American Airlines has confirmed it will wind down agreements with LATAM in the wake of the Latin carrier’s deal with Delta Air Lines but says most passengers are unaffected for now.
Delta announced last week a deal to take a 20 percent stake in LATAM, which is a member of the oneworld alliance and has agreements in place with American.
READ: Delta sees passenger benefits from 20 percent in LATAM
American issued a statement Sunday saying it continued to accept customers and baggage of ticketed LATAM customers in accordance with current interline and oneworld agreements.
It said LATAM also continued to accept American airlines customers and it was not aware of any customers who had been denied travel.
“There is currently no change to our frequent flyer agreement or reciprocal club access for eligible customers of American or LATAM,’’ American said.
“AAdvantage members will continue to earn miles on flights marketed by LATAM.
“Over the next few months, as we wind down our agreements with LATAM that are still intact today, American will work with LATAM to ensure all of our customers are taken care of.
“American has suspended new codeshare bookings only. American remains the largest US carrier to both Latin and South America and we look forward to competing and growing in this region of the world.”
The US carrier said it would continue to rebook customers on LATAM during irregular operations and customers could still access lounges under the oneworld policy.
In the case where a customer needed to make changes to an existing itinerary involving on an American codeshare flight operated by LATAM to a market that American serves, the US carrier said it would rebook the customer on an American flight.
American had also attempted to forge a partnership with LATAM but was thwarted by a Chilean Supreme Court ruling with prevented Chile from being part of the deal.
The US carrier said the change was not expected to have a significant impact on its finances as the current agreement provided just $US20 million of incremental revenue to its coffers and a deal without Chile would have provided “limited upside”.
