LATAM Airlines announced that it officially leaves the Oneworld alliance on May 1 (within its strategy of joining Delta Airlines, one of the leaders of the Skyteam alliance), but said in a statement that it will maintain bilateral agreements “with access to the air network and benefits ” with most Oneworld members.
The companies with which LATAM will have bilateral agreements are British Airways, Cathay Pacific, Finnair, Iberia, Japan Airlines, Malaysia Airlines, Qantas, Qatar Airways, Royal Jordanian, S7 Airlines and SriLankan Airlines. In these cases, the company says it will continue to offer the following benefits to the customer: purchase of airline tickets on their website and partner airline websites for more than 1,000 destinations worldwide; accumulation and redemption of points through the respective frequent flyer programs; reciprocal access to VIP lounges, subject to the final agreement with each airline; and recognition of top tiers in the respective frequent flyer programs, subject to the final agreement with each airline.
American Airlines
With American Airlines there will be no more agreements: “the group of airlines LATAM will end its agreements with American Airlines for frequent fliers and for reciprocal access to VIP lounges. As of May 1, 2020, LATAM Pass customers will not be able to accumulate or redeem points on American Airlines flights or access American Airlines VIP lounges ”.
LATAM informs that it will respect “all American Airlines flight tickets that were redeemed with Pass Pass points before May 1, 2020, for up to 12 months after that date”. In addition, it will continue to respect the accumulation of points, outside the frequent flyer agreement, for LATAM Pass customers who purchased tickets on American Airlines flights before May 1, 2020, for up to 12 months after that date.
LATAM / Delta
As of February 1, 2020, LATAM began to transfer its operations at John F. Kennedy International Airport (New York) from Terminal 8 to Terminal 4, where Delta serves more than 90 destinations in the United States, Canada and other parts of the world. Customers of the Premium Business class and customers of the highest LATAM Pass categories (Black Signature, Black and Platinum categories) will also have access to the VIP lounge in Terminal 4.
The authorities of the United States and Colombia have already given regulatory approval for the codeshare agreements announced in December 2019 between Delta and LATAM Airlines Peru, LATAM Airlines Colombia and LATAM Airlines Ecuador, respectively. Latam’s affiliates in Brazil and Chile also plan to enter into codeshare agreements with Delta during 2020. In parallel, LATAM is negotiating with Delta agreements for reciprocal access to the VIP lounge and frequent flyer benefits, scheduled for the first half of 2008. 2020.
“These changes are part of the work in progress to implement the agreement announced by LATAM and Delta in September 2019. The agreement provides for a strategic alliance to combine the highly complementary airline networks of the companies and provide customers with a unique and enhanced travel experience. connectivity to more than 435 destinations worldwide, subject to government and regulatory approvals ”, concludes the company in a statement.
Because of the agreement, Delta bought 20% of the LATAM Group’s shares for US $ 1.9 billion and left the partnership in Brazil with Gol Airlines, which is expected to announce a new strategy with respect to an American partner soon.
