There are several levels of cooperation airlines can have, ranging from interline agreements to alliances to codeshares to joint ventures. Over the past few years we've seen a trend where the alliances have become less of a priority, and joint ventures have become more of a priority. Why is the significance of the major alliances…
Continue reading: What Are The Implications Of An American & LATAM Joint Venture?
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Sounds like a massive loss for customers. Fares will be higher, capacity/frequency might be cut, incentives to improve product will decrease.
Just because Brazil is a bloodbath right now and AA is flying 77Ws with gigantic premium cabins (half the plane basically) full of non-revs and on cheap tickets doesn't mean they should get to do this.
LATAM announced today a JV with BA and IB as well, for the South America-Europe routes.
We, Brazilian consumers, will be screwed.
The euphemism "More competitive fares" in the release sounds as true as when airlines announce "enhancements" in FF programs...
On the topic of OneWorld, I'm sure you've seen the latest from Qatar about AA: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-01-13/qatar-air-says-it-could-split-oneworld-over-american-air-clash
There's a paragraph in there about their new business class seat as well!
This needs to end. The JVA with Europe was originally justified on reasons that no longer apply after massive consolidation. It should be rescinded and the LATAM proposal scrapped. The minimized competition on many routes is ridiculous.
Since AA/LATAM are in the same oneworld alliance, connections would already go smoothly. Not sure if it'll be any better with a joint venture. Either way, AA/LATAM already controls a large number of routes from US/Canada to South America.
LATAM is already One world and you can redeem miles and purchase tickets for most routed on aa.com so how is this any different and beneficial? This is just retarded.
I see no way that this is good for customers. AA is already very strong in South America as-is. This may be one of the few times where I'll probably side with DL/UA against AA.
You're contradicting yourself, and common sense/logic...
"On the other hand, [joint ventures] almost invariably lead to fare hikes, as it’s essentially like eliminating a competitor from the market.
"The good news is that American often has great premium cabin fares to Latin America, and those would be valid on LATAM if this joint business goes through."
What do American's current "great premium cabin fares" have to do with anything? Those fare may or may not remain desirable in the future regardless (always unknowns in the future) and the odds of the fares not increasing with a JV are certainly low.
They can brag that it's a win win for customers like they always do... but as always it turns out it means less competition and higher fares.
Well one thing is for sure~ it will be good for AA in the short to medium term, but not in the long term. The current AA management is spectacularly alienating its loyal customer base in so many areas of its business, particularly AAdvantage (should be renamed DisAAdvantage) that should the good times go belly-up, the base of loyal customers will have been decimated. This is 'fair weather' management IMO; they do not have the nous to survive bad times which of course lurk somewhere in the economic cycle, as sure as the sun will rise tomorrow.
For some reason I've never seen the value of having "flat bed business class product" on a daytime sector of ~3.5 hours. What am I missing?