive World Elite™ credit card. The cost for the card is 450.00 per year which includes being able to use the Admirals Club and we use it to rack up our miles. It also comes with other benefits as well.

That is better than the straight 650.00 for the American lounge yearly pass. I currently have the Citi Platinum card that I pay 90 for so I might cancel that one and do that for next year which would be cheaper in the long run.