In April it was first announced that Alaska would be taking over Virgin America in a ~$2.6 billion deal. Many of us didn't see this coming, though as the deal progressed we learned that Alaska and JetBlue were both wanting to buy Virgin America, which is why the bidding went so high. We still don't…
Continue reading: Will The DOJ Force Alaska To Cut Ties With American Or Delta?
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As someone who flies AKAir out of Alaska even with the reduced reward miles on American and Delta I like that I can do almost all my trip segments whereever I go under AKAir's reward program and enjoy my status on its partners, as well as generally avoiding United & SW Airlines. Loss of either of these partnerships / codeshares would really decrease the value of AKAir reward program due to lack of loss of international segments and make it more difficult to maintain status on all three airlines.
The DOJ definitely have their heads screwed on backwards. They essentially killed most competition by allowing the big mergers of CO/UA, NW/DL, AA/US, and now are trying to close the barndoor after the horse has bolted by sticking the AS/VX merger? Cretins, all of them
Has the DOJ ever made any consumer friendly move? Not betting the farm on this one.
@uk:
I don't think it's that DOJ has their heads on backwards as much as it is that the Big 3 have deeper pockets for lobbying and, well, buying off government officials. I mean, let's call a spade a spade and just admit that the airlines outright bribe officials. I have a feeling the UA flight for the head or Port Authority is just the tip of the bullshit iceberg when it comes to lining the pockets of government officials - Smisek just got caught.
If I were Alaska I would agree to give up all Delta code shares... I have a feeling that partnership is ending any way...
Anyone concerned that Alaska is just going to take over the few Virgin slots in congested airports that they wanted, return all the Virgin planes, and essentially shut down the airline. They could probably justify the price they paid with the additional revenue from not having another competitor.
Alaska should dig its' heels in and tell DOJ to back off........Keeping the code shares does so much more to make a 4th carrier than not..........DOJ stop taking Big 3 bribes.............
This makes no sense. Doesn't AS's multiple partnership encourage competition between DL and AA? Forcing them to choose one will result in deeper collusion with one partner rather than competition between the two partners. The only way this DOJ move would make sense would be if they though DL and AS were colluding (i.e. not competing for code shares)... in which case, they should pursue anti-trust cases with DL and AS, rather than going after AS.
I think AS will return the AB as most are leased and AS is all Boeing. AS should drop DL they do really nothing for AS, not that their not a bad carrier, actually pretty good service these days.