American Airlines to End Codeshare With Etihad and Qatar
American Airlines has said that it'll be ending its codeshare agreements with Etihad Airways and Qatar Airways. According to American, it notified the two Middle Eastern carriers about the termination on June 29.
American has been protesting Emirates, Etihad and Qatar's operations in the US saying that the government subsidies they receive give the airlines an unfair advantage over American carriers.
"Given the extremely strong public stance that American has taken on the ME3 issue, we have reached the conclusion that the codesharing relationships between American and these carriers no longer make sense for us," American said in a statement.
American added that the decision will have "no material financial impact on American and is an extension of our stance against the illegal subsidies that these carriers receive from their governments."
According to a document obtained by Forbes, the code share will end March 25, 2018 and American will rebook passengers with AA codeshare flights operated by Qatar or Etihad after that date.
Now, this doesn't mean the Qatar is removing itself from the Oneworld alliance, so you'll still be able to book Qatar flights with American miles and earn American miles on Qatar flights. However, since Etihad is not part of Oneworld, following this change you'll no longer be able to earn elite-qualifying miles on Etihad flights — currently codeshare flights are eligible. As of now, there's no change when it comes to using AA miles to book Etihad awards. Overall, it's more of a symbolic message to the Middle Eastern carriers, with limited impact to travelers.
Just within this same week American announced that it will be cutting back its partnership with Alaska and completely ending its relationship with Jet Airways.