Alaska Airlines and JAL have announced an exciting new partnership to connect passengers from JALs North America’s West Coast flights to the Alaska Airlines network through San Francisco, San Diego, Los Angeles, and Vancouver. The new partnership features a codeshare and will include reciprocal frequent flyer benefits as the two airlines cozy up next to each other.
“With Alaska Airlines’ extensive operations across California, Oregon, Idaho and Washington, JAL customers will have more flight options and access to new cities including Seattle and Portland. Additionally, travelers can take advantage of more improved connections to and from Asia via JAL’s West Coast operations including Los Angeles, San Francisco, San Diego and Vancouver, B.C.
With the new codeshare agreement, scheduled to take effect June 29, pending government approval (official commencement date of the mileage partnership will be announced shortly), customers who fly Alaska Airlines and JAL will be provided with:
– seamless reservations and ticketing
– one-stop check-in and thru-checked baggage to JL/AS final destination
– smooth flight connections
– mileage accrual and award redemption opportunities
– superior customer service standards
“We are pleased to offer our customers more routes and destinations with our new partnership with Alaska Airlines,” said Hideki Oshima, JAL Executive Officer, International Relations and Alliances. “The new cooperation also allows JAL to strengthen its own presence throughout the Pacific Northwest and will provide additional mileage earning and redemption opportunities for our customers.”
“As a premium Japanese airline, JAL is a great addition to Alaska’s line-up of high quality global partners, giving our Mileage Plan members more ways to earn miles for travel from the West Coast to Japan and beyond,” said Andrew Harrison, Alaska’s executive vice president and chief commercial officer. “For the first time, our members will be able to earn and redeem miles within Japan, taking advantage of 600 daily flights on JAL’s broad domestic network.“’
I believe that this partnership is likely to extend once Virgin American and Alaska Airlines merge and will likely include flights from San Francisco to Virgin destinations such as San Francisco-Denver, Palm Springs, Cancun and Portland, and maybe even one day Hawaii to the West Coast on Alaska/Virgin Metal!
Alaska Airlines offers a fantastic Mileage Plan and I look forward to earning and redeeming miles on JAL for flights to and from Asia. Award charts will be published later this year with award redemptions beginning in the latter half of 2016. JAL will be Alaska’s 4th Asian carrier after Cathay Pacific, Korean Air, and Hainan Airlines.
