A bit over a month ago, Korean Air's president hinted that a joint venture would be coming shortly between Delta and Korean Air. Well, that has now been confirmed. Delta and Korean have signed a memorandum of understanding to implement a transpacific joint venture agreement. Here's what the highlights of the agreement are, according to…
Continue reading: Delta & Korean Air Announce Transpacific Joint Venture
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To me, eliminating a competitor is almost always never a good thing for customers in terms of pricing.
@Lucky: Does this mean that more Korean Air business class award seats will be made available for booking with SkyMiles? As I understand, Korean only releases 1 Business class seat per flight for SkyMiles members.
I can guarantee that photo was taken in Korea. Koreans do love their banners. Birthday? Banners. Festival? Banners. Opening of 16th coffee shop on one street? Banners!
in terms of route developement, I see this :
- They'll *try* to keep NRT-SIN and MNL by downgauging to the smallest equipment possible and keep it on life-support, then cancel within 24 months
- NRT-PVG is an instant gonner, moving the authority to backfill the lost LAX-PEK, which will become a 3-way bloodbath
- KE to launch ICN-PDX while DL adds ICN-MSP
- DL will attempt to keep PDX-NRT for a while, but either NH or JL (lean NH on this one) will smell blood in the water and launch it with a 787 to see who blinks first
- and just like AA, DL will continue having zero flights from JFK out to Oriental Asia, relying 100% on JV partners to do the work
- a tiny off-chance that once ICN-MSP comes online, DL might attempt to move its MSP-HND authority elsewhere, and receiving staunch opposition from AA in the process.
This is terrible for price-conscious consumers. For those who are not price sensitive, it's probably good news.
@Lucky
Do you think this means that more than one seat will be bookabls in Korean Business class with Skymiles? For the past two years or so a single measly seat has been shown.
@ Henry -- In theory that's possible, though I wouldn't count on it. Many SkyTeam carriers like to restrict award space to partners. For example, AF doesn't make all award space available to DL, despite their joint venture.
@Henry @Lucky : DL is the worst offender of that front. By designating nearly all award space to be Level 2 or higher, DL, for all practical purposes, has shut out redemptions by members of other partners
It should be tit-for-tat : if DL loves their Level 2+ practice, don't cry foul when other partners return the same favor to Skymiles members.
It seems probable DL is playing with the idea to turn ICN as the hub and moving away from the expensive NRT.
Lucky DL had flown the ATL-ICN in the past it's nothing new, not too sure if they make it a go,
I'm assuming we may soon be able to redeem Skypass miles on codeshares flying DL metal on KE's award chart. I see sweet spots opening.
How do you estimate the chances that we'll be able to redeem Skypass miles for an itinerary that includes both DL and KE flights? It would be great to be able to redeem transpacific routes on KE without having to pay for a positioning flight separately.
What's the chance we lose Ultimate Rewards to KE transfers as a consequence of this?