A little over year ago, Taiwan-based Starlux Airlines and American Airlines launched an interline agreement, which is the most basic level of cooperation that airlines can have. I wondered if there would be more to this over time… and the answer is yes!
A few days ago, I covered how the airlines revealed that they’d be launching a codeshare agreement. I mentioned how I hoped that loyalty reciprocity would be next. Good news — it has now been confirmed that this is in the works, so let’s recap everything we know.
American & Starlux codeshare agreement details
Starlux and American are expanding their partnership from an interline agreement to a codeshare agreement. For context:
- An interline agreement allows passengers to book a ticket that includes travel on both Starlux and American, and have more of a seamless journey, with bags being checked between carriers
- A codeshare agreement allows the airlines to place their “code” on the flights of the other airline, and essentially market the flights of the other airline
Let me emphasize that while a codeshare agreement is a higher level of cooperation than an interline agreement, it doesn’t guarantee loyalty reciprocity, and it’s also a far cry from a joint venture (where airlines can coordinate fares and schedules).
The new codeshare agreement initially allows American to place its code on Starlux flights between Taipei (TPE) and Los Angeles (LAX), Ontario (ONT), San Francisco (SFO), and Seattle (SEA). Oddly, the Phoenix (PHX) route is not initially part of the codeshare agreement when it comes to American placing its code on transpacific Starlux flights. In the other direction, this allows Starlux to place its code on domestic American flights out of Los Angeles and Phoenix.
American & Starlux working on loyalty reciprocity
In its post on Instagram about the new codeshare agreement, Starlux has confirmed that there’s more cooperation on the way. The airline wrote that “a frequent flyer partnership is also in the works, opening up even more ways to earn miles and redeem award tickets.” Those are all the details we have as of now, so it remains to be seen when the loyalty aspect of this will go live.
I’d assume that at some point in the not-too-distant future, it becomes possible to earn and redeem AAdvantage miles on Starlux, and vice versa:
- Don’t count on travel on Starlux earning Loyalty Points, though, since AAdvantage doesn’t generally offer Loyalty Points for travel on non-alliance partners, like Etihad
- It’s great to have more ways to redeem AAdvantage miles, but this will mean that there’s even more competition for a limited number of premium cabin seats on Starlux; I also wouldn’t expect first class awards to be bookable through partner programs, since that’s also currently not possible
I’m not surprised to see this increased level of cooperation, especially when you consider that Alaska and American partner pretty closely, and Starlux and Alaska have a partnership, which includes frequent flyer reciprocity, among other things (admittedly Alaska takes a different approach to loyalty than American does).
The thing is, the politics here are also complicated. We also know that Starlux wants to join the oneworld alliance, and big picture, that makes sense in terms of industry dynamics. That’s because the two other full service airlines in Taiwan — China Airlines and EVA Air — belong to the other two global alliances. But that’s reportedly not happening, because Cathay Pacific has veto rights, and is blocking Starlux’s entry into the alliance (while seemingly being fine with Philippine Airlines joining).
The added complexity here is that while American’s Asia network is limited, the airline does have a transpacific joint venture with Japan Airlines, so has a strong incentive to route Asia traffic through Japan, given the revenue sharing agreements in place.
Unless American plans to launch its own flights to Taipei (which doesn’t strike me as terribly likely), it’s not like the revenue upside here is huge, by simply codesharing with an airline. At the same time, I imagine that competitively, American realizes it needs to up its game across the Pacific in terms of giving customers choice, even if it’s not on its own metal, or that of a joint venture partner.
So I’m not surprised to see this codeshare agreement, and I’m happy to see that we can also expect loyalty reciprocity, as that’ll be great for AAdvantage members.
Bottom line
In the middle of 2025, Starlux Airlines and American Airlines launched an interline agreement, a really casual level of cooperation. Now a little over a year later, the two airlines are launching a codeshare agreement, which is a closer level of cooperation.
While the timeline remains to be seen, we know that the airlines are now working toward loyalty reciprocity as well, so it should eventually be possible to earn and redeem AAdvantage miles on Starlux. We know that Starlux would like to join oneworld, but is being blocked by Cathay Pacific, so I wouldn’t expect to see that happen.
What do you make of American and Starlux launching a codeshare agreement, and the upcoming addition of loyalty reciprocity?
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