In the interest of full disclosure, OMAAT earns a referral bonus for anyone that’s approved through some of the below links. Citi is an advertising partner of OMAAT. These are the best publicly available offers (terms apply) that we have found for each product or service. Opinions expressed here are the author's alone, not those of the bank, credit card issuer, airline, hotel chain, or product manufacturer/service provider, and have not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by any of these entities. Please check out our advertiser policy for further details about our partners, and thanks for your support!

Update: Alaska and American have backtracked on this, as Alaska will become a full oneworld member airline.

Here’s some terrible news, both for frequent flyers on Alaska Airlines and American Airlines, as the two airlines are scaling back their partnership even further. Talk about two airlines that really can’t afford to lose any more partners.

Coming 2020: Huge Cuts To American & Alaska Partnership

It has just been revealed that huge cuts will be coming to the partnership between Alaska Airlines and American Airlines as of March 1, 2020.

For Alaska Mileage Plan members:

You will no longer be able to earn Alaska Mileage Plan miles on American Airlines international flights; mileage earning on domestic American flights had been cut in early 2018

You will no longer be able to redeem Alaska Mileage Plan miles for travel on American Airlines, both domestically and internationally

Alaska Mileage Plan members can no longer earn miles on most American flights

For American AAdvantage members:

You will no longer be able to redeem American AAdvantage miles for travel on Alaska Airlines, both domestically and internationally



American AAdvantage members can no longer earn miles on most Alaska flights

So, what’s not changing?

You’ll continue to earn one Alaska and American miles on eligible codeshare flights between the two airlines (of which there aren’t many)

Alaska Lounge members can continue to access American Admirals Clubs, and American Admirals Club members can continue to use Alaska Lounges, when flying on Alaska Airlines or American Airlines same day

Reciprocal lounge access will still be a perk

This Partnership Was Already Scaled Back

This is the second major round of cuts to this partnership in the past couple of years. As of January 1, 2018, American & Alaska already hugely scaled back their partnership:

The airlines cut reciprocal mileage earning on domestic flights, with the exception of codeshare flights

The airlines cut reciprocal frequent flyer benefits, including free checked bags, priority boarding, preferred seating, and more

What’s The Motivation For These Changes?

These changes started happening right around the time that Alaska and Virgin America merged. Before the merger, the route networks of Alaska and American largely complemented one another, though that has changed:

American has grown on the West Coast, especially out of their LAX hub (where Alaska also has a big presence)

Virgin America had a lot of overlap with American’s route network, especially on transcon flights

So with the amount of overlap between the networks of the two carriers, I guess they don’t see much value in the partnership anymore.

Bottom Line

It’s a shame to see the partnership between American and Alaska more or less ended. On the plus side, I’m happy that lounge access is surviving, since that comes in handy for me as someone with an American Admirals Club membership through the Citi® / AAdvantage® Executive World Elite™ Mastercard®, since that allows me to use Alaska Lounges.

While I understand the two airlines are more competitive than in the past due to the lack of diversification in route networks, this still seems like a really bad move. Neither Alaska nor American can afford to lose any more airline partners.

For what it’s worth, this shouldn’t impact the partnership between Alaska and British Airways, as redeeming Avios on Alaska is a great value.

Are you sad to see further cuts to the Alaska & American partnership?