Delta And Alaska Air Officially End Their Broken Relationship

After several months of increasing contention that has marred their one-time close partnership, Delta Air Lines and Alaska Airlines are calling it quits. Their code-share and frequent-flyer agreements will come to an end on April 30.

The carriers’ relationship deteriorated in inverse proportion to Delta’s buildup of its Seattle hub, where Alaska was once the dominant airline. Alaska fed passengers to Delta’s overseas flights from Seattle and carried Delta’s arriving international passengers to other points in the West.

Eventually, however, Delta began competing head-to-head with Alaska on some of its most important domestic routes, such as Seattle to points in California and Alaska.

Now that the seemingly inevitable breakup is occurring, Alaska is looking to its future without Delta. It is sweetening its Mileage Plan in four ways:

• The lowest award tier has been lowered so Mileage Plan members can now book award travel on Alaska Airlines flights with as few as 5,000 miles.

• Mileage earnings on flights in business or first class on 10 global partners have been bumped up by up to 805.

• Elite members now are eligible for complimentary upgrades on award travel on Alaska-operated flights when they book main cabin tickets.

• With their recent merger, Virgin America has been added to the list of airlines on which passengers can earn elite-qualifying Alaska Mileage Plan miles

The animosity between Delta and Alaska reached a low point last May, when Delta and Seattle Pride, which oversees the city’s annual gay parade, reached an exclusive sponsorship deal.

Alaska Airlines’ employees, many of whom were longtime supporters of the event, were told they could march in the parade but could not wear anything that identified them as employees of the airline. 

Observers of the contretemps asked, “Can’t we all just get along?” The answer was apparently “No.” The Alaska contingent decided not to march.

Eventually, the parties decided that the whole thing was a misunderstanding, an incorrect interpretation of the Delta deal. But the damage was done, and it didn’t make Delta look good.