Bonus miles on a new route are not uncommon. Coordinated bonus miles across multiple airline partners come about much less often. And within Star Alliance partners even less often. But here we are.
Haneda
United Airlines an ANA have a shared promotion active now for service into Haneda. ANA recently upgauged (and upgraded) its Los Angeles service to the 777-300ER while United has its San Francisco service still chugging along. Both the ANA Mileage Club and United MileagePlus programs are offering bonus miles for flying on either carrier’s flights, assuming you pay enough for your ticket. The bonus miles earnt are:
- 3,000 bonus award miles for segments flown in fare classes Y, B, M, E, U, H, Q and V.
- 5,000 bonus award miles for segments flown in fare classes J, C, D, Z and P.
- 7,500 bonus award miles for segments flown in fare classes F and A.
The promo is valid for travel completed between October 25, 2015, and January 31, 2016, excluding travel between December 17, 2015, and December 21, 2015. Registration is required from the program in which you intend to credit the points:
Australia
The launch of American’s service to Sydney is just around the corner and the AAdvantage program is offering bonus points on the new flights, as is joint venture partner Qantas. Alas, this promotion partnership is not quite as symmetrical and if you were hoping to register on the Qantas side you’re too late. But the American version is still open for registration and offers some decent bonus earning potential. For both the AA and the Qantas promo marketing carrier matters just as much as operating carrier. No bonus points in the AAdvantage program if the trip is booked on a Qantas code (and vv.) which does reduce the value proposition a bit and generally complicate things. Also, the AA promo doesn’t kick in until February 2016 even though the route starts up in December; no need to offer bonus points during peak travel season it turns out.
On the plus side the AA promo offers bonus points for all fare classes during the promo period, down to the very cheapest seats, though it is limited to only three round-trip itineraries for earning.
Is this a trend towards more and better cooperation and coordination of loyalty program bonuses? Maybe. It is a small step forward and certainly the joint venture aspect of the partners has something to do with it. But the AA/Qantas deal is only barely coordinated and far less integrated than the AA/BA/IB/AY transatlantic JV promos typically offer so clearly there are still many kinks to work out. It would be great for consumers if such coordination became more of a thing. Maybe one of these days…
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Seth, BA/AA/IB/AY run a joint business (with BA on the driver’s seat) which is anti-trust immunized; AA/QR is a simple codeshare and frequent flyer program partnership.
But we’re talking about QF, not QR here. And there is a TPAC JV in place between the two.