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On 1/18/2003 7:44:22 PM flyhigh wrote:
KCFLYER,
OK...alliances 101. Is it going to make CO, NW, or DL profitable? NO! Will it shift revenue FROM other airlines? Yes! Here's how:
In a CRS display a person from Savannah can earn Skymiles flying on an itinerary that connects to a Continental flight to a city in Texas that Delta doesn't serve. Is that important? Hell yes! Why? Well, there's a better chance that AA would get the revenue otherwise. How's better off with the revenue in DL's eyes? DL or AA?
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I believe the actual answer to that is "neither" - CO is the one who's getting the revenue. If the fare was a 21 day advance purchase fare, CO is also the one who would enjoy the "loss", although ultimately Delta will lose too because the passenger will use the "skymiles" accrued to fly Delta to PAris on a free ticket (which doesn't make them much revenue, but it does make their load factors look better - more butts in seats)
As far as leveraging overseas routes - that is not much of a deciding factor when your company has branch offices in Durham, Memphis, Chicago, and LA. In other words, when the bulk of your business passengers aren't going to Asia, Europe or South America. "Who has the lowest fare to Seattle" is going to be the driving force. And if my options are calling Delta to be put on a flight with a stopover in MSP, or calling AA with a stopover in ORD, the "code share" won't really be a factor in the travellers decision. But let's look at this one...A person in Jacksonville needs to go to Phoenix. He picks up the phone and calls Delta and is told Delta has a flight at 8:00 a.m. (too early) and 5:00 p.m. (too late). So, using the "code share" they find that CO has a flight at noon (perfect for my schedule). So the Delta agent books the flight under the Delta 98xx code share flight number, and the passenger (and ticket revenue) go to Continental. What did Delta gain from this except the cost of their employee to book a flight on their competitor? And the customer got to accrue skymiles for a free trip on Delta later in the year. That sure seems like a recipe for success to me.